[PRCo] Regional population numbers

[Fred Schneider]

Bob, 

I love that analogy about candy bars.   For the last two years we have bought candy "just in case" and then I have to eat it or give it to the great grandkids when their mom (a nurse) isn't looking.   

Sixty years ago on this street my parents would have hundreds of kids spread over two nights.   It was one of those brand new suburbs and we had kids who worked their neighborhood one night and the adjacent one the next night.   

Today?  Well, for the last two years we've bought candy "just in case" and then gotten fat on it ourselves.   No knocks at the door.   Why?   So much traffic on this street now that the parents will not let their kids out.   There are 15 times more motor vehicles in this township today than we had 50 years ago.   

Something else has changed.   Remember the Pall Mall Cigarettes radio show titled The Big Story?   In 1950, Lancaster, Pennsylvania was featured because a Franklin and Marshall College student murdered a college secretary and hid her body.   It so unusual because no one here had heard of a murder in decades.   We used to think of murders as something that happens in Cicero, Illinois or Brooklyn.   I thought nothing, as a teenager, of walking anywhere in Pittsburgh or Baltimore or Chicago … you name it.
But today I can pick up the Lancaster paper almost any day and read about a bank robbery, a drug shooting, a convenience store hold up … sometimes several in the county in one day and sometimes the bullet or the knife hits its mark.   Would you want to let your kids out?   It's no longer just Homewood-Brushton.   

Fred


On Nov 20, 2013, at 6:30 PM, Bob Rathke wrote:

> We lived in Bethel Park in the 1970's when the population was around 40,000. By 1979 the kids in the neighborhood were in high school and college, and when they graduated they moved away - to their own place near Pittsburgh or out of state.  Many of their parents continued to live in Bethel Park, but the number of people in their households decreased. 
> The same thing has been happening here in Illinois - the kids grow up and go on their own while the parents stay in the family home, and the total population gets smaller.  Every Halloween we're reminded of these changes: 20 years ago on Halloween we handed out close to 100 candy bars, but this year it was only 10 candy bars.  We're still working down the bags of candy.  
> ----- Original Message -----
> 
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net> 
> To: "Western PA Trolley discussion" <pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org> 
> Cc: "Derrick Brashear" <shadow at gmail.com> 
> Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 2:05:04 PM 
> Subject: Re: [PRCo] Regional population numbers 
>