For its first program meeting of the New Year, the Bridgeville Area Historical Society welcomed back an old friend, Dr. Todd DePastino, for an entertaining and informative talk on the 1942 German plot to sabotage key defense facilities in the United States, code-named “Operation Pastorious”. In addition to being a highly gifted historian focused on… [Read More]
Oyler: The JB Higbee International Glass Collectors Association
This document may be considered the formal announcement of the establishment of a new organization, the JB Higbee International Glass Collectors Association, also known as JBHIGCA. Its mission is to preserve the history and heritage of the JB Higbee Glass Company, a firm that operated in Bridgeville from 1907 to 1918 and produced thousands of… [Read More]
Oyler: The Twenties Did Indeed Roar in Bridgeville
My research on Bridgeville in 1922 generated a number of newspaper clippings related to Prohibition, bootleggers, and speakeasies; a subject area that warrants a column of its own. The story of Bridgeville in the 1920s is a complicated tale involving respectable proprietors of commercial establishments, the Borough Council, the two-man police force, police from neighboring… [Read More]
Oyler: New Year’s Day In 1922
On New Year’s Day I got to wondering what life was like in Bridgeville one hundred years ago. Thanks to old maps, photographs, and newspaper clippings we can piece together a reasonable picture of those days. These were prosperous times, especially to the eyes of the middle-aged folks who had witnessed massive changes in technology… [Read More]
Oyler: My Christmas Letter
My attitude toward standardized Christmas letters has changed during the passing years. When we were first married, my wife reveled in writing long-hand Christmas letters to everyone on her Christmas card list. She came from a long line of letter-writing correspondents; for years she treasured a letter from her father that parodied “Hiawatha” and faithfully… [Read More]
Oyler: College Students’ Senior Engineering Projects Reflect Our Changing Society
Someone recently asked me where I get my ideas for these columns. My response was that I frequently wrote about whatever happened to be dominating my thoughts that particular week. This week it was Pitt’s Civil Engineering Senior Design program. It is instructive to read about Senior Design years ago and note how it reflects… [Read More]
Oyler: Queen Elizabeth I
The November program meeting of the Bridgeville Area Historical Society was an interesting presentation on Queen Elizabeth I, by one of the Society’s favorite speakers, Jack Puglisi. Mr. Puglisi is a multi-talented individual who graduated from Point Park in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in visual arts and currently is active producing art works based… [Read More]
Oyler: ‘Pittsburgh’s Ella Fitzgerald’ Was From Bridgeville
In my column on the Deuces Wild a few weeks ago, I mentioned Bridgeville’s own Lum Sams and promised to do a column on her in the future. In the interim I have learned a lot more about her and am convinced her story deserves to be told. LaMese Sams was born in Bridgeville on… [Read More]
Thanksgiving Gratitudes
Thanksgiving has always been a unique holiday, with an unfortunate emphasis on eating. I confess to enjoying turkey and pumpkin pie, but for me the holiday has traditionally been important as a family gathering. When Joe and I were young, we went to my father’s home in Quincy and celebrated being with his family. When… [Read More]
Oyler: Hand Carts to Zion!
Like most folks, my perception of the pioneers heading west in the mid-1800s is dominated by covered wagons pulled by oxen, certainly an uncomfortable way for a family to travel. Recently however I have come across an even more uncomfortable mode of transportation – walking and pulling a handcart. We have known for a long… [Read More]
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