Bob (known to his life-long friends as “Boompsy”) Rosa is an occasional participant in our bi-weekly brunches with our fellow alumni of Bridgeville High School. He lives in Freedom; the drive to Bob Evans Kirwan Heights is a quite a bit longer for him than for the rest of us. His brother John (Yunner), a classmate of mine (’49), lives in Arizona and comes back to Bridgeville every summer and stays with Bob. During that time we see both of them regularly; the rest of the year Bob’s appearance is less frequent.
He was a welcome guest at our last brunch and reported that Yunner was planning to come sometime next month. He also presented me with a sack-full of memorabilia from his BHS Class (’52) Reunions. Most of the classes held reunions every five years until their numbers dwindled below the critical mass required to justify continuing reunions. For each of the reunions the classes prepared souvenir books containing whatever information was available on each of its members. The Class of ’52 was no exception; his sack included detailed booklets and photographs of all the classmates who attended each reunion. I accepted the memorabilia graciously and promised to see that it was properly archived at the Bridgeville Area Historical Society.
As soon as I got home, I began to go through the information and immediately found myself in nostalgia land. The “kids” in this class were Freshmen when our class were Seniors. Many of them – Don Hopper, “Buzzy” Fryer, Marian Snyder, and Sarah Weise – grew up in our neighborhood. Among others, this class included the Hofrichter twins, Ken and Ralph; Doris and Mary Margaret Maioli; Ray and Bobby Deep; Mell Colussy and Guelfo Dozzo; Bob Collavo; Carole Jones; Walt Maruzewski: and Bill Engel. One of my favorites was Bob Baldwin’s protégé, Bob Milligan. He performed in a Bethany Sunday School skit as a host serving soup to one of his friends. Soon additional friends arrived, and he responded by adding water to his soup. After several iterations of this, my father coined the phrase “Milligan soup” to identify diluted or abnormally small food portions.
After reading over a number of the discussions of the (then) current status of these folks, I realized that this really was a detailed history of the adult lives of seventy unique Bridgeville personalities, many of whom I had lost track of years ago. I know that there is a similar body of information available for my class and presume that is the case for many of the other classes and that this is a valuable addition to the collection of formal (Yearbook and Bridger) publications at the history Center. I resolved to deliver Bob’s contribution to the History Center the next Friday and to deliver a sermon on its significance.
Fortunately I found a perceptive and appreciative audience in Leesa Shady when I delivered the package to the History Center. Leesa has done an excellent job establishing a spreadsheet-based inventory of new donations to the Center and is exploring methods of expanding it to include previously acquired items. My pontifications focused on the importance of establishing and cataloguing a formal collection of Bridgeville High School memorabilia. I was reminded of my cousin Jim Klees, who published a weekly paper in Emporium years ago called the Cameron County Press-Independent. Its motto was “the only paper in the world that gives a damn about Cameron County”. We are certainly the only history center in the world that gives a damn about Bridgeville High School. I had just reached the peak of my sermon when she announced, “I’m sorry, but Austin has just arrived, returning our Yearbooks and Bridgers”.
I was remotely aware that someone was digitizing the Yearbooks, but had no idea of the significance of the operation. “Austin” is Austin Pilz, a gifted young software developer who graduated from Chartiers Valley High School in 2013 and then from Pitt with a degree in Computer Science in 2017. He recently became interested in the history of his High School and its predecessors, and launched a project to research and document it. The History Center turned out to be a valuable resource for his work; they have been rewarded by receiving a set of searchable digital files covering all the Yearbooks and Bridgers in their possession. I think the Bridger began publication as a monthly newsletter in 1945; it is an equally valuable source of information (and teenage gossip!).
I had a fascinating discussion with Austin regarding his project and the amount of effort he has invested in it. I was particularly interested in his findings regarding the concept of school district consolidation, which he learned was promoted by the State during David Lawrence’s reign as governor in the late 1950s. This concept generated the Chartiers Valley School District as a merger of the Bridgeville, Scott Township, Collier Township, and Heidelberg school districts (and the demise of my beloved Bridgeville High School). The machinations that produced it and Carlynton (merging Carnegie, Rosslyn Farms, and Crafton), while allowing South Fayette and Upper St. Clair to remain independent would be a story in themselves. I still believe the decision to locate Chartiers Valley and Carlynton High Schools in remote locations produced a cultural shock to both Bridgeville and Carnegie, a shock from which both communities are still recovering.
At any rate, the history of our schools is a major part of the history of our communities. The combination of the BHS memorabilia – Yearbooks and Bridgers, our columns recording the workshops we facilitated six years ago, the numerous trophies won by athletic teams, Class Reunion booklets, and various scrapbooks – is a detailed history of our community in the early and mid 1900s. It warrants special care. I am sure the History Center would be delighted to receive additional donations like Bob’s. Keep that in mind when you do your Spring cleaning!