[PRCo] Re: Seasonal thoughts

[Bob Rathke]

I started St. Ambrose School on Spring Hill after WWII.  I'm left handed, 
but never remember one incident when a teacher or relative ever tried to 
correct me. And I was not the only left handed kid in class.

I can only assume that Parochial schools on the North Side were more 
progressive than those in other parts of the city.  :-)

Bob 12/23/08


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark McGuire" <macmarka at netzero.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 7:09 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Seasonal thoughts


> My dad had already met my mom before he went off to the war. When he 
> returned as I learned much to my father's dismay, that he and my mom 
> concieved before they were married. My mom was a Perry High graduate who's 
> mother(my grandmother who took me on my first trolley ride) was "right off 
> the boat" from Italy. My dad went to Central Catholic. After they married, 
> they moved to Castle Shannon on a street you all are familiar with called 
> Kilarney Drive. I was just an infant when they bought a brand new home on 
> Lovingston Dr. near the Dormont border. I was the only one of seven 
> children that never went to a Catholic school. And I was glad of that 
> after hearing the horror stories from mom and dad. Dad was left-handed and 
> one particularly cruel nun used to whack him on his left hand with a yard 
> stick to make him write right-handed.
> My grandmother and I would walk down Biltmore Ave. and then up the other 
> side to get to the trolley stop at Dormont Jct. My only regret is that 
> seeing how much I enjoyed riding the trolleys, she never took me on a 
> trolley ride to my uncle's house on Franklin Ave. in Wilkinsburg before 
> the east end lines were abandoned. North Side lines were pretty much gone 
> by the time I was 4 years old and taking my first trolley ride.
> Ah, memories. Nobody can ever take them away from us can they? I wish I 
> could remember more than I do.
>
> Just a small little joke about my 50-50 Irish-Italian blood.  I'm half 
> Irish and half Italian. That means I get so drunk I want to beat the hell 
> out of myself.
>
> -- "Dennis F.  Cramer" <dfc1 at windstream.net> wrote:
> My dad returned home in June of 1945, met my mother and they were married 
> in
> the Jefferson Avenue Methodist Church in Washington in August.  Talk about
> getting along with your life.  My brother was born in 1950 when they lived
> in Versailles and I did not come along until 1953.   By that time our home
> was in Liberty Boro.
>
> My father had a V-mail that his father had sent just before the end of the
> war where he stated he felt it was a mistake for us to let the Germans 
> take
> Berlin and it would probably lead to problems.
>
> Many young children (and dogs) do not take kindly to beards.  I have 
> sported
> one since 1977 and have had varying results with the nieces and nephews. 
> I
> never had a child pull my beard when I was Santa at PTM.
>
> What killed the trolley?  Cheap cars and cheap gas.  No collusions, no
> backroom politicking, just a desire for people to feel independent.
>
> Yes John, we have several tunes in our quintet book from the 40's.  Beside
> the wedding stuff and the Christmas stuff, we also have a pretty broad 
> range
> of popular music from the Civil War to the present.  Right now the folder
> has about 175 or so tunes.
>
>
> Dennis F. Cramer
>      Trombone
>
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