YIIIIPPPPEEEEEEEEEEE 1000 Posts!

OkeeDon · May 21, 2004

if you go back to boilermakers and Old Frothingslosh then you go back to the days of Rege Cordic, "Miss Frothingslosh", and when it really was a smokey city. 

Ah, yes. I actually attended one of the "Miss Brickthrow" contests. We were all issued styrofoam bricks and encouraged to throw them in the auditorium.

I graduated from Bellevue High School (no longer there) in 1958. The words to out Alma Mater started, "Where the smoke of Pittsburgh's factories/Rises to the sky/There in all it's glory/Stands our Bellevue High."

Our class picnics were held at West View Park. Henro has sent me pictures of the shopping center that stands where the amusement park once was.

I left the Pittsburgh area in 1964 and have only been back twice, since. I was back in the Greensburg area 6 years ago, for my wife's 40th class reunion, but didn't make it down to Pgh. But, I've kept up with many of the changes. Over the years, we've purchased some of the Pittsburgh History series tapes from WQED, such as "Things that are gone", "Things that are still here", "Kennywood memories", and "North Side Story".

I still have some relatives in the area including an Aunt in Emsworth, a cousin in Butler, and some cousins-by-marriage in Allison Park. My wife is from Greensburg, and one of her cousins used to be Mayor of McKeesport. She is still addicted to Klondikes, which used to be available only at Isaly's.

In either 1956 or '57, a McDonald's opened in Bellevue. According to the various histories of McDonald's, it had to be one of the first 10 - 25 stores. It was one of the original red-and-white-striped stands. I got hooked, then, and have been addicted to McDonald's ever since.

It was a good place to grow up, and I got a great education. There were only 512 students in grades 7-12 at BHS, with 81 in my graduating class, which was really something considering that we were the first borough outside the city limits, but the entire borough was only about 4 square miles. Obviously, this was before school consolidation. I recently looked at a HS yearbook, and re-discovered that all of the teachers, except one, had at least a master's degree -- and that one was a new grad from Carnegie Tech, who had his master's before I graduated.

I think I have succeeded in taking a thread about as far off topic as anyone in the history of TBN. To tie it back to the original, does that entitle me to my own Yiiiippppeee?

Bird · May 21, 2004

( with 81 in my graduating class )

Probably the only reason I can remember how many were in my graduating class is because 58 of us graduated in 1958 from my high school. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I also have a picture of my Dad and his high school graduating class; 4 of them, all male. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

r0GuE · May 22, 2004

(
I think I have succeeded in taking a thread about as far off topic as anyone in the history of TBN. To tie it back to the original, does that entitle me to my own Yiiiippppeee?
)

Don't sweat taking it off topic! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif With a topic that starts yippie, this is as good a subject as any. They all go off topic eventually as we chat as freinds or argue politics until the thread gets locked /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ! So you have a cousing in my home town eh? I better try to stay civil from now on. If you are ever in the area, I'll buy you an IC at the local bar (there's more bars than fast food joints in Butler!) /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

OkeeDon · May 22, 2004

Yep, Arlene Nichols, husband Ron. We've only seen each other a couple of times in 45 years, but we stay in touch nowadays after a 30 year hiatus.

Is there still a roller skating rink in Butler? Back around 1959, I was a member of a hotrod club (a good one, actually mostly preppie college kids who happened to like building cars) in Wexford. We used to go up to Butler to roller skate several times a year. Seemed like a pretty good road trip at the time, even though it's just about 25 miles -- but that's maybe because not all of the street rods were reliable transportation, and we usually had at least one adventure each time we drove them that far.

Not sure i could handle an IC today. As was mentioned, it's an acquired taste, which also means it can be lost -- and I've been away from the area for 40 years. There's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Doesn't mean I wouldn't try it, just that it would likely be good for a giggle.

r0GuE · May 22, 2004

You should see Wexford now! Totally built up. That long ago it had to be nothing but an aplle orchard. The skating ring is still there, I don't know if it is open or not. There's a Target, WalMart, and soon to be a Sams, a Lowes a Home Depot and on and on and on all within 1/4 mile of that rink. I guess Butler has grown some too.... /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Bucky4 · May 28, 2004

Don,

Your wife is from my home town, but I probably don't know her since our ages are not the same.

Tell her Greengate Mall is history. Torn down and filled in to make way for a super duper new style Wal Mart plaza. (Who else has the money to do something like this!!)

The current Wal Mart (1/2 mile away) will move to this new location and the old one will be razed and built back up as a "state-of-the-art" Sam's Club. (How in the world can you make warehouse shopping state-of-the-art?!?!?)

In addition, they are building a connecting road between the two sites that will eventually be lined with condos.

Personnally, I think progress has gone too far! Oh boy, I can't wait for the traffic jams to begin!!

bucky4

OkeeDon · May 28, 2004

Hey, news from home! I moved to Greensburg from Bellevue in 1961, and that's where I met Betsy Croushore. My Father had passed away, and when my Mother remarried, my new Stepfather became director of the WestmorelandCounty Crippled Children's Society. When we moved to Greensburg, the clinic was located in a 3 story, brick mansion at Park and N. Maple, at the top of the hill, diagonal from the high school and across from the art museum. I don't know if that converted house is still standing; it had a turret on the front that ran all the way up the 3 stories. We (my Stepfather, Mother and I) had an apartment on the 3rd floor.

Betsy's Father, Lou Croushore, was a real estate appraiser (and had also been an insurance broker) who owned a 4 story building, formerly a bank building I believe, on the SE corner of Main and either Pittsburgh or Otterman, whichever was the Eastbound one-way street -- it's been a long time. Because he was an investor in the downtown, he hated all of the outlying development, and refused to shop anywhere but downtown. The Greengate Mall was brand new about the time I lived there. Their home was on Oakhill Lane, known as Pill Hill because of the doctors that lived there, across from Seton Hill.

Betsy moved to Boston in 1963 to work, and I followed in 1964. We were married in 1965 at the Lutheran Church on Main Street. We made many visits back to Greensburg in the '60's and 70's, but both my Mother and Betsy's paremts moved to Florida full time, and Betsy and I followed in 1972 so the children could be near their Grandparents. All of the others are gone, but Betsy's Mother, Margaret Croushore, who had been a Home Ec teacher at the high school, is still with us, and will be 100 years old in August.

My Stepfather, Harold Stuckey, passed away many years ago, and my Mother remarried Bill Christie from Greensburg. He used to have a plumbing supply business. They're gone, too, but I believe Bill had a son who still lives somewhere in the Greensburg area.

I only mention all these trivial facts, not very interesting to anyone else, because it's such a small world, and your life may have touched that of someone I mentioned.