Category: Water Under the Bridge

Last month’s selection for our Book Club was Walter Isaacson’s biography of Leonardo da Vinci. After spending most of the month reading the book, we went to the Carnegie Science Center to see the new da Vinci exhibition there, before meeting to review the book. Leonardo was certainly a remarkable human being, possessing a wide variety of characteristics that combined to produce a bona fide genius. Indeed, it is easy to agree with observers who consider him to be the greatest mind in history. He was the prototype polymath, possessing a curiosity about everything he saw or experienced His powers…

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As is frequently the case, a couple of different recent incidents have combined to get me interested in the concept of reconciliation. The first incident was the February edition of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall’s fine “Second Saturday Civil War Lecture Series”. This presentation, entitled “The Meaning and Legacy of Gettysburg”, was made by a well-qualified Civil War historian, retired Air Force officer David Albert. One of the several concepts that he believes contribute to the long-term legacy of this sacred battleground is that of reunion. It is well known that the battlefield was the site of…

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On the final Sunday afternoon in February the Bridgeville Area Historical Society welcomed back Dr. John Aupperle for his annual visit and was rewarded by another informative and entertaining presentation. Dr. Aupperle was profoundly impressed by the significance of Senator John S. McCain’s remarkable life when it was celebrated by his funeral and memorial service last summer. He then commented that he believed that history, rather than being a record of events, is the story of people and the way they affect events. He reported that this got him wondering what influences combine to produce “difference-makers” and especially this specific…

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The February “Second Tuesday” workshop of the Bridgeville Area Historical Society focused on the penultimate graduating classes of the Bridgeville High School, 1958 and 1959. The audience included several members of each class; their participation was greatly appreciated. The summer of 1957 began with serious uncertainty about the future of the new Chartiers Valley school district jointure. Scott Township abruptly withdrew because of a disagreement regarding cost sharing between them and the other three school districts involved – Bridgeville, Collier Township, and Heidelberg. The threat of a law suit was enough to resolve the issue; by September plans for the…

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I am a big fan of “This Day in History”, so I decided to try my hand on it and see what was going on in Bridgeville and the Pittsburgh area exactly one century ago. A quick look at available newspaper archives confirmed my suspicions that this would be an excellent subject for a column. This particular date in history was fourteen and a half weeks after the Armistice that ended World War I; the news was dominated by the efforts of the Allies to come to agreement on a peace treaty that would insure that the recent hostilities would…

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The Bridgeville Area Historical Society presented the first program meeting of the new year on the last Sunday afternoon of the month, as is their seasonal custom. This program featured Valerie Weil, C. G., discussing “Mass, Spree, and Serial Killers (Evil is as Evil Does, Behavior in Handwriting)”. Ms. Weil is an interesting person; C. G. stands for Certified Graphologist. Her certification is from the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation (AHAF), an organization she serves as Education Chairman. AHAF includes about two hundred individuals interested in Graphology, “the study of personality in handwriting as it relates to aptitude, attitude, integrity, intelligence,…

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I have been writing this column in one version or another since 1994 for a variety of long-suffering publishers, currently Tribune Total Media’s “The Signal-Item”, serving Carnegie and Bridgeville. The version published in the newspaper these days is about 550 words long, satisfying the requirements of the printed newspaper, which is circulated to about 9,500 homes. To produce this version I begin with a rough draft that, typically, is about one thousand words long, then edit it meticulously to reach the desired length. In the early days I compiled a book each year made up of the original drafts. In…

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A number of unrelated events have me thinking about poetry recently. Our Book Club recently read various works by Edgar Allen Poe, including his poem “The Raven”. This led to a discussion of poetry in general and complaints about the awarding of the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature to Bob Dylan for his song lyrics. Part of our extended family this Christmas was my granddaughter Lai An’s other grandfather, Grandpa Pan. He is a scholar of ancient Chinese poetry, specializing in interpreting poems written in archaic Chinese, for modern readers. I gave him a copy of Robert Frost poems for…

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This month, the Bridgeville Area Historical Society’s workshop series on George Washington’s impact on Western Pennsylvania focused on his well-documented expedition to the Ohio Country in 1770. The Washington who made this trip was much different from the swashbuckling military hero who visited this area four times in the 1750s. Now thirty-eight years old and a highly successful Virginia country gentleman, Washington had finally persuaded Virginia Governor Norborne Berkeley to make good on the promise Governor Dinwiddie had made sixteen years earlier to reimburse members of the Virginia Militia with land in the Ohio Country, in recognition of their service…

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I am finally back at home after sixteen exciting days with my extended family in California and Hawaii. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience, but I must admit I am feeling perfectly comfortable back sitting in my “easy chair” in my living room, alone with my reflections on the trip. The excitement level began to decrease as each faction of our family left for home and we concentrated on getting in a last crack at our favorite activity. Mine was walking along the shoreline trail, marveling at the volcanic cliffs, the unique vegetation, and the ever-changing tide pools. The…

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