Our beloved Bridgeville High School Class of 1949 lost one of its most popular members this month with the passing of Florene Cherry Joyce. I had the privilege of knowing Florene from our first day of first grade in 1937 until both of us were old and gray. Like so many of us, she was the product of modest circumstances; her family operated a shoe store from a store front in their home on Baldwin Street while she was growing up. One of her favorite stories was her mother keeping the store open late every evening, until the last train…

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Last summer, when I saw Bill Charlap at Chautauqua, I commented that it was a unique experience for someone at my stage of life to have the opportunity to see a world class jazz musician perform in person. Much to my surprise, this happened again this month when Beth and Mike took me to Hartwood Acres for an outdoor concert by John Pizzarelli. I have been aware of him for many years, primarily because of “Radio Deluxe”, a weekly program that he and his wife, Jessica Molaskey, host, focused largely on the Great American Songbook. Carried locally on WZUM on…

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Last week I reported on my interest in local archaeology, especially as it related to the Monongahela People and mentioned that I was doing further research on this subject. That turned out to be a gross understatement, as I have been introduced to a wonderland of information far too complex for me to master. Nonetheless this week I will try to summarize what I have learned. The term “Monongahela Woodland Culture” was coined by anthropologist Mary Butler in 1939 to describe a prehistoric Indian way of life centered in southwestern Pennsylvania between 1000 and 1600 AD, based primarily on archaeological investigations sponsored by the Works Progress Administration during the Depression. These…

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My interest in the native American peoples who inhabited this area before the settlers arrived was re-kindled recently by two events – a visit to the replica Monongahela people settlement at Meadowcroft Village; and “180 Years of Archaeology at Woodville”, a special event at the Woodville Experience focused on archaeology at that site. I made the trip to Meadowcroft with my friend Kevin Abt, primarily to see the Rockshelter and to learn more about the “First Americans”, the primitive people whose presence in that area 16,000 years ago is recorded by artifacts uncovered in an archaeological “dig” there. Our first…

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This month I managed to stumble past one more milestone, my ninety-first birthday. Quite an achievement for someone who was brought up believing that one’s lifespan was destined to be “three score and ten”. I certainly am grateful for the twenty-one years I have enjoyed beyond that target and especially for the opportunity to know my five grand-children, each of whom has been born since then. This year I was able to spend my birthday with John and his family in California, the first time I have seen them in a year. They are always fun to be with, and…

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The Peters Creek Historical Society has owned and maintained the Enoch Wright House in Venetia since 1976. Since then it has been lovingly converted into a “Museum of Westward Expansion”, open to the public only by appointment. This summer they have added a new service, an Open House on seven different dates in July through September. I was fortunate to be a part of the very first guided tour in this program, on Sunday, July 10. Brothers James and Joshua Wright received adjoining grants of 400 acres each from the Commonwealth Colony of Virginia in 1772 and moved from Rockingham…

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The first July meeting of the Bridgeville High School Brunch Club was a red-letter event, enhanced by the arrival of John Rosa for the summer. John, whom we fellow members of the Class of 1949 knew as “Yunner”, moved to Arizona fifty years ago, but comes back for an extended visit each year and is welcomed with open arms. John has always been a popular, outgoing guy and probably has more close friends in the Bridgeville area than any pair of us combined. He was a key member of the Baldwin Street clique in our class, a clique that also…

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I am now back in the “real world” after a week’s vacation at the Chautauqua Institution, courtesy of my daughter Elizabeth and her family. Any vacation is an escape from the minor everyday problems of living independently in the real world. This one was enhanced by two factors – my temporary conversion into a dependent of a functioning family group and the location of this specific vacation. Every visit to Chautauqua seems like an episode from “Brigadoon”, a visit to a village that doesn’t appear to belong in the twenty-first century. Physically, it consists of immaculately maintained buildings dating back…

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I have just returned from a very pleasant, extended Father’s Day Weekend in Fort Collins, Colorado, with my daughter Sara and her family. Although Sara and Ian had come East for my grand-daughter Rachael’s high school graduation party, I hadn’t seen Jim or the girls since my ninetieth birthday celebration in California last July. Trips to Colorado are always lots of fun; this one was no exception. Fort Collins is a delightful city located at the edge of the foothills where the Cache La Poudre River comes out of the Rocky Mountain Front Range and heads east to join the…

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Last week we discussed the first half of Leesa Shady’s walking tour of Bridgeville’s historic commercial district, sponsored by the Bridgeville Area Historical Society, and my attempt to recreate it as it existed seventy-five years ago. This week we pick up the tour in front of DaBlaze Grill, walking south on the west side of Washington Avenue. Isaly’s occupied the first store front on the southwestern corner of the Station Street/Washington Avenue intersection in the mid 1940s. Earlier that site had been a grocery store, either Butler’s or A & P. According to old maps there were five distinct buildings…

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