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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Seventy years ago the Andrews Sisters had a hit record that raise the question, “How’d You Like to Spend Christmas on Christmas Island?” This year I am living that fantasy. Our extended family, fifteen strong, spent the holidays in a resort hotel on Maui. The real Christmas Island is somewhere in the Indian Ocean, but Maui certainly qualifies as an appropriate substitute. We gathered there from Pennsylvania, Colorado, California, and China. I flew from Pittsburgh to San Francisco, where my son John met me. The flight was delayed four hours before taking off because of fog at is destination. A…

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One of my favorite responsibilities during my academic career at Pitt has been coordinating the Civil Engineering Department’s Senior Design Project program. In this program each Senior, in his/her last semester, is required to participate as part of a multi-discipline team in a challenging “near-real-world” design project. This semester two of our seven teams performed major projects relevant to the Bridgeville area – remediation of flash flooding in the McLaughlin Run watershed and expansion of the Bridgeville Area Historical Center History Center. The quality of their work on these two projects was impressive. The June 20, 2018 McLaughlin Run flood,…

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The Bridgeville Area Historical Society continued its series of “Second Tuesday” workshops this month with a discussion of the classes that graduated in 1956 and 1957. These were large classes with 102 graduates in ’56 and 98 the following year. Once again there was a change in the football coaching staff as Harry Buzzatto took over for Cyril Lane, after serving as his assistant. Thanks to a well-maintained scrapbook belonging to ’56 alumnus Rick Rickenbach we have a wealth of artifacts from that season, ranging from game-day programs to “Bridgeville News” clippings of many of the games. After a rocky…

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As we look forward to heading to Maui and spending Christmas with our children and grand-children, our thoughts return to memories of eight decades of “Christmas Past”. The common themes running through them are family, fellowship, and optimism about the future. In 1938 the Oylers were living in their new home on Lafayette Street. My brother, Joe, was a one-year-old, too young to understand all the holiday fuss. As he matured in the next few years, it was rewarding for me to see Christmas through the eyes of a young child. This experience was repeated thirty-five years later with our…

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The Bridgeville Area Historical Society’s November program meeting featured a presentation on the October 27, 1948, Donora Smog Tragedy by Mr. Brian Charlton, curator of the Donora Smog Museum. In addition to his responsibilities with the museum, Mr. Charlton is also an accomplished high school history teacher. In reality, the Donora Historical Society and the Donora Smog Museum are a single entity. Although the society’s museum is dominated by artifacts and information dealing with the smog tragedy, it also houses an impressive collection of items dealing with the rich history of the Donora area. In 1899 the area that eventually…

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The capability of the collection of electronic/mechanical devices that populate our homes today is remarkable. One of my most useful tools is my printer. Actually the term printer is a major understatement — my printer is a copy machine, a scanner, a fax machine, and a wireless communication instrument, as well as a powerhouse for printing files from my computer. It is an indispensable asset to my hobby of pen-and-ink sketching, providing properly scaled images for me. It was equally valuable for my wife’s painting avocation, because of its ability to reproduce subtle differences in color. When she was in…

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