A recent article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09140/971350-53.stm) spoke of the neighborhood known as Mala Jaska which is the area on East Ohio St where Dad grew up. As soon as we began talking about the people that lived there Dad described not only the people but also some things where there is no evidence of having ever existed. Transportation There was a pedestrian tunnel that went under East Ohio St. This made it possible for the people from Troy Hill and Mt Troy to get to work at all the factories and stock yards that ran along the railroad tracks and the river.  He described it as about 12 feet wide with plenty of space for people to be going back and forth at the same time. I knew that there had been an incline that ran from a spot behind where Lambrose’s now stands up to Troy Hill. Dad painted a bigger picture however. It was large enough to carry horses and wagons. One of its primary uses was bringing animals and supplies to and from the stock yards.  The cost for a trip on this was about 10 – 15 cents. After a while Ravine St (Pig Alley) was paved with cobblestone and the incline was put out of business. There was another incline along East Ohio St towards the Heinz plant. In fact, it was located near one of the houses mentioned in the PG article. It ran up to a spot on Troy Hill near where North Catholic now stands.

Dad said this was small and used by people going to and from work on the Northside. There was no charge for this as the companies underwrote the expense in order to get workers. Apparently there was never a concern about getting a job because there was always help needed in the stock yards. You started out cleaning pens and watering animals and worked your way into better paying jobs. Uncle John’s job Speaking of which, Dad said that Uncle John probably had one of the highest paying jobs in the stock yard. In effect he was the traffic controller for all of the trains coming in and out of the yards. Working in a tower above the tracks, as trains arrived he kept track of railcars by their numbers and what they were carrying. Using sidings the cars would be moved around and put into groups that made up new trains destined for different cities. One may be going towards Harrisburg and New York while another might be headed for Baltimore and DC. Some trains consisted of hundreds of cars and Uncle John had to be sure everything went to the proper place or a very expensive correction had to be made farther down the tracks. The “Rest rooms” Being a progressive family, Grandpap had 3 restrooms at the house. They were on ground level at the back of the house. They were outhouses. One was dedicated to each floor of the house although sometimes someone could not wait and jumped into whatever was empty.

These were fancy installations. They came equipped with an elevated water closet that flushed when a chain was pulled. These made use of water from a spring in the hill side. Grandpap ran a pipe from the hill directly into the water closets. You sometimes had to wait before flushing until the water replenished. They also came equipped with candles for those who wanted to do some reading. I guess there were times when Dad and Uncle Joe did not want to make the trek to the restroom. He described times when they would fall asleep with Grandpap but wake up needing to relieve themselves. Rather go from the third floor to out side the basement, They went from the third floor. That is, while Grandpap slept they opened the window a bit and used that as their facility. Unfortunately the bedroom was on the street side of the house and he wondered if there was ever anyone walking along the sidewalk thinking it was starting to rain!

Dad talks so often about his experiences as a youngster and in the service that I quite often forget to focus on his working career. Last week we got into a conversation about the weather which eventually led to hail storms and – what else? – car repair.

He recalled getting a car into the shop that had been in a severe hail storm and the entire roof was covered with dents. Now these can be repaired and Dad had done so. The repair is done by heating each dent causing it to “pop up”. You the take a metal file and file down the bump after which you fill the area with body filler, sand the results and paint.

Of course, when this happens to an entire roof the repair takes a tremendous amount of work. In this case the car owner and the insurance company were arguing about the repairs since the owner wanted them done and the insurance company wanted the cheap way out which was no repair. The damage was only cosmetic and did not impact the use of the car.

Dad knew that this car was primarily used by the owners wife and she liked having a fancy, shiny car. He got her on the phone and asked if she liked convertibles. She didn’t care for having the roof retracted but liked the look. So Dad suggested to the car owner and the insurance company that he simply cover the damage with a padded vinyl roof! The result was an inexpensive repair and every one’s satisfaction. This became a solution on many other occasions. With experience comes wisdom!