[PRCo] North or South?

[Bob Rathke]

Reminds me of the day in the mid-1980's when I had to call parents of boys
in our Chicago Little League and tell them that an upcoming baseball game
was being switched to another field.

One of the pasrents I called said she needed directions to the new field.  I
asked her if she lived north or south of Lake Cook Road (a major east-west
highway here).  She replied, "I don't know.  I'm from New York."

Bob 3/5/05

------------------------------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harold G." <transitmgr2 at earthlink.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 9:53 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Fw: North side details


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Harold G. <transitmgr2 at earthlink.net>
> To: ways at dementia.org <ways at dementia.org>; pittsburgh-rai <pittsburgh-rai>
> Date: Saturday, March 05, 2005 10:53 AM
> Subject: North side details
>
>
> Bob and all
>
> I never lived on the North Side but it was a neighborhood I
> often visited.   Starting in l950 when I moved to Pgh and
> lived in Dormont.  I was introduced to it by good friend
> Charles Dengler.  I went with him in church on madison.
>
> I used PRC to shop at the busy North Side district before
> Allegheny Center.
>
> Later my masonic lodge was a block off of Federal St. (It
> is now in Avalon)  I went to makeup Rotary at the NS Rotary
> on Fridays.  Harmony and Community buses passed thru
> the NS frequently.  I used to see Dengler delivering the
> mail on East Ohio Street.
>
> If I was out and about on weekends, I would use the Isalys
> on East Ohio Street.   And there was a good german restaurant
> on a corner nearby.
>
> Between Allegheny Center, East Street highway and the
> stadium and ethnic change, it all ended.  South Side has
> become a viable place again because it has none of these
> "improvements"
>
> Bob, thanks for sharing.
>
> I came from Manhattan.   My mother's family lived on west 36th
> street from the Civil War.   My father's father moved to 36th
> street in the l890's and he was born there.  They both lived
> on 36th street but did not know each other.  The met at a
> church picnic after she had moved to Hudson County, NJ
> After marriage, they lived in Hudson County where I was
> born.  In the depression, we moved back to 36th Street and
> I lived there thru college and then moved to Pgh.  The grade
> school I attended was on 35th Street (now site of a police station)
> One teacher there had my father as a student.  We went to the
> Presbyterian Church on 36th Street.  Ninth Ave had every store
> you could think of.
>
> In short, there were neigjhborhoods in New York City that lasted
> for many decades.  All this in the shadow of the Empire State
> Bldg, Macys and Penn station.  During the war I was an air raid
> warden messenger in a zone that included all 3!
>
> Building Dyer Ave to connect with the new Lincoln tunnel ended
> some of this.   But streets not affected by the tunnel have not
> really changed.  I have a friend living on East 9th Street in the
> East Village and there is not a new building on his block but its
> a viable neighborhood.
>
> Mots European cities have not had this urge to redevelop.  Thank God.
>
> Harold Geissenheimer
>
>