The world keeps spinning.
And since the mid-1960s a group of socially conscious Chicagoans have met for dinner at the city’s soul food restaurants to talk about politics, food and moving forward against strong winds. Many are gone now: the restaurants and the members.
The survivors call the group “The Round Table.”
The unofficial leader of the group is Gene Barge, who was a spry 87 years old in November, 2013 when I was early into research on my book “The People’s Place.” Barge has a remarkable pedigree. He was arranger, producer and sax player at Chess Records, 2120 [...]
He wrote New Orleans R&B classics such as Ernie K. Doe’s “Mother-in-Law,” LeeDorsey’s “Working in a Coal Mine” and “Southern [...]
Wisconsin Wiffle Ball Field (Photo courtesy of Steve Schmitt)
MAZOMANIE, WIS.—Every kid who grew up playing Wiffle Ball understands how the game shapes your imagination. You can create a field anywhere. For me and my brother it was a Cul-de-sac in suburban Chicago. For others the game was played under the blue heavens of a soybean farm.
You can play the game by yourself. The plastic ball is light and can easily be tossed in the air with one hand while swinging a plastic bat with the other hand. Flying solo it is difficult to swing and miss ( “a whiff”), which is how the [...]
