Our 2026 summer is extra special with celebrations marking our county’s 250th birthday with community events unfolding throughout Northwest Indiana and around the country, many even before the Fourth of July holiday.
Munster Junior Historical Society is hosting a 250th Birthday Celebration next Sunday, which also happens to be Flag Day.
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Billed as “an old-fashioned community birthday party to celebrate the birth of our nation,” the gathering is from noon until 4 p.m. Sunday, June 14, at Heritage Park, 1154 Ridge Road in Munster, and all are invited.
The afternoon will include a marching band, barbershop quartet and student history presentations in the gazebo area of the side landscape of the historic Kaske Home. Guests will enjoy “old-time” themed food and beverages along with an afternoon ice cream social, fresh-sugar-spun “puffs” of cotton candy balanced on paper cones, a vintage popcorn cart and picnic area.
There will be tent-covered seating to accommodate the elderly and disabled, providing a front row seat to enjoy the period costume contest and see the awards ceremony with prizes. Everyone who attends will enjoy complimentary birthday cake, including the ceremonial singing and cake candles. Community vendors are invited, and guests can participate in signing and singing, a 50/50 raffle and pony rides.
Perfect for the entire family, everyone is encouraged to wear a costume reflecting anything from our nation’s 250-year history, such as a famous person, event, or era, with possibilities ranging from pioneers, Civil War folks, cowboys and astronauts, to construction workers, first responders, health care workers, clergy, train conductors, judges, athletes and other notables.
For more information, call 219-836-6530 or visit www.munsterhistory.org.
The many weekend celebrations and events in honor of our country’s milestone remind me of the final episode of “I Love Lucy.”
That series, starring Lucille Ball in the title role with Desi Arnaz as her bandleader husband, with Vivian Vance and William Frawley as their best friends and neighbors, originally aired for six seasons on CBS, spanning 180 episodes, 30 minutes each, from 1951 to 1957. (The show and same characters transitioned to a modified hour-long format with 13 specials titled as “The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour,” providing an additional three seasons from 1957 to 1960.)
The final episode of the original “I Love Lucy” episode, which aired May 6, 1957, on CBS, was titled “The Ricardos Dedicate a Statue.” By this time in the TV series, the Richards and the Mertzes had left their New York City apartment and moved to a country estate in Westport, Connecticut. In the final episode, Lucy and Ricky, along with the Mertzes, are among the committee members planning Westport’s “Yankee Doodle Day.”
Everyone is dressed in powdered wigs and the garb of the Revolutionary War era. Lucy and Ricky are to help dedicate a statue of a soldier that Lucy accidentally destroyed on the day of the unveiling, after she backs over the statue in their driveway an hour before the dedication ceremony. Lucy attempts to dress in a wig and soldier’s attire and then cover herself in pancake powder from head to toe in an attempt to pose in place of the statue long enough to get through the dedication ceremony, but is exposed.
The bonus of this episode, which makes it extra special, besides being the series finale, is a brief cameo appearance of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s real-life son Desi Arnaz Jr., who can be spotted holding the hand of Vivian Vance, aka Ethel, in the final scene.
Vivian Vance continued to co-star in all of the remainder of Lucille Ball’s popular later comedy sitcoms, “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy,” until her death from cancer at age 70 on Aug. 17, 1979. After the “I Love Lucy” series, Vivian and her fourth husband lived in Stamford, Connecticut, in a colonial farm home that dated back to 1870, and Vivian loved to garden and cook. They lived in the country from 1961 until 1974, when they moved back to California, where she lived at the time of her passing.
Among the favorite vegetables “Viv” liked to grow in her garden were plump green bell peppers, which were the key ingredient in an easy and delicious quiche-style casserole she liked to serve to guests for lunch, paired with a light side salad.
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is a radio host for WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at [email protected] or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Vivian Vance’s Green Bell Pepper Pie
Makes 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
2 ounces chopped green bell peppers or green chili peppers diced, if spicy is preferred
6 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 pound grated cheddar cheese
2 cans cream-style corn
Directions
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1. Line buttered baking dish with chopped green bell peppers or green chilis. (Do not use the real hot chilis.)
2. Beat eggs, add salt and grated cheese, mix with corn and the prepared peppers, and pour into baking dish.
3. Place dish in pan of boiling water and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until “pie” is firm in the center.