Bobby Lohman
Several readers have written to inquire about the face at the bottom of the canoe paddle in our Mona's new house posting of yesterday.
Herewith, an explanation in a correspondene with friends:
To Laura, Quin, 2 ea:
I thought of you today when posting this SRN piece on Mona's new harbor. If you look at the canoe paddle to the left of the cabinet you will see an old image of Bobby Lohman, the night watchman at the Guest House, Freiden's homeless shelter.
Do you remember seeing him? He's the guy who was the miraculous organ player who gave that concert performance in the church, circa 1984.
His pasty white face after X period of time on Milwaukee's streets that he presented that first time at the temporary shelter on Wis Ave was so void of any expression, so lost. John Helt and I discovered that he was a crossword puzzle-doer. So we would bring assortments of crossword books for him, and worked puzzles with him through the night.
When the permanent shelter was established in the old Friedens school bldg, he came there and eventually got hired as an entrance window-watcher when the guests would line up in front and outside that "gatekeeper" window beneath him.
You may remember that Bobby was killed, beaten for his meager SS check in the small south side hotel he established his own room in. The funeral was at Woods.
I remember Bobby sidling up to me once at the guest house, asking me very indirectly, with much hemming and hawing, if there was a pipe organ in that church building.
When I said there indeed was, and a good one too, he fell silent. "Why?" I asked him.
"Oh, nuthin"."
"Well, why do you ask?"
" I was just wonderin".............."
"Wondering what?"
Looking away from me, he mumbled, "Wonderin' if I could try to play it sometime."
Why certainly, and we went over right then in the dark of the night and I unlocked the door and led him down the cavernous aisle to the altar where the console stood, at the left of the huge behind-the-pulpit picture of Christ knocking at the door.
He never told us, though we asked often, how he became such an artist at the organ. We never did find out. He would't say. His history was locked up and we would never know it.
But that small man with the wandering, uncoordinated eyes and fuzzy beard could play! It was like a roller rink the night of the concert he gave for the band of Friedenites & guests. Probably a hundred (seemed like) songs and he never repeated a tune. All we needed was a spot-lit turning mirrored ball at the vaulted ceiling, to send colored reflections around the sanctuary.................
When he died, I glued his picture to a canoe paddle, and it has remained with Dee and me ever since.
Looking forward to the up-coming Friedens reunion!
Regards, David
And now:
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