A Memorable Incident

For Father’s Day, I’ll tell you a story Frances told me about her dad. One afternoon she and some neighborhood children were playing together when a man came along pushing a cart. Some of the kids started skipping along after the man shouting Ben de sheenie Ben de sheenie, and she joined in the fun. Frances remembered figuring that the peddler was an Italian and that the kids were just chanting his name.

Just then, Jim Hackett came home, passing the children in the road. He jumped out of his car, pulled his daughter aside, upbraided her, and spelled out for her that the little mob was taunting the man because he was Jewish and that “sheenie” was a bad word used to insult Jews. Frances was about seven years old at the time, so it would have been 1921.

Jimmy Blouin 1886-1947

Jimmy Blouin was Jim Hackett's business partner and played an important part in paying his ransom during the 1931 kidnapping. Above, 19 year old Blouin poses for a Chicago Tribune photographer as if throwing a bowling ball, 1905. In February 1925 Blouin beat Joe Scribner of Detroit to win the world's bowling championship. He was inducted into the Bowling Hall of Fame in 1953.

James Blouin won the USBC Open Championships all-events title in 1909 and captured the singles title two years later. Blouin made his mark on the lanes in the days when challenge matches were the determining factor for the stamp of greatness. He possessed steely nerves and had a strong, slow curve ball he seemed to push rather than roll. For many years he took on all comers in the Chicago area and around the nation. -from  bowl.com. United States Bowling Congress, n.d. Web. 8 Jun 2011.