[PRCo] Re: Spring Hill trolley memories

[Harold Geissenheimer]

Greetings

When I first moved to Pgh in 1950, I visited Charles Dengler several
times.  I forget the order but he lived on both Spring Hill and Spring
Garden.  One of these houses (Spring Garden) was near the loop
I went to church down on East Street at a German Church with him
and his mother.  Being of German descent, it was an interesting
neighborhood.  I notice the many German names in your list of friends.

The ethnic neighborhoods of 1950 made Pgh some place special.
Bill F's (from Arden) was aDoctor on Butler Street in the Polish
community.
 Major Andy Sakmar (a Slovak) from my National Guard unit lived
on Carson street about 3 blocks west of 10th street bridge.  His father
lived to be over 100 and at the end was the oldest living retiree at
Bell Telephone.
Andy and I arranged a street car ride stopping at his front door for his
100th
birhday.  The old man must have been quite a guy.  His oldest son
commanded
the Logan Armory unit before the war and Andy, the youngest, commanded
it in the
1950's

My secretary at PAT, also a Slovak, lived in West Homestead (she still
does),
Her father came from Slovakia to work at the Homestead Works.  Now a
Slovak steel executive is taking over e US Steel coke plant in West
Miflin.
Quite a turnaround.

Martha Slepak worked in the Mainteance office at Homewood after WWII.
She came downtown in the 1950's and was secretary to Bob Hamilton., PRC
Mgr of Rates and Service Planning.  He had a heart attack in 1963 and
Martha
became my secretary.  She worked for me until I went to Chicago and then
worked for Bob Parker and Mike Scanlon (the next two Transit Op
Directors)
until the 1990's.  I am still in touch with her.  In many ways, she ran
PAT for
years.  I am also in regular contact with Mike Scanlon at Sam Trans.

These ethnic memories are a valuable part of my Pgh experiences.

Today's world of rapid job turnover is not really for the best.  Some
years
ago I was with an MAN man from Munich visiting the newly acquired
Bussing bus plant in Saltsgiter.  We were talking about the takeover and
the Bussing President answered my question about who would be the plant
manager in 20 years by pointing to a young messenger boy and saying
"Him or some one like him"  The MAN man agreed.  So much for diversity..
MAN remains an independent manufacturer.

My National Guard unit was mostly guys of Eastern European origin.
They were the best, mostly from mill towns.  In the 13 years I commanded
 the Nike unit, they won the Eisenhower Trophy three times as the
outstanding
company size National Guard unit.  What was really important that the
winners were three different groups over the 13 years.

Harold Geissenheimer


Bob Rathke wrote: