We spent perhaps four hours wandering the run down streets of this one-time charming? No... Scenic? No. But, yes... comfortable and authentic small town. We spent several more in Monroeville. We saw homes (Montier St., Lindsay Road, Dahlia Drive and Harvard Road), schools (Turner, where Mom, Bob, Patty and I all attended, Horner, Wilkinsburg High, Evergreen, Monroeville Junior High and Gateway High) and "all the old familiar places". We visited Grandma and Grandpa Inghram's and Aunt Florence's graves; we tried for Uncle Norman's, but no luck. The grave was obviously the most touching experience, but the greatest shock was the condition of 1817 Montier, the house that lies at the heart of our Pittsburgh experiences. I'm sad to report that is has devolved into a crack house, complete with boarded-up windows and sprayed-on graffiti. It was an amazing transition from the house our grandparents cared for for so long and that we all experienced in so many different ways. Even nine years ago, it was run down a bit, but still functioning as SOMEBODY'S home. Endless cross-currents of competing, complementary and contradictory running commentaries from three different voices. Oh, wait, make that four... add Bob's equally endless parody of a GPS guidance system. Nevertheless, he DOES know the way and his instructions were flawless. We survived, in spite of my apparently high-speed and reckless driving, or so I've been told. A really, really fine day, and JUST what Patty hoped for. We even witnessed a high-speed police pursuit with approximately 15 cars racing with sirens blaring down Montier Street. Patty was VERY excited.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Seems like old times
We spent perhaps four hours wandering the run down streets of this one-time charming? No... Scenic? No. But, yes... comfortable and authentic small town. We spent several more in Monroeville. We saw homes (Montier St., Lindsay Road, Dahlia Drive and Harvard Road), schools (Turner, where Mom, Bob, Patty and I all attended, Horner, Wilkinsburg High, Evergreen, Monroeville Junior High and Gateway High) and "all the old familiar places". We visited Grandma and Grandpa Inghram's and Aunt Florence's graves; we tried for Uncle Norman's, but no luck. The grave was obviously the most touching experience, but the greatest shock was the condition of 1817 Montier, the house that lies at the heart of our Pittsburgh experiences. I'm sad to report that is has devolved into a crack house, complete with boarded-up windows and sprayed-on graffiti. It was an amazing transition from the house our grandparents cared for for so long and that we all experienced in so many different ways. Even nine years ago, it was run down a bit, but still functioning as SOMEBODY'S home. Endless cross-currents of competing, complementary and contradictory running commentaries from three different voices. Oh, wait, make that four... add Bob's equally endless parody of a GPS guidance system. Nevertheless, he DOES know the way and his instructions were flawless. We survived, in spite of my apparently high-speed and reckless driving, or so I've been told. A really, really fine day, and JUST what Patty hoped for. We even witnessed a high-speed police pursuit with approximately 15 cars racing with sirens blaring down Montier Street. Patty was VERY excited.
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Oh, here you are! If you enter 1817 Montier Street Pittsburgh 15221 into Google maps, you can see a picture of it in the "street view." Thanks for the cool post!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you all had a great time!
ReplyDeleteSad about the Montier house :( I will not mention it to Gma only because she will think you've all been kidnapped by crackheads and won't ever come home. She's spent the day regaling me with all the horrible news she's heard on the radio already. Luckily there were two serious accidents and some other morbid occurences in the area recently so she was pretty satisfied.
Glad to see the updates!