[PRCo] Re: Wilkinsburg

[John F Bromley]

The answer about Frank Butts negs (and his slides) is also of great interest
to me.  In addition to the US he also spent time in Europe.  We traded for
many years.

The BQ on Diamond St is one I seem to remember from my first unescorted
visit to Pittsburgh, which was in 1960.  I remember to this day a performer
who went under the stage name of Princess Domay - made a heckuvan impression
as the blue laws in Pittsburgh seemed to be non-existent when compared to
Toronto.  P D took it all off, and I mean all, much to my amazement - in T O
if they showed a pastie without deep purple light everyone went nuts.  Times
have sure changed with XXX on what seems to be every street corner and who
cares anymore.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Schneider" <fschnei at supernet.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2003 6:02 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Wilkinsburg


>
> You are pulling out other memories.
>
> There was this very young boy whose father took him up on the platforms at
> the Pennsy station in Wilkinsburg ... probably after the war ... and this
> lad was so scared by passing steam engines that he ran into the platform
> waiting room from which point he could observed from behind the safety of
> glass.  I guess I was about six or seven years old.
>
> Dad was a closet railfan and model builder.  In fact he received a letter
in
> 1933 telling him of a new model railroad magazine.  The letter asked him
to
> subscribe.  The writer suggested that dad pay in cash for a subscription
> because Al Kalmbach's bank charged 3 cents to cash a check.  Dad lead me
> into places that most fathers don't take their railfan sons because he had
> his own latent interest.  Some of those places were the Pennsy facility at
> 28th St., the B&O Glenwood shops (the Baldwin Sharks were new then), and
the
> B&LE and Union yards.  Somewhere around here are his negatives of slag
being
> dumped from on a mountain ... out where the Pleasant Hills shopping mall
is
> today.  Those negatives also show a Union RR steam engine.  But, damnit,
he
> only took me to Kennywood once.
>
> He was  upset with me one afternoon because I wanted to go off on my own
and
> take trolley pictures.  I didn't find out until later that he really
wanted
> to take me to the burlesque house on Diamond Street.  Harold mentioned it.
> Dad frequented it when it was still on 6th Street (before the 1936 flood).
>
> And this brings me to one last memory.  Who would argue that some of the
> greatest smells in Pittsburgh emanated from Diamond Market?  For some
reason
> I liked the smells of the fish market.  Strange?  But I also liked what
was
> very much a Pittsburgh tradition ... granulated sugar donuts.
>
> And what ever happend to Frank Butts' negatives?
>
> Harold Geissenheimer wrote:
>
> > Greetings
> >
> > Fred was right about Wilkinsburg.
> >
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