So now that parking space in Mount Washington that is assessed at over $250,000 dollars, no view of the city, assessed more than the condo. How ridiculous is this company that did the assessment. Five minutes drive by for input for your assessed value. Yes, yes a drive by murder of your finances due to poor performance of the assessment company.
I find it extremely interesting that the South Side of Pittsburgh has renewed. There is a wonderful new planned community section in South Side Works. In many ways it reminds me of a time about 50+ years ago when South Side was vibrant with shops, restaurants and lots of activity. The new South Side Works adds an extremely nice component, in my opinion. Lots of great shops to browse, stop for lunch, and a movie
In the old days, one could go to the Arcade, Rex, Liberty or Colonial Theatres to see a movie. Now you can go to the movies in a new theater in the SS. Works. Check out Mallorca, Emilionos, and lots of other great places to get a bite to eat.
My mom worked at the Schiller Club on Jane Street during the weekend evenings to bring in a few extra dollars. It seems to me that there are a lot of great watering holes in the revised edition of South Side. I have gone to Club Cafe on 12 Street, especially on Monday nites for the Acoustic Cafe. I’ve really enjoyed preformances with my friend, also named Sara , but without an “h”.
I like the looks of Ormsby Pool and Rec Center where I swam and was a life guard in my younger days.
Sidney Street somehow as gotten longer and looks good too.
Amazing how you can get to Mary Street without going under the trussels on South 27th Street.
That reminds me of taking my brother’s Road Racer, non steerable go
car up half way or more onto Mary Street and riding it down. I didn’t
have his permission. What a ride. I think I crashed it. Somehow he
and my cousins wrecked the playhouse that my dad built for me in the
backyard. I guess I was doing a payback.
Gee I always thought I was an angel; guess I had a bit of the devil in me too.
That experience was almost as good as riding my bicycle down Kochicko Way (sp?) That was a hill too. Cobblestones. I think that is where I broke the axle to my bicycle. And, and I got a new axle and repaired the bike myself. I was a bike mechanic at a young age. Got it from my dad’s genes. He was very mechanically oriented. Nice trip down memory lane. Have a nice day, or night everyone.
One of my best friends, Noreen would have us come over. Her mom and dad had a small rectangle pool in their back yard. We were about 5 or 6 at that time. We would love to get wet and stay cool. We also used the hose tied to a close line to run through. This was of course another way to beat the heat. So… cool.
Summer’s here and that brings back memories of the pool at 22nd Street Ormsby Pool. The rec center and pool are there now but look different. The pool configuration has changed. Back in my good old young days that pool was just a rectangle shape. The deep end had a diving board, the low water started about 3 feet.
One could see the dusty street. No one could take towels out. We were restricted to time for girls, time for boys, then they had family time and adult time swims in the evening. We’d line up in mass, back then no one except the Arcade Theatre had air conditioning. Pool Time was a premium. We started going down to the pool when we were about 6 or 7 years old. Several of us would walk down together. Things were seemingly different then. For the most part, they were safer. Girls had to wear bathing caps. What a pain to remember them. If you wanted to swim, you had to have one. Well, I really didn’t swim as much as doggy paddle. Noreen was trying to teach me to swim, she could swim underwater. Boy did I admire that. She also like to stay out and lay in the sun. I always got sun burnt. I think I did this to be with my friends.
Another place our families went to often was a place called “Mineral Beach” . Can’t quite remember where it was located, but did I love piling up in the car with suits, towels, grills and food for a day at the beach: Ken, me, Mom, Dad and Rose in our car. Jimmy, Noreen and her parents in their car.
I consider myself fairly computer literate, but technology never ceases to amaze me. A number of years ago I became aware of NASA’s technology of photographing outer space. This technology has become common place in a street view on Google Maps. Just 5 minutes ago I took myself for a current virtual tour of my old stomping ground of South 27th/ 28th, Sarah Street, and Larkins Way. I traveled down South 27th Street to find Grebs Bakery. It looked like it was Closed. Continuing I found my Aunt Marie’s home. Then I turned down Larkins Way and saw the updates to my childhood home. I like what the new owners have done with the place. Nice blue real wood, flag and white fence. Just like I was there in person.
So I learned my swimming strokes at South High School. All I could do was the doggy paddle and tread water before that. Then, oh then, I discovered the Oliver Bath House. I love that place, although I haven’t been in the pool in years. Some of my best very best fun times in the water were there. The water was nice and warm most of the time. Free style, back stroke, butterfly 45 years ago….. Did you ever take a look at the neatest fish on the outside architecture of that place? Now I have rediscovered my love of the water at my new place the YMCA in Franklin Park in the North Hills, close to my home. I’ve taken up swimming again. It’s like swimming at the Bath House. I’ll keep up the 20 laps of the 25 meter pool for awhile before I up the anty so to speak. Right now it’ll be changing the pace to a faster one for some of the laps.
The Oliver Bath House was originally built to serve the local community when there were not showers or bath tubs. People could go there and shower, take a swim and relax from the work a day world of the steel mills. It’s been there for years and years. Amazing it has out lasted the steel mills. Great place…maybe I’ll visit it one day and take another swim.
My nephew Jonthan Lowery has a heavy metal rock type group called the Dying Class. He often plays on the South Side of Pittsburgh. Recently his group played at the Sokol Club on Carson Street. This was as a fund raiser for a friend who has cancer. What a great idea. Loui Lipps was there too and helped raise more money for this worthy cause. Southsiders do it again. Love the Place.
I grew up a block away from the steel mill in the 1950’s. The street was narrow; we called it, “the alleyway. “ This alleyway was Larkins Way. It started on 2800’s Larkins Way, and I think, stopped at 1700’s or 1800’s Larkins Way. I lived one block away from the beginning in the 2700 block of Larkins Way.
Imagine if you will night during the summer. People sat out on their front steps. The row houses, old name for what is now called a townhouse, didn’t have any space for a porch in the front. The street was filled with lots of activity and people. No air conditioning! We sat outside, talked, walked and played. Ten years old we played “Release the Den”, “Hide and Go Seek.”
Often, in the what one would consider, the dark of the night, there would be lots of bright light. The bright lights illuminated the night sky. Of course, these were from the blast furnaces–bellowing flames that flew up into the sky. The flames and light were seen clearly at the very beginning of Larkins Way. I could see shades of red, orange, white, sometimes even a purple orange, if I recall correctly, in this rainbow dance of flames. Yes, I know we were very close to the action. These times were both a blessing and a curse. Men were working working working. However, there was rust, sulfur, soot and pollution on a frequent basis. Again, “whoa is me” to the laundress who let her clothes stay out during a rain or when the mill let out its polluted orange smoke.
Trains provided noise and rumble at night and hello’s during the day. Late night trains rumbled atop the lane behind Jane Street and below Josephine Street. The noise and rumble from the trains actually shook the house. This I noticed very young, but apparently I got so familiar with it that as I grew older my brain blocked them out. Around 5 pm every evening a train came by on the upper deck of the tracks. I often walked or ran up to Jane Street and waved to the engineer on the red caboose…he always waved back.
