Morningside

Not a native of Pittsburgh, I always imagined a city void of trees, grass, or green of any type. This, however, could not be further from the truth. Within the small neighborhood of Morningside, where I have been living for the past several months, every house has a garden with flowers, trees, and even produce. Many of the residents, including the large Italian population, have sacrificed the little lawn space allotted to maintain the tradition of growing their own vegetables and herbs. It is a charming aspect of the neighborhood; and one that, as I become more familiar with the city, I realize is not isolated to this small community. The gardens and green spaces make this city unique.

Beth

Greenfield and the Big Snow of 1950

Excerpts from a memoir by Karen Cain

Greenfield Avenue starts on the edge of town at Second Avenue and goes up hill for a mile and a half ending at Calvary Cemetery (as do many Greenfielders). My life in Pittsburgh, all eighteen years of it, was spent living on or near an assortment of points on the avenue. On Deely Street, we played games in the middle of the street. In the summer, the local fire department came by and opened the fire hydrant where we cooled off playing in the gushing water. We stayed outside until the streetlights came on. We moved a few doors down to Delevan Street, where we experienced the "Big Snow" of 1950 (pix below). Winter in Pittsburgh offers plenty of snow but nothing like 1950, five feet as we tell it but it was probably more like three feet, a record for the city and the only time I remember them closing schools. My father had to abandon his car on the Homestead Bridge trying to get home from work. It wouldn't move another inch even with heavy chains. My dad mentally noted its location for retrieval another day and walked the rest of the way home. People hunkered down inside their warm homes, ate comfort food, watched the world turn whiter. When the snow finally stopped, all of the neighbors on our street came out with shovels and began to dig out. My twin brothers made igloos and snow tunnels in the alley that ran along the side of the house. My dad playfully threw them off of the porch and they disappeared where they fell under the snow, hooting with laughter. We took our sleds up to Deely Street and started at the top of Delevan and rode our sleds straight down Delevan Street. We were pretty good at stopping before we got to Greenfield Avenue but if we overshot, we had to tolerate the honking and window opened screaming from the driver that had to break suddenly. Traffic was light enough and the few drivers that ventured out knew to look out for us clueless kids.

The Big Snow of 1950

The Book is Here!

Rivers of Steel is happy to announce that the Seeing Pittsburgh book is done and currently on sale at the Bost Building Gift Shop (623 E. 8th Avenue, Homestead, PA) and on-line at www.riversofsteel.com.

Please come and see the exhibit and peruse the book

Exhibit hours are M-F: 10-4 and Sat: 11-3

rb

Really nice feedback

For those of you who missed this comment, I decided to post it here. Wow, good stuff:

Jim said...

Hello,

My complements to the curators of the "Seeing Pittsburgh" exhibit on a job very well done!

I was a guest of one of your exhibited photographers last evening. The exhibit was not only well done, it was also a fascinating look at how amateur and neophyte photographers (and non-photographers) view not just their neighborhoods, but how they see photographically. I found it to be a unique examination of the aesthetics of both the knowledgeable and the untrained photographer alike--very intriguing and enlightening!

I will definitely be back to view the exhibit in less crowded circumstances.

You may be interested to know that I have an entry concerning the exhibit on my blog. That post is here.

Some of what I wrote includes: "...That's what I found so interesting about the photographs in the exhibit. Although they were all exposed by amateur photographers (and some of them were given disposable cameras in order to participate!), there was a visual quality about the images that one does not often see: many of these images captured the essence of the scene or subject. That's why they were not merely snapshots by neophytes, some of whom do not even own a camera...it is my opinion that the exhibit is interesting and its photographs are captivating as well as intriguing; thus, it is a success and well worth your time to visit if you live anywhere near the southwestern Pennsylvania region. The curators did an excellent job not only selecting the images that would be exhibitied, and preparing and mounting the photographs for presentation, but also in designing, constructing, and arranging the displays in the exhibit space that complemented the visual interest of the photographs themselves..."

Jim Moore
Elizabeth, PA

July 10, 2008 5:03 PM

Whew!!!!!!!

The Seeing Pittsburgh opening has just ended and it went really well. Thanks to all of the wonderful photographers and community folks who helped to make this project so successful.

Huge thanks to Sharon, Michelle, Ashley, Kate, and of course our interns Beth and Ashley and the ROS staff. All of you guys were terrific and truly clutch.

Thanks to all of the folks who came to the event - we really appreciate your support.

The book will be in early next week


Remember, we want you to add your own thoughts and comments, or even better send images of your neighborhood (with commentary) to me so that I can post them - rbaraff@riversofsteel.com or rbaraff.riversofsteel@blogger.com

Almost There!

The Seeing Pittsburgh exhibit opens and the book will be released, on Wednesday July 9th. Exciting times indeed - hope you can make it to the exhibit and purchase the book for all of your friends, family, enemies or casual acquaintances.

In case you missed it, the Post-Gazette ran a really nice article about the project (front page of the A section, no less). Thanks Diana and Andy!

Here are the links to the article and the multimedia piece they are running on their website.
http://www.postgazette.com/pg/08189/895275-53.stm
http://www.postgazette.com/multimedia/?videoid=100735

Remember, we want you to add your own thoughts and comments, or even better send images of your neighborhood (with commentary) to me so that I can post them - rbaraff@riversofsteel.com or rbaraff.riversofsteel@blogger.com



rb