[PRCo] Re: I rode 40 Mt. Worshington

[Schneider Fred]

Amazing Bob.

I went all over the city and so did Swindler and I don't think we  
ever thought of getting killed.   I know my grandmother worried if  
she knew I was waiting for a car at Federal and North Avenue late at  
night.   But I never considered Fineview bad.   Manchester might have  
been a tad seedy.

But you know, with today's drug traffickers, parts of tiny Lancaster,  
Pennsylvania are probably worse now than Pittsburgh was in the  
1950s.  Even in the suburban grocery stores in the most affluent  
townships the people from out of town not come in to knock the  
shoppers down in the aisles and steal their purses!    Amazing thing  
is that most of the knifings and murders are solved but there are no  
shortage of idiots who will try it thinking they have a better  
crime?   Or maybe they do it because the prison is a warm place in  
the winter?

You grew up on Mount Washington.   I came into town with the camera  
and walked everywhere because you got the best pictures by walking  
with the camera.   I would leave my grandma's home out on Perrysville  
Avenue by Riverview Park, for example, walk dawntawn, take a car to  
Carnegie, walk to Ingram, ride McKees Rocks and walk back to  
Pittsburgh.   Or there was the day I walked from East Pittsburgh to  
Wilkinsburg, rode to 62nd St. loop, then walked to Aspinwall, and  
then hitched a ride to my uncle's home in Cheswick.   Over several  
years I walked Library and Drake to Pittsburgh except through the  
tunnel.   And one Saturday afternoon I hoofed it from Dravosburg to  
Hays on route 56.

Unfortunately I missed a lot of good stuff like Fifth Avenue and  
South Highland and Negley.

On Dec 10, 2008, at 9:03 AM, BobDietrich wrote:

> I suppose I have to admit to riding Rt. 40 once or twice, but not as a
> railfan.  I liked to watch the line poles zip by in the way up  
> Southern Ave.
> That was not a place to hang an arm out the window.  I am still  
> amazed the
> way the center of the outbound car hung way over the curb at  
> Southern &
> Natchez, people knew how far back to stand.
>
> For a few years I rode to St. Mary's school getting, off at Bingham  
> St., but
> I very seldom rode further than that and I don't remember it much  
> except
> trying to get into the conductor's seat when we got a special car.   
> I didn't
> experience the Olympia to Bingham hill very often on the  
> streetcar.  I did
> ride my Schwinn through that section often enough.  We would ride  
> down full
> speed, on the sidewalk, and try to get to the top of the next hill  
> without
> pedaling.  Going the opposite was it was full speed down and pump  
> like crazy
> to get to the top.  I made it once or twice. What is that grade?
>
> Fineview!  That was on the Nortside and you could get killed over  
> there or
> even something worse, so we stayed away
>
> I guess I don't want to get deeper into my youth than that...
>
> Bob
>
> -
>