[PRCo] West Penn territory

[Harold Geissenheimer]

Greetings to all

I have enjoyed reading the comments about the economy in
West Penn territory.  Fred is right on the target.  The entire
area was much like some parts of West Virginia...Ma&Pa
Kettle country.

I was fortunate to ride the West Penn and see first hand
what was there.

Thru the bus business and the National Guard I had many
direct contacts.  Poor Yes...But very good people.  Much
of it could carry over to Washington County and Westmoreland
County and even to some parts of Allegheny.

I knew the Blue Ridge People.  Dave Brown came from Blue
Ridge to found Community Transit.  He started with the West
Penn GMC model 3612 buses.  I was close with the Lincoln
Coach Co people who founded Fayette Coach Co to take over
the West Penn routes.    Their bus routes failed quickly.  They
believed that the trolley had an advantage having remote stops.
Now the passengers waited for buses along the highway and often
got a ride.  88 Transit was formed by drivers and still exists
as an authority today.

Places in Allegheny County like Imperial, Moon Run, Tyre and
also north in East Deer, Russelton, Culmerville, etc. were not
much different.  I eventually became good friends with Harold
Norris who owned the Culmerville Busco and later was PATs
Service planning mgr.  Culmerville had mining areas.

As their mines declined, the men travelled many miles to work each
day.  The Irvin works of US Steel was reached by bus routes from
all over Fayette County.  The Westinghouse East Pgh works had
employees from all over Westmoreland County.

My National Guard connection to this community started when I
assumed command of a National Guard unit in Pgh-Oakland.  Each
commander had to do his own recruiting.  It was not easy to attract
city kids.  I had a Sgt, Emil Bezak from Penn Twp-Westmoreland
County (Harrison City), who arranged for me to visit their high
school and also North Huntington High near Irwin.  We suddenly
had over 3 dozen recruits!  They car pooled to Pgh for drill.
They stayed at least their 8 years.  One, MSGT Joseph Zgurich,
stayed from age 17 to age 60!   I was his commanding officer from 1954
to 1976.  His brother, Steve later became a garage foreman for PAT.
Joe became an electrical engineer for Westinghouse and in the end
had to travel to Blairville when East Pgh closed.  Another, Richard
Godlewski from Jeanette later came to Community and then became
PAT's Purchasing Agent.

Men from this area staffed my National Guard Nike missile unit for
decades.
We continued to recruit in this area with success until I left.
We also did recruiting in McDonald and Culmerville.  The poorer
the community, the better soldier we secured.  They were all high
school grads from good schools.  My entire radar section came
from Westmoreland County.  They never missed drill and were
honest and good to work with.  Most were either ridge runners
or ethnic Eropeans.  None with a chip on their shoulder.  Ira
Ank was a ridge runner who lived in a miner's shack.  I know because
I went there to get his parent's signature.  Others were Croatian,
Serbian
or Polish.  Most of their fathers worked in East Pgh or Irvin Works.
Moon Run where I worked for Montour Motor Coach had a Russian
group in their mine.  This diversity is what made Western Pennsylvania.
The mills, railroads and the mines won World War II.  Almost all gone
now.

I was also stationed with an Army Sgt, Mel Courtney, from Tunnelton,
WVa.
I visited with him several times, out house included.  A good man from a

good family.  In many cases, the only answer was to move out.

Another good military family gave us Gene and Jim Whalen.  Gene
eventually went on active duty, went to OCS, and retired as a Regular
Army major. Jim was a Guardsman for 20 years.  What is of interest
to our group is where they lived in Manor, Pa.  The West Penn line
was side of the road past their house.  Years later, when I went to
visit, I parked on the old West Penn ROW where I first rode in the
late 1940's.  I would think their house would show as a black dot
on the USGS map of the 1940's.  They were on a curve near a junction
of some streets.

Years later, I had dealings with the Army Reserve unit in Uniontown
with the same results.  One of their officers, George Ehringer became
Facility architect for Michael Baker Engineers in Pgh.

I hope this information will help younger people to understand and
better
appreciate living in a mining community.   They made Western Penna
a unique place and contributed to making "Pittsburgh Some Place
Special".
Coming from Manhattan to Moon Run in 1950 was an interesting
experience but I soon  found some of the finest people in the world.  I
am still in touch with several who became good friends.  Three even
receive my Transnet newsletter.

Harold Geissenheimer