[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh-Some Place Special

[Fred Schneider]

Dennis and all you'ns

The manager of the state employment (the political name; the public said
unemployment) office in McKessport who retired in the early 1980s
(I know it was about the time of the Jim and Tammy Faye Baker debacle because
the manager was an avid supporter of the Bakers and ended up with egg on his
face in the office) told me two interesting tales about his family's past.  He
was Black ... I mention that not in a discriminatory way but becuase
discrimination in his past may have affected his memories.

The man remembered that there was a tremendous cultural diversity in McKeesport
in his youth ... we're only taking the 1920s here.  He pointed out that when
mothers wanted to borrow a cup of sugar or an egg from a neighbor,  they sent
the kids out on the errand.  Why?  The parents spoke Polish, or Italian, or
German, or a Slavic tongue but the kids all spoke English ... the children were
the cord that tied the city together.

He also remembered that Pittsburgh was a long journey ... that the family only
went to the city once a year when an uncle who worked for the B&O got them all a
trip pass.  (I never asked if they were able to shop downtown or if they were
only permitted to go to the stores up on Wylie Ave.)

Fred Schneider



"Dennis F. Cramer" wrote:

>     I am younger than most on this list (born 1953 in McKeesport) and left
> that area when I was 9, but I do remember quite a bit of what Harold
> describes.  We lived in Liberty Boro, outside of McKeesport, and went into
> town regularly.  One vivid incident is when my older brother got his shoe
> caught in the rails where PRCo crossed the B&O with a train coming towards
> him.  There was not much left of the shoe after my mother frantically untied
> it to free him.  I guess that is where I got my early fascination with
> streetcars and railroads.
>     My father used to coal the Capitol Limited in Versailles, but never took
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