The Bodybuilders of the Eastern Edge of the Universe

When I was growing up in Rock Island, the western edge of my world was Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the eastern edge was Lasalle-Peru, about 90 miles away.  I knew Interstate 80 east to Chicago, of course, but we didn't stop at any of those towns.  We visited Lasalle-Peru quite often, for jump quizzes at the Nazarene Church and music contests at Lasalle High School, for orchestra concerts and drama club events at Illinois Valley Community College; and several times a year, usually on Saturdays in the summer, we visited Starved Rock State Park.







It's named after a sandstone butte where the Illiniwek (after who Illinois is named) were besieged by the Ottawa and Potawatomie tribes until they starved to death.  The story is probably apocryphal, but there is archaeological evidence of human habitation since the Pleistocene Era.  There was a little museum, a trolley, and a lot of hiking trails down the canyon and to see the waterfalls.

On the way home, we drove into Lasalle for ice cream or hamburgers, and passed a "haunted house," four stories, dark and spooky, with rotundas and staring windows.  Once I saw a naked man staring out the window.

See: The Naked Man in the Haunted House

I haven't been there for over 30 years, so I thought it would be interesting to check on the beefcake at the edge of the world.



Lasalle-Peru High School still has the Cavaliers, with wrestling and swimming.


















Their main rival is St. Bede Academy, a Catholic prep school in Peru.  It was male only until 1973.












St. Bede's star wrestler looks a little chunky, but I guess that's an advantage in matwork.

















Illinois Valley Community College  does not offer intercollegiate swimming or wrestling, but you can join an intramural team.













If you search on "Illinois Valley Community College Bodybuilding," you get the "Jeremiah 29:11 The Anywhere Office Bodybuilding Helping other’s create healthy lifestyles," with a guy named Mark who is going to continue his baseball career.

I don't know what any of that means, but Jeremiah 29:11 says: "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Nice to be sure.

You also get an ad for "Dynamite bodybuilding an fitness by J.W. Fitness Guru an personal trainer."  He asks "Who is ready to make changes to their physique to this degree? Who is sick and tired of being sick and tired of living and unhealthy lifestyle? I will give you guaranteed success and Supply you with the knowledge and wisdom of a Champion✔👌 Free consultations available right now"

The eastern edge of the universe seems to be populated mostly by bodybuilding shills.

I think I'll stick to the YMCA.
















Daughter Marie (1861-1936) became the first female graduate of the School of Mines in Frieburg, and took over the family zinc business.  She married Paul Carus (1852-1919), the editor at Open Court Publishing and an author on religious matters, with 75 books (The Gospel of Buddha, published in 1994, introduced most Westerners to Buddhism).    After speaking at the World Parliament of Religions in 1893, Carus invited D.T. Suzuki (Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind) to move to Lasalle and translate Japanese Buddhists texts for Open Court.

Their six children all grew up in the house.

Meanwhile the family business expanded into the Carus Chemical Company, a major producer of potassium permanganate (a water purifier), and Open Court Publishing into philosophy and ethics (it does the pop culture and philosophy series: The Simpsons and Philosophy, Hannibal Lecter and Philosophy, The Walking Dead and Philosophy),  and into children's publishing (daughter-in-law Marianne runs a conglomerate of children's magazines named after insects: Cricket, Cicada, Muse, Ladybug, Babybug, Spider.  

Alwin (1901-2004) lived in the house through his life.  He attended the University of Chicago, studied chemistry, and worked for the family company.  He also worked for the Lasalle County Railroad Bureau and bought and developed farms across the state, and as far away as North Dakota.  His main leisure interests were astronomy (he traveled to view solar eclipses all over the world) and coin collecting.  And philanthropy:

At first the house was crowded with aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters, but gradually it emptied out, and after Open Court moved its headquarters to Chciago, he was all alone -- although he entertained many distinguished guests, including Isaac Bashevis Singer, Carl Sandburg,  and Peter Mathiessen (the great-grandson of Edward's first partner in M&H Zinc).  He worked out in the two-story home gymnasium, watched movies in the home theater, and wandered the rooms, remembering old times.  He was the old man we saw peering out of the attic window, looking out over a town that had changed remarkably, thinking of the Buddhist precept of the impermeance of life.


In  1995 he moved into an apartment upstairs and opened the Hegeler Carus Mansion.  He died in 2004, just before his 103rd birthday.

That's quite a lot to get from a haunted house we passed on the way to get ice cream 40 years ago.

Of course, I've been trying to figure out if Alwin was gay.

Evidence for:  no marriages, no women other than family members mentioned in his personal paper.

Evidence against: Open Court Publishing is not necessarily gay-friendly.  A 1984 article in their journal The Monist is about "Why Homosexuality is Abnormal."  Of course, he didn't write the article, but still....