I don’t really pay much attention to the various award shows, probably because, being several generations out of date, I don’t know any of the contestants. This year, however, for some reason I did skim over the hoopla associated with the Grammies and was surprised to see that the Pittsburgh Symphony was one of the winners. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the publicity locally that this achievement warrants. A performer known as Bruno Mars was the big star, winning six awards in “popular” categories. According to Wikipedia Mars is either an “R and B” or rap artist. There was a time…

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The Bridgeville Area Historical Society traditionally schedules its January and February meetings on Sunday afternoons rather than their customary Tuesday evenings, in deference to the winter weather. Last month’s meeting featured an old friend, Dr. Jack Aupperle, with his fourth appearance. This time he discussed Theodore Roosevelt and did his usual fine job of mixing information with entertainment. Teddy Roosevelt was born in Manhattan in 1858, the second of four children in a wealthy family. He was home schooled by his mother and a succession of tutors. His lifelong fascination with natural science was demonstrated by his compiling an impressive…

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I participated in an interesting meeting at the Bridgeville Public Library recently, focused on connecting the different communities in the South Hills through trails. The event, called, “Growing Together Through Trails,” was hosted by Justin Beinhauer, an Upper St. Clair resident with a commitment to connecting the communities of Upper St. Clair, South Fayette, and others to Bridgeville, which he calls the “heart of the community.” The meeting was surprisingly well attended, with representatives of the Montour Trail, the Rachel Carson Trail, South Fayette Township, the Allegheny Trust, and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Planning Commission there, as well as a number…

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Late January and early February is always a depressing time for sports fans. The Steelers’ unexpected implosion made it even worse this year. Hockey is an option, but knowing someone will still be playing hockey in early June suggests it is still too early to get interested. We enthusiastically followed Pitt basketball during the Jamie Dixon era, but can’t get work up much enthusiasm about the current team. We do check the box scores however to see if Zach Smith gets into the game. Zach is a Senior and one of the best students in our Civil and Environmental Engineering…

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Our “Second Tuesday” workshop at the Bridgeville History Center this month focused on the Bridgeville High School graduating classes of 1944 and 1945. These were war years, when the impact of World War II dominated every aspect of our lives, especially for those of us on the Home Front. The facilitator set the stage for the workshop by reviewing the war news of the time, culminating with VE Day at about the time the 1945 class celebrated Commencement. The very first newspaper clipping reported a strike at the Universal Cyclops plant in the summer of 1943 and its adverse effect…

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Despite being in the midst of a bone-chilling series of single digit temperature days, we had an excellent turnout for the first Octogenarian Brunch of the New Year. My school schedule last semester restricted my attendance for the past few months, but Wednesdays are free for me now and I am looking forward to lots of good sessions this year. We were comfortably settled at two four-person tables pushed together when Paul Love showed up to push our total to nine; we quickly found an extra chair and rearranged the condiments to find him a place. Paul, who lives in…

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At the end of each year, it is appropriate that we pause and reflect upon “the big picture” – the state of our nation and the world. Lots of things currently, especially the schism between the extremes in our society, encourage a pessimistic view of our future. Fortunately, however, my continued contact with the young people in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh provides me with a lot of reasons to resist that temptation. In the last semester before they graduate our students participate in our Senior Design Projects program, a program that I am…

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It is a family tradition that its eldest member be permitted to sleep until 7:00 am on Christmas morning. I was abruptly aroused from a deep slumber precisely at that time when my five grandchildren burst into the bedroom shooting “Merry Christmas” and encouraging me to pull myself together and stumble downstairs. A dozen of us shared the holiday in Olde Sewickley Highlands where Beth, Mike, and Rachael have comfortably settled into their new home, off Camp Meeting Road. They still have a home in Champaign, Illinois, which they are maintaining while Mike finishes out his academic commitment at the…

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We had intended to devote our December Bridgeville Area Historical Society “Second Tuesday” workshop to the Bridgeville High School classes of 1942, ’43’ and ’44, but soon determined that we had far too much information available than could be compressed into one hour. We barely got through 1943; ’44 will have to wait until next month. As is our custom we opened the session with a discussion of the times. The Fall of 1941 was indeed unusual. It seemed to be a foregone conclusion that we would soon enter World War II eventually; the attack on Pearl Harbor initiated the…

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Last year I dedicated a column to a Christmas letter to our readers and enjoyed it so much that I have decided to repeat that process again this year. It has been my custom for a number of years to type out a general discussion of the activities of our extended family and to then customize it for the individual folks on my Christmas card list – this will serve as my column as well this year. This term I am completing my twenty-fifth year teaching in the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh. It has been a…

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