Roofs or Rooves or Woofs -- oh heck -- the Opposite Side ofthe Ceiling !!!!!!

[Fred W. Schneider III]

I had a cousin on my mother's side ... surname Rebele ... who was quite an athletic
soul.  At one point in life he was a referee who was one of the principals behind
the NFL rulebook.  In his youth he loved swimming ... he would start in the City of
Allegheny and swim across the Allegheny, around the Point, and across the
Monongahela, then put er in reverse and go back home.  My thoughts were that might
be a lot of effort.  Then it dawned on me that one could get a good grip on the
water in those days (if the pollutants didn't grip you first).

My grandmother would never let me walk around in bare feet in her house ... you
would get your feet dirty from the firmly imbedded soot in the carpets.  No, she
wasn't a bad housekeeper.  One simply didn't by home carpet shampoo machines in
those days.  No one thought of calling in "Stanley Steemer" to clean it for you;
there was no such thing as in house commercial cleaning.  One just lived with
Pittsburgh's filth and grime.

We lived out in Penn Township (Penn Hills today).  Dad painted the white house trim
every summer.  Three or four times a year, mom took down the Venetian blinds and
scrubbed them in the bath tub ... made a lot of black water.

These young people in Pittsburgh today just don't understand, do they?

Jim Holland wrote:

> Greetings!
>
>         Borrowed a little of your wit, Charles, for the subject line!
>
>         Just re-watching the Strayner *PCC Trilogy* produced in Ontario.  The
> main part of the video is from color 16mm film about 1940--1945 of PCCs
> across North America.  The video is amazingly bright, clear and sharp.
>
>         What really stood out is the roof on the various cars  --  or what
> could be seen of the roof.
>
>         It appears that the trolley cowl, and possibly the canvas roof portion,
> is painted tan on the 1200s.
>
>         On the 10s and 11s the trolley cowl appears cream, the same as used on
> the sides of the car, but the canvas roof looks more like black
> tar-paper.
>
>         These factors may figure into the decrepit roof conditions in some
> photos of the cars in later years - the roof on some seemed black and
> badly cracked.  Additionally, the sooty air probably contributed to the
> mottled look and the acid probably promoted cracking of the canvas.
>
>         My grandmother said that you never had to wash the window curtains in
> the 1940s  --  they just disintegrated on the curtain rods and you put
> up new ones!  That attests to the acid in the air.  Probably not all
> *that* bad, but there would be much acid in the air with all the coal
> burning furnaces in the homes.  They *claim* that it was the home coal
> furnaces that caused the Pgh. pollution, not the steel mills, but at
> least the pollution here is now history!
>
>         And for the 17s and that gray look to the fan monitor - even this is
> evident in some of the videos.  Most of these photos seem to be in
> winter and I am wondering if some effect of the cold could cause that
> discoloration.  That fan monitor would be relatively thin and even
> though at the ceiling where the heat collects, it is separated from the
> car itself and the wind-chill could affect its color.  Just a thought!
>
> James B. Holland
>
>         Pittsburgh  Railways  Company  (PRCo),   1940  --  1950
>     To e-mail privately, please click here: mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net
> N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.mcs.net:80/~weyand/nmra/