Tim's Favorite Blogs
Media Matters
Blog Directories
Thursday, July 16. 2009
For Slackers Everywhere
The other night I watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for the umpteenth time. “Umpteenth” is a child’s word, adolescent at best, but it’s a great word to use if you’ve done something a lot but just can’t remember exactly, or even approximately, how often. I’ve seen the Grateful Dead and Frank Zappa umpteen times. I’ve forgotten more concerts from both than most people see in a lifetime of going to see concerts. Okay, I’m bragging.Anyway, every time Ferris Bueller comes on TV that’s what I’m watching. Who wouldn’t love to be Ferris Bueller? Most of us, I assume (because it applies to me), relate more to the character of Cameron Frye, played by Alan Ruck. As teenagers, nothing seemed to go our way and there were people in high school that always seemed to come out on top of everything.
Looking back though, I smoked pot and drank beer nearly every day before, during and after school and never got caught. During lunch and study hall I would often walk over to the liquor store to pick up a quart of Pabst Blue Ribbon and within the remaining time in the period that quart would be consumed. The drinking age in Wisconsin, from the time I was 15, was 18 and with my nice face hair, no one ever bothered to ask for an ID.
In fact, my brother Rick was in a very popular local band, Mynas Terith, at the time and I would often go to their gigs as a roadie, walk into the nightclub carrying gear and then drink all night, especially on Wednesdays — Hump Night — when they played Humpin’ Hannah’s on East Locust. They had these huge beers for a nickel. Many a Wednesday Night was spent getting wonderfully intoxicated on a buck or less!
The spelling of the band’s name was changed from the original, found in the Lord of the Rings books so as not to make the band appear too geeky. J.R.R. Tolkein spelled it “Minas Tirith.”
Humpin’ Hannah’s is long gone, replaced by a series of other nightclubs. Shortly after the Hannah days, it was The Tracks (I think), a hang out for Milwaukee police officers, including the Homicide Division. Every year they had a party in Lake Park, just a couple miles East on North Avenue and photos were taken. Part of that cabal of police officers included one Elfred Schultz who was pictured, totally nude, dancing with a woman, not his wife, equally nude. Also pictured was the Chief of Detectives. Can’t remember his name, but he figures into the story.
The Tracks, it should be noted, is a very popular sports bar and features three outdoor, sand volleyball courts, one of the only places, other than Bradford Beach, one can play beach volleyball in Milwaukee. It’s a nice place and ought not be disparaged for figuring into this tale.
It came to light when the Milwaukee Police Department was being investigated for corruption. Apparently one could buy porn, weapons and drugs from the trunks of police cruisers, often in the parking lot of The Tracks or right out on the street in front of the bar.
Fred Schultz was married to another police officer at the time, Lawrencia Bembenek. She was fired by the police department and she filed suit, triggering the investigation into corruption. The law suit was dropped when Bembenek was arrested for the murder of Schultz’s ex-wife Christine Schultz.
Bembenek was eventually convicted of the murder but there were a lot of inconsistencies to the story. The two eyewitnesses to the murder, Schultz’s young sons, both said at the time the killer was a heavy set male wearing military-style clothing. Many weeks later they changed their testimony to identify Bembenek as the killer. Since then the eldest son has maintained his original description of the killer is the correct version.Fred Schultz’s off-duty revolver was identified as the murder weapon, but questions arose about whether that was true or not. And then there was a wig, flushed down a toilet in Bembenek’s apartment building. Turn out it wasn’t a wig at all, but one of those little pieces women wear to extend their ponytails. Bembenek is (was) blonde.
Anyway, Fred Schultz would only testify at Bembenek’s trial if he were granted immunity from prosecution and his testimony did nothing to help his wife. Turns out Fred had more motive to kill his ex-wife then Bembenek. So she was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Eight years later she escaped with the help of a boyfriend and they fled to Canada. Three months later they were caught and returned to Wisconsin.
Bembenek was given a new trial and she pleaded no contest and agreed to a sentence of time served. In the 19 years since then Bembenek has been trying to clear her name.
Now, for the full disclosure, turns out The Tracks wasn’t Humpin’ Hannah’s back in the day. Had to call the bar to find out and it turns out the person who answered the phone knew Hannah’s and said it was on the corner of Bremen and Locust, two blocks west of The Tracks. Sadly, Humpin’ Hannah’s exists no more and is now a community garden. The building was demolished and the residents, primarily a bunch of old hippies (and no doubt nuevo hippies in peasant garb), have turned the lot into an oasis of beauty and nourishment surrounded by the concrete and detritus of modern society. Good for them.
But it kind of kills the thematic thread of the tangent connecting me, precariously, to the whole Lawrencia Bembenek saga. Well, it’s staying in this slog. I had more than a few big glasses of beer and shots of Jack Daniels at The Tracks, many of them during the days the cops claimed it as their hang out place. Had I known that I probably wouldn’t have frequented the place, but ignorance is bliss.
All this because I watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the penultimate ode to slackers everywhere, for the umpteenth time. Love that movie. Ben Stein: “Bueller … Bueller …” The best of Ben Stein, the economics teacher: “In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the ... Anyone? Anyone? ... the Great Depression, passed the ... Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered? ... raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression. Today we have a similar debate over this. Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before? The Laffer Curve. Anyone know what this says? It says that at this point on the revenue curve, you will get exactly the same amount of revenue as at this point. This is very controversial. Does anyone know what Vice President Bush called this in 1980? Anyone? Something d-o-o economics. ‘Voodoo’ economics.”
Mr. Rooney, played by Jeffrey Jones. Definitely a caricature of what we think school principles represent, but a great foil for the hero, Ferris Bueller, played by Matthew Broderick. His girlfriend, Sloane, played by the lovely Mia Sara. Jennifer Grey playing a girl ten years younger than her actual age.
So much to veg over, so little time.
Calendar
Quicksearch
Categories
AD Links
Referrals
Syndicate This Blog
Blog Administration
Powered by
TheForkesReport