Tag Archives: pittsburgh

Stream of Consciousness — Daily Routine

Musings, , , , ,

Several times a week I make the short drive to my kids’ high school. To get there I pass an all-boys school. I often pass by when the boys are being dropped off or being picked up and because of the traffic congestion, they’ve hired a police officer to direct traffic.

I like him. He reminds me of my son’s former rugby coach and 4th grade teacher (and my daughter’s 5th grade teacher) — a gentle and kind man. I have no idea if this traffic cop is gentle or kind, but he seems to be good-natured. He’s always smiling and doesn’t jab his hands around all angry-like. Which always makes me remember another traffic cop — Vic Cianca from Pittsburgh.

Most of you are too young to remember the original Candid Camera, but I remember it well and the clip I remember most of all is the traffic directing Officer Cianca from Pittsburgh with the white gloves and “dancing hands”. I saw him, once, when I lived there — directing traffic for a trolley or Mr. Rogers festival or something like that. The last time I saw him was in Flashdance.

On days when I pass the school and there is another traffic cop, I feel let down. The past few times I’ve driven by the school the traffic cop has been a stout angry looking fellow who made me feel as if I should have found a different route to the high school. This morning, however, my buddy was back; all smiles and using happy hand gestures.

All is well.

Kennywood 2007 Adventureland 1987

Events, , ,

I stumbled upon this news as I clicked through some film related information — a new film is coming out in August called Adventureland and was filmed at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh. I was drawn to the name Adventureland because as a child my parents took me to an amusement park of the same name. When I saw it was being filmed at Kennywood, that kept my attention.

We’ve been to Kennywood several times – including the 1980’s, the time period this film depicts. It will be fun to watch.

This YouTube clip of a news broadcast about the filming:


 

It seems that even more of Pittsburgh is shown in the film, such as parts of Shadyside, the area where we lived in the 1980’s. The Post-Gazette ran an article about the director’s ties to Pittsburgh.

[Nearly] Living in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Memories, ,

I heard on NPR this morning that Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood began broadcasting 40 years ago today. While I’m too old to have actually grown up with Mister Rogers — I was 12 when the show began — Fred Rogers and the show hold a special place in my heart.

When I was in college and taking a child development class our professor, whom I considered wise, told us that if a young child is to watch television, the programming should be varied. Sesame Street alone was not enough. If the child watched Sesame Street, he/she should also watch Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and vice versa. He explained that Mister Rogers, although annoyingly sweet to many adults, was a comforting presence to young children. They could learn to count and learn their letters and sounds from Sesame Street [or The Electric Company], but children also needed reassurance that they were valuable, cared for and loved — even through the TV.

I didn’t think much of Mister Rogers or his neighborhood before then — and if I did, it was probably to make fun of the wholesomeness of the program and his near-feminine demeanor, but I took my professor’s advice to heart and planned on recommending his suggestion to parents of students I’d eventually teach (which I did) and following it in the event I had my own children (which I tried, but they preferred Barney). I also may have watched a few episodes and understood the potential appeal to young children. I became a fan of Fred Rogers at age 21.

Then in 1981 something extraordinary happened. My boyfriend was accepted at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and invited me to come along. I’d not expected to move away from my hometown, but jumped at the opportunity. We searched for apartments, settling on one in the Shadyside neighborhood.

I don’t know when I discovered that Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was filmed in Pittsburgh and that Fred Rogers lived in one of the eastern neighborhoods, but it was probably when I worked at the Shadyside Giant Eagle with a woman whose daytime job was on the set of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, who when she learned of my fondness for Mister Rogers, brought me a tee-shirt and two records from the show. Or it might have been when Mister Rogers was featured in Carnegie Mellon’s newspaper because he used their tennis courts regularly as it was close to his apartment. While technically not the same neighborhood as Shadyside, Oakland, where CMU is located, is directly west of Shadyside, so they are neighboring neighborhoods. So, you see, I can almost claim to have lived in Mister Rogers Neighborhood.

Besides [almost] living in Mister Rogers’ real-life neighborhood, was the fact that, in the apartment directly below us, lived two and a half college girls. The half of a girl was a girl that claimed she lived in the apartment — her mail came there and she stored some belongings there. But she didn’t live there — although I saw her once or twice. Instead she lived most of the time with her boyfriend.

And guess who her boyfriend was.

He was Mister Rogers’ son.

So even though I fudge a bit on the living in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, I definitely lived in Mister Rogers’ son’s girlfriend’s neighborhood.