When I endeavor to consider my numerous blessings, my love of reading never fails to pop up near the top of the list. I suspect it is partly genetic but certainly the nurturing environment of our home when my brother and I were growing up was a major contributor. Eighteen years ago my neighbor, Larry Kennedy, asked me if I would be interested in participating in a book review club. His wife, Marie, belonged to one, made up of her friends, and was getting a lot of pleasure from it. I immediately agreed and soon found myself heavily involved with…

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Three recent deaths and the donation of a collection of valuable artifacts to the Bridgeville Area Historical Society have influenced me to focus on Bridgeville High School in the late 1940s, a subject we have discussed recently in our series of “Second Tuesday” workshops. Incidentally we should report that the Historical Society has cancelled the September “Second Tuesday’ workshop because of a conflict with the annual 9/11 memorial service at Holy Child Church. We will be back on October 9 with our review of the 1954 and 1955 BHS classes. Arlene Scola Ellenberger recently donated an envelope full of photographs…

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The third workshop in the Bridgeville Area Historical Society’s series dedicated to George Washington’s seven visits to Western Pennsylvania focused on General Edward Braddock’s campaign against Fort DuQuesne in 1755. The previous workshop had left Washington back in civilian life in October 1754. After the Fort Necessity disaster, Governor Dinwiddie had decided to disband the Virginia Regiment and replace it with ten independent companies. When he offered Colonel Washington a captaincy commanding one of the companies, our future president chose to end his military career by resigning his commission. However, events in England would soon lead him to reverse this…

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In recent years it has been customary for our family to vacation together for a week or two each summer. This year the schedules for our three children and their families were much too complicated for this to occur. Part of our compromise was my spending a week in the High Sierras with Sara and her family. Our son John is part owner of a lovely ski house in Truckee, California, on Donner Lake. Originally intended to be used primarily during the winter sports season, it has turned out to be equally effective as a summer resort. We have enjoyed…

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Several of our readers have suggested we write a column on the recent flood, focusing on the community’s efforts in support of its victims. The outpouring of offers to help these folks – with actual labor; financially; and with donations of clothing, household goods, and furniture – is indeed the kind of “good news” story that is far too rare today. It is instructive to access the Bridgeville Police Department Facebook page; it provides an excellent summary of the many organizations that have pitched in to help out, as well as a reminder of how serious a problem this is….

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My grand-daughter, Rachael, has participated in a music program at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp for the past three years. This summer she was selected to be part of the camp’s International Youth Symphony Orchestra, which recently returned from an exciting three-week tour of Luxembourg, Germany, and France, where they gave seven concerts. The camp is located close to Lake Michigan, near the community of Whitehall. We drove there recently for the orchestra’s Farewell Concert, a very impressive performance. They played an all Rimsky-Korsakov program – “Procession of the Nobles”, “Capricio Espagnol”, and “Scheherezade” – beautifully. The concert was…

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The Bridgeville Area Historical Society “Second Tuesday” workshop for July continued our study of the history of Bridgeville High School, this time focusing on the classes of 1952 and 1953. Thanks to the presence of five alumni of those two classes, we had a lively session with lots of input from them. The 1953 class was particularly difficult for me. I knew three of its members – Ron Rothermund, Dale DeBlander, and Russ Kovach – well when they were small children and have been privileged to be close friends with them as adults. When I went away to college in…

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The final program in the Bridgeville Area Historical Society 2017-2018 season was an interesting presentation on the Fort Pitt Museum, by its Director of Education, Kathleen Lugarich. Her talk was entitled “Point of Empire: A Brief Overview of Fort Pitt”, an obvious pun on Pittsburgh’s Point and the clash of French and English empires that collided there. Ms. Lugarich began by explaining the significance of the Ohio River to three different cultures. A small number of Native Americans – Shawnee, Delaware, and Mingo – made their home in the Ohio Country after being displaced by English settlers on the eastern…

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I have been a jazz fan since my college years, and even longer, if you acknowledge the fact that “Swing” was a very important component of popular music in the late 1930s and 1940s. Consequently I was very excited when I learned that my sixteen-year old grandson, Ian McCance, was signed up for Jazz Camp at Duquesne University and would be staying with me for a week. Ian lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. He started playing trumpet in Middle School and quickly became interested in their Jazz Band, much to my pleasure. I have been out to see and hear…

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I have just returned from an interesting experience, a trip to “a different world”. My son John and his family are spending a few weeks in northern California while he conducts business at his company’s office in San Mateo. I hadn’t seen them since Christmas and was glad to have the opportunity to fly out there to visit them. Their home base is in Beijing, China, and I lack the stamina for making that long trip to see them; the five-hour flight across the country is enough of a challenge for me. I managed to watch two forgettable movies on…

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