Illegal immigration and/or “the Border Crisis” are major concerns and frequent topics of discussion for my “Conservative” friends. They are generally concerned that I am not specifically aware of it nor of its severity. Out of courtesy to them I have recently invested a little time gathering information on it and attempting to put it into its proper perspective. One must begin by defining terms. Most of the sources I have found define an immigrant as being someone of foreign birth residing in this country. A recent Pew Institute article reported that there are around forty million people meeting this…

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As I reported in last week’s column, Warren Merritt’s presentation to the Bridgeville Area Historical Society contained far more information on the history of coal mining in this area than could be covered in a single column. This week we will attempt to include the other local mines that he covered and identify those in neighboring communities for which we have relevant information. We will begin with the Katie Mine. According to its mine map it worked the Pittsburgh Seam under Gould City Hill. Its tipple was located near Villars Street and served the Bridgeville and McDonald (B & M)…

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When I was researching the history of coal mining in Bridgeville a year ago, I came across a video of a recent talk on Bethel Park’s mining history by a gentleman named Warren Merritt. I immediately contacted him and asked if he would be interested in presenting a similar program for our Historical Society. This month my efforts were rewarded when he did precisely that. Mr. Merritt, a mining engineer, is a graduate of Michigan Tech, retired from a long, productive career with CONSOL Energy Inc., currently dividing his time between consulting and researching the rich heritage of bituminous coal…

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As the years pass and my productivity declines, I find myself dialing back on many of my activities. So far that has not included this weekly column. I still derive a lot of enjoyment from it, particularly when a specific column motivates the readers to comment on it. I try to acknowledge feedback when it is received, but my weak acknowledgements are inconsistent with its significance. For example, the recent pair of columns on Route 66 stirred memories in a number of the readers. Tom Grossi reported that he and Jerry Martincic had driven Route 66 to California in 1964…

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We nonagenarians are frequently criticized for living in the past and failing to appreciate the pleasures that are available to us today. I certainly plead “Guilty” to that criticism; I am firmly convinced that all the cultural experiences of my young adult life are superior to those currently available. When I turned ninety, I assumed that my opportunities to see and hear world class jazz musicians in person were all in the past. How wrong I was! Since then I have been treated to live performances by Bill Charlap at Chautauqua and John Pizzarelli, at Hartwood Acres. Similarly, I assumed…

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Last week’s column on Dick Gaetano’s talk on Route 66 piqued my interest in the 1960s television show with that eponymous title, particularly in regard to the two episodes that featured Pittsburgh. A little bit of searching on the Internet netted me the opportunity to turn the calendar back six decades and watch both of them. Episode three in the second season was entitled “Good Night, Sweet Blues”; in it Ethel Waters portrayed an aged woman whose dying wish was to re-unite, for a final time, a jazz band in which she had performed thirty years earlier. Episode nine, the same…

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The Bridgeville Area Historical Society reverted to its Winter schedule the last Sunday in January with an entertaining presentation on historic Route 66. The speaker, Dick Gaetano, began his talk with an explanation of his lifelong fascination with that highway. In 1949 his family acquired their first automobile since pre-WWII days and christened it by driving to California and back, primarily on Route 66. Dick recounted memories of the excitement of the trip, including visiting the Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon and crossing the desert with a Lister bag hanging in front of the car’s radiator. I recall Ed…

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As I begin this column, we are in the throes of winter. At our latitude winter is just severe enough to give us a taste of what northern climes experience, yet short enough to normally serve as a pleasant distraction. We may have brief episodes in late November and December, or later on in February and March, but most years our taste of a continuous spell of freezing temperatures and repeated snowstorms is limited to a period lasting ten days or two weeks sometime in January. This year’s period arrived on Monday, the 15th, and lasted till the middle of the…

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The first Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concert of 2024 featured an excellent performance of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”. Mussorgsky wrote this piece originally as a piano concerto in honor of his dear friend Viktor Hartmann, a prominent Russian architect and painter who died from an aneurism at the age of thirty-nine. “Pictures at an Exhibition” became an international favorite when Maurice Ravel orchestrated it, adding all the rich colors of a full symphony orchestra. Today it is perhaps the best example we have of program music, “instrumental music that carries some extra-musical meaning, some program of literary idea, legend,…

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I have been a fan of college football since 1941, when I saw my first game at Pitt Stadium. The Panthers were upset by Duke, 27 to 7, with future Steeler Steve Lach catching two touchdown passes. That was a different era – players played “both ways”, offense and defense; the single wing was still in vogue; and professional football took a back seat to the college game. In those days my loyalties were equally divided between Pitt and Penn State. Even then there were questions about the amateur status of the players. There were many rumors of scholarships being…

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