This view of clothes, hanging on a line in the Heinz History Center, is for YOU, Ray!

We started the day with Rich hunting down some more Steelers gear. Then it was back into Pittsburgh proper to go to the Heinz Regional History Museum . p>No one in the family had been to the history center, which only opened in the last couple of years. It's in a former ice house building. We got a discount because of being in the Sacramento Historical Society. The docent suggested that we start at the top, the fourth floor, where the temporary exhibits are. These were about the glass industry, and a nursing exhibit, and celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Pittsburgh Zoo.

The quickest and most thorough way to get polluted in Pittsburgh is not by boozing in her dives but by diving into her rivers. --- Saturday Evening Post, August 3, 1943.
Pittsburgh is the first example of urban renewal. Looking at the views from Wednesday, one can see that they did a pretty good job.

Pittsburgh glass has been all over the world. The bulbs in the Holland and Lincoln tunnels in New York come from there. The industry provided 250,000 lightbulbs for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. They made searchlights for the Panama Canal, and the windows in the Statue of Liberty. We also saw examples of the tablewear which was made for Presidents Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Hoover, and FDR.

The first 2 glasshouses came in 1797. Edward Dechridge(?)(1804 - 1873) built the industry up. He found a way to make windowglass which didn't involve blowing huge cylinders. (The pictures of these cylinders amazed me.)

Until well into the 19th century, the only method of making window glass was, first, to blow a large globe of glass; this was cut from the blowing iron after welding the pontil to a point diametrically oposite. The open side of the glass balloon, 20 inches or so in diameter, was then flattened on the marber; then, with the pontil being continuously rotated, the glass was reheated until it became very soft. Immediately after it was removed from the heat, the rate of spin of the pontl was increased; suddenly, the centrifugal stress on the soft glass caused it to flow rapidly outward from the centre and to take the form of a large disk, which was kept spinning until the glass was rigid.
Such glass of course was not truly flat. The disk was very uneven, being thickest near the centre and marked by concentric circular waves; at the very middle was the fractured nub, or crown, marking the point of former attachment to the pontil. Disks more than about five feet in diameter were hardly practical.

---Encyclopedia Britannica, 1980, vol. 8 p. 199

The Zoo was started in August of 1898. It isn't the first to be in Pittsburgh. The first was close to where the Carnegie is now.

Prewar, Pittsburgh was a well-known city for jazz! Another bit of interesting trivia I picked up was that the schools had "ethnic studies" in the early 1900s. (All those Polish kids, like Rich's grandparents!)

Then we went down a story, where there were houses from history. We were greeted by Mary, an African-American woman from the 1880s who was busily rehearsing her speech which she was giving to help open a home for distressed colored women. The woman who had founded it was someone Mary's family had helped on the Underground Railway. Mary was quite distressed that I was running around in my pantaloons, but fortunately I had my husband along to protect me.

Mary was, as you might gather, very good at presenting her time. We caught glimpses of a fur trapper as well, talking to some other people. We wandered through all the houses showing the history.

April 10, 1845 there was a huge fire. 1000 buildings were burned, 700 of them homes, and there were two deaths. Young Thomas Mellon did much of the city rebuilding. In the Civil War, Pittsburgh was the "arsenal of the Union." The war changed Pittsburgh into an industrial giant. The mills began to close in the 1950s, with the Duquesne Works closing in 1984.

Jonas Salk invented his vaccine here. In 1979 the sports teams were all in the same color and the "Terrible Towel" came into being. In 1985, Pittsburgh made the Most Livable City list, which was quite a change from the Saturday Evening Post piece.

There was a teddy bear exhibit on the first floor, with the furry companions of the mayor, city councillors, media personalities, and Mrrogers' Daniel Striped Tiger with HIS bear. And, on the first floor, a stagecoach and a trolley. I looked at the trolley and instantly recognized the trolly from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Sure enough, this vehicle belongs to the McFeeley-Rogers trust.

Before we left the museum, we had a Clark Bar, made in Pittsburgh. I enjoyed walking in downtown Pittsburgh. When I first visited, in 1964, this was my first big dangerous real city. I still feel like that gawp-at-the-skyscrapers yokel!

Then we went to the World Class National Aviary. Our zoo membership got us in free. This is a grand place. We saw Costar's Hummingburds, Piping Plovers, a Wattled Cerasur, Bat-billed Heron, a "shy" Coral-Billed Ground Cuckoo which was all over the docent, Scarlet Ibises, Bleeding Heart Doves, Victoria Crowbed Pigeon, Pygmy Falcon, Red-Crowned Golden Crane. The Aviary was on the site of the Western penitentiary, which was the only place Confederate prisoners were held in Pittsburgh.

Yes, this is a pigeon!

Outside we looked at the Maine memorial. There were flowers, in near-December. The high school football championships were being held in Three Rivers Stadium and suddenly we heard mid-afternoon fireworks.

When we got back to the house, Paul had bought a new SUV. Later, Rich's sister and nephew arrived from South Carolina. Mike has TWO Aunt Jannas, what are the odds? After dinner, Ray and his family came (and he teased me about this website, saying the page with the laundry on the line was the most fascinating. I wasn't quick enough there, or I could have said "yes, it's my favorite too" and totally puzzled him. This is why the picture at the top is dedicated to Ray.) Not much later, Brian, his sister (bagging her high school reunion) and her husband came.

This is 15 people, all talking at once, with the dog really excited. Rich and his brothers have turned into UNCLES, no longer "brothers." It's the main reason we went to Pittsburgh, and it was a great evening.