Pittsburgh - "From Hags to Vomit Bags"

Pittsburgh was a pleasant surprise. We found one of the old family houses in Wilkinsburg (just outside the city). It was a beautiful old house- now a 3 family. John managed to take a brick from the house (yet another blonde brick house) – the house where his father was born.

We spent time at the Heinz Historical Library and the Carnegie Mellon Library doing research on the family. With the information we gathered there, we were able to search for some of the houses they lived in and places they worked. It gave us a chance to see a lot of the Pittsburgh neighborhoods. One side of the family worked and lived in an area called the Strip. Once it was filled with factories belching smoke; now it’s become an “it” neighborhood filled with old warehouses turned into lofts and bars, funky little shops selling cheeses, veggies and meats. (We even got to see some of Pittsburgh’s cuties dressed up for a hot Saturday night—chewing gum and drinking beer- at the same time!)

We had one of the many Pittsburgh “originals”- a Primanti’s sandwich. Their claim to fame is the “all in one” sandwich- meat, cheese, coleslaw and French fries on thick slice white bread. The restaurant was filled with sturdy Pittsburgh people. The men (John calls them “meatballs”) are all stocky and beefy. The women are absolutely huge. We watched in horror as these huge people ordered their all-in-one sandwiches with French fries covered with nacho cheese sauce as an appetizer. We found that other Pittsburgh originals include: the Big Mac (invented by a local McDonald’s owner in 1968), Heinz Ketchup, Chipped Ham, and the Klondike Bar. (Sandwich Photo courtesy of Flickr: )

The Carnegie Library was lovely –much like the Cleveland Public Library—a grand old building with marble floors and filled with people playing games on the Internet terminals. Our downtowns appear to be dying. Across from the Library was the “Cathedral of Learning”- a breathtakingly ugly Stalinist looking 42 story building that houses classrooms and offices for the University of Pittsburgh. (They call it a “meeting of modern skyscraper and medieval cathedral”.)

We spent one morning at John’s grandfather’s old factory- Columbia Steel and Shafting Company. On our way back through the city, we found our way to the top of Mount Washington and got some spectacular views of the city and the three rivers converging. We made our way down to the South Side. Once home to Eastern European immigrants who came to work in the mills in the early 20th century, today they’ve restored to a 20 block area with coffee houses, restaurants and funky shops. We stopped for a huge corned beef Reuben sandwich- which served as lunch and dinner.

We couldn’t leave Pittsburgh without visiting the Andy Warhol Museum—mostly because it was featuring an exhibit on John Waters, called “From Hags to Vomit Bags”. It was a collection of photos done by Waters – including such memorable collections as “12 Assholes and a Dirty Foot”- or photos taken from his TV of movie clips showing people on the toilet or vomiting. It was quite an insight into the mind of a very strange man. Even more interesting was the stream of people being directed to the exhibit by the stringy X’ers at the ticket booth. They recommended that everyone start with the Waters exhibit- old and young. We saw a 70 year old woman wheeling her 80 year old husband through the exhibits- looking at photos of assholes! Or women with children in strollers wandering past the “porn” section.

We spent a Sunday afternoon driving to Conneaut Lake Park. John’s great-grandfather got started in the amusement park business there- with a small boat business to ferry people across the lake. The amusement park was charming- a little bit of the past still alive. The old rides – the Tilt-O-Whirl, the old wooden roller coaster- were all still operating. The park was packed with families- enjoying the old rides and the lake.