This Last Week

[Fred Schneider]

My Mom and Dad built a house in Crescent Hills in Penn Township in 1937; we
lived there until 1949 when a move was made to the east end of the state.

I think you will find that Frankstown Road became Bennett Street when it
entered the city in Homewood or Brushton.  Bennett Street was parallel to
and between Hamilton, on which the 76 cars ran, and Frankstown (???) on
which the 87 and 88 cars ran.  I think that there was a very much unused
branch of Frankstown Road that aimed for the 87-88 tracks but the majority
of the traffic used Bennett Street.  Back when you and I lived there,
Homewood was a very sedate, blue collar neighborhood.  

We lived in Lancaster when the fire consumed the barn in 1955.  I do
remember looking off the Manchester Bridge in 1956 and seeing the burnt
remains of a few cars ... mostly high 1600s and 1700s but not 1600 itself.


		-----Original Message-----
		From:	Carl Zager [mailto:czager at bloomington.in.us]
		Sent:	Wednesday, March 01, 2000 5:17 PM
		To:	Jim Holland
		Cc:	pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
		Subject:	Re: This Last Week

		Oh, Jim!

		Thank you for the suggestion. I have been jotting down some
memories and
		am winding up the courage to jump in here. I know in my
heart that any and
		all is appreciated (I certainly have appreciated every
little tidbit
		shared in this marvelous group!), but I still want to get my
facts
		straight and make sure I know of what I speak.

		Here's an example of my dilemma: During WWII, while Dad was
in the
		Pacific, we lived with my great uncle, who worked for the
Great Western
		Fuse Company in, I think, Brushton, where I was born. Right
after the war,
		when Dad came home, we all moved to a house on Frankstown
Road very near
		the car barn. I have these vivid memories of walking out the
back of the
		house with "Pop" (my mother's uncle) and down the alley to
watch the
		motormen jockeying the double-ended, low-floor cars. I
especially loved
		watching them raise and lower the poles when they changed
direction.

		We moved out to the Penn Township suburbs in the late 40's.
When the car
		barn burned (1955 (?)), destroying the original 1700(?), Pop
and I took a
		bus into Wilkinsburg and a streetcar into Homewood to take a
look. Boy!
		Was I turned around! The car barn was south and west (?) of
Frankstown
		when I remembered it being behind our house (north and
west). Or do I
		still have it all wrong? <grin>

		After that, though, my favorite place to see streetcars
became the car
		barn in Oakland. We would get off in Oakland and walk down
to watch for
		awhile and then board another car to get to Wilkinsburg.

		Anyhow, you may be sensing some of my confusions.

		Keep it up, guys! I'm having a ball.

		On Wed, 1 Mar 2000, Jim Holland wrote:

		> Greetings!
		> 
		> Carl Zager wrote:
		> 
		> > My mailbox has been so interesting for the past week.
		> > What wonderful memories and wonderful discussions.
		> > This has to be a high point for my short tenure on the
list.
		> > Thank you all so much! Keep it up.
		> 
		> 	How about sharing more of your memories?!!
		> 
		> James B. Holland
		> ------- -- ---------
		>         Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo), June of 1949
-- June of 1953
		>     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/
		> 

		 Carl Zager
KB9RVB
		 czager at bloomington.in.us
http://www.mccsc.edu/~czager