[PRCo] Spring Hill snow photos -1961

[Bob Rathke]

 The recent heavy snowfalls in the Chicago area prompted me to send the
attached photos to a friend here along with a note, "You think it's tough
getting through Chicago snowafalls in winter...take a look at the 
neighborhood
in Pittsburgh where I  grew up":
I took the attached photos after a heavy snowfall on Spring Hill in January,
 1961. The house on Woessner Avenue where I grew up is out of the view to 
the
left, but I think you can get an idea of the steepness of the street which 
rivals
 the (snow-free) streets in San Francisco.  Woessner Avenue is dead-end just
behind the camera, and it is one-lane going both up and down, so cars park 
on
both sides of the street (always facing down).  Ours was the last house on 
the
 north side of  the street, and the procedure is for arriving cars to turn 
around
in the street just past our house and  then go back down the street to park.

In the long view photo, the dark spot at the bottom of Woessner is Rhine
Street which had been cleared of snow by the city. The 5-Spring Hill trolley
had been discontinued a little over three years before this photo was taken,
and the loop was a few hundred feet to the left (west) of that dark spot.
There...I got on topic!

In the winter we rarely saw city snowplows or salt trucks on Woessner
(pronounced "Wess-ner"). So after a snowfall, everyone went outside and
shoveled out the street in front of their house.  Or in the case of heavy
snowfalls like the one in these 1961 photos, they simply shoveled out two
"tracks" for cars' wheels to use. Looking back,  I remember only a few
times over the years when we couldn't get our cars up or down the
street in snow.  We just planned ahead and drove very carefully. In the
1950's my dad often used tire chains - and lots of Monkey Links when the
chains broke.

Our next door neighbor owned the black Oldsmobile and the gray Chrysler
product wedged in between the piles of  snow. I am still in touch with our
former neighbor who drove that gray car and who is now retired and living
in Maine. I sent him these photos yesterday, and he rep-lied that it's 
easier
getting around Maine in Winter than it was to drive up Woessner Avenue
after a snowfall.

There was one advantage to living on that hill - the view of downtown
 Pittsburgh. Also attached is a photo I took (in warmer weather in 1981)
from the hill opposite our house. Spring Hill is about the same height as
Mt. Wahington.  Our house was about 450 feet higher than the rivers
downtown, so that's an average vertical climb of about 1 foot in 16 ft.
of  horizontal distance. Woessner Avenue's ratio was above that average.

Spring Hill was quite wooded and safe - a great place to grow up. We
could always find a good tree in which to build a treehouse.

Bob 12/26/08


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