Month: October 2019

Posts About Grandparents

We need to add some information about our grandparents.  There’s very little we know about Rose’s mother because of her untimely death. If you have information I can use, but don’t want to post it yourself, use the contact form and I’ll post it.

Last updated 29 March 2022

According to Aunt Anna Disher, Grandma and Grandpa Hartmann were real party goers.  Linda, Terri and Judi atree that they have heard stories about Eva as a youngster.

Grandpa Hartmann is said to have committed suicide  at North Park because of major financial losses.  According to the stores told, he went to North Park and shot himself.

I, Bill, have tried to figure out why he would travel to North Park, 11 miles from home, to do himself in.  Could it have been murder? Perhaps one of his associates was unhappy with investments made, or perhaps he had borrowed money from a less than reputable person?

Anna Disher: Billy’s favorite babysitter

Last updated December 19, 2019

In a recent visit with Aunt Anna, we learned that Anna was more than an occasional visitor to the house.  She would often be Billy’s babysitter.  She would  take me places, by walking  or on the streetcar just to get me out of the house when Rose needed a break.  Apparently she would take me downtown or to East or West Park.  I still remember her saying that I could read the advertising signs above the seats on the streetcars.  When we last talked to her, she said “Bill, you used to be so handsome, what happened”

Radio Wire Electrocutes Mother of 8 (Pgh newspaper article)

Last updated December 2, 2019

Eight children from 12 years to 4 months are motherless as a result of Mrs. Josephine Pint, aged 30, of 126 Overbeck St., Northside, being electrocuted by a fallen radio aerial which had become entangled with high tension wires of the Duquesne Light Company in the yard of her home at 11:30 a.m today.

Mrs Pint, said witnesses,  stepped from her rear door, became entangled in the wires and died immediately. Her left leg was burned off at the knee and her back seared to the spinal cord, before she could be moved.

 

Mom said that right before stepping outside, her mother warned the kids to stay inside because it was dangerous.

Heroic Action Prevents Gas Disaster Here (Pgh Post-Gazette, 1956)

Photo of Four Heros
Last updated  December 19, 2019
J&L Quartet Rush Into Shed to Stop Escaping Gas

Four Jones and Laughlin Employees , city police and firemen yesterday were credited with preventing a major catastrophe when fumes from ammonia gas poured over the Soho district  shortly before 12:30 a.m.

Hundreds of panic stricken residents of the district flooded police and the Post-Gazette with calls and choking fumes from a ruptured safety valve at the Jones and Laughlin galvanizing plant on Second Avenue spread as far as Oakland.

The four plant maintenance men quickly donned rubber suits, gloves and oxygen masks and rushed into the shed housing and cut off the escaping gas.

They were identified as Joseph Hartmann, 42, of 30 Bly Street; his son, Robert L Hartmann, 21 of 14 Bly Street; Harry Gibbs, 32, of 404 1/2 Pike Street, Canonsburg and Dick Waters, 37 of 496 Preston Street.

2 Pct Concentration Deadly

A two percent concentration of ammonia is fatal and the shed was filled with it when the four men entered, a company spokesman said.

Meanwhile streets and bridges  leading into the area were closed to traffic.  Police, their eyes watering from the fumes, went from door to door warning residents to close their doors and windows and remain awake until the emergency was over.

Fire companies called to the plant sprayed water on the escaping gas.

 

Posts about Terri

Last updated April 29, 2020

We could use a few short posts about Terri.  If you have information I can use, but don’t want to post it yourself, use the contact form and I’ll post it.

School. Like those of us who came before her, Terri walked by herself to kindergarten at East Street School.  To get there she had to go down the hil to Royal Street, at the bottom she turned left and walked directly to the school located at 1612 East Street. The total distance was about a half a mile.  (The building no longer exists).  Also like the rest of the siblings she went to St. Boniface Parochial School, right down the hill from 30 Bly Street.  She also got to walk from Merwood Drive when she attended St. Benedict’s Academy, about a mile and a quarter.

Church.  Like all of her siblings, Terri went to at St. Boniface but after the move to Merwood Drive she had to change.   She remembers going to Nativity on Franklin Road. She could walk there. (Left on Connie Drive, then left onto Bascom Ave. up to Route 19. The church is on the corner but the address is Franklin Rd.)  That church is now called Incarnation Catholic Church.

Open the Door.  Terri had the basement bedroom in the Merwood St house.  She recalls that when Jim, a teenager at the time,  came home late he would tap on her window, which was just above ground, to let him in.  Apparently Jim did not have a key.

Sister Teresa.  Terri and Linda went to high school at St. Benedict’s Academy.  Most of the staff and teachers were Benedictine nuns. I heard the story that once when Terri’s class was in line for something, one of the nuns appeared to be recruiting new postulates for the convent.  Terri kept saying to herself “DON’T PICK ME”. Spoiler alert: they didn’t.

 

Posts about Linda

We could use a few short posts about Linda.  If you have information I can use, but don’t want to post it yourself, use the contact form and I’ll post it.

Last updated 24 January 2021

School.  Linda started her academic career like her older siblings, by walking to kindergarten at East Street School.  The walk involved going to the bottom of Royal Street  and turning left.  The distance is about a half mile.

Following the tradition of the Hartmann family which began with Dad, she got her primary education at St. Boniface School.

Map of St Benedicts to 109 Merwood DrWhen they lived on Merwood Drive,  Linda and Terri went to St. Benedict’s Academy.  Unlike most kids today, they had to walk to school.  Uphill in the snow (both ways?). The map shows an estimated distance of about one and a quarter miles.

 

Linda stopped living on Merwood Drive upon marrying  Al “Buck” Azen on April 18, 1970.

Short Posts about Rusty

Last updated January 12, 2022

How Rich met Joan.  Rich was home on leave from the Air Force when one of his friends said that he and his girlfriend were going to play tennis.  The friend said he needed another man to join them in a doubles match. Joni was the other girl, they hit it off right away.  “Love” does not always mean zero in a tennis match.

School.   Rusty also walked the half mile to East Street School for kindergarten.  One of his memories is about the “Happy Tooth” sessions.

Pets.  Rusty had a dog that he named Kingfujiwuji.  He once took Kingfujiwuji to the  veterinarian where the  vet put a cone on the dog,   and didn’t expect Rusty to pay.  We did have another dog in the family named Pal.  He was some sort of mixed breed, but was well loved.  Unfortunately, one day when one of us boys was picking something up from Myeral’s Meat Market, Pal escaped his makeshift leash and took off running across East Street.  He was struck and killed by a car,  No amount of pleading with Mom would get us another dog.

Ouch!  Rusty once got his arm caught in the wash machine wringer.  There must be more to the story than we know.

Neighbors.  Rusty claims he remembers all the names of the residents of Bly Street.  Here’s my recollection:

Going left to right in the header picture Ritzer, Hirmer, Hartmann, Schroeffel, Sesky, Rossmueller, Straub, Straub, Zupsic, Saar, Hofenrecter, Hoffman, Hartmann, ??, Kaufman (I can’t remember those going down the hill except Braddock) and Ritzer.

Mary.  Rusty tells this story about Mary.  Mary and Ozzie would occasionally be at the house playing 66 with Mom and Dad.  Mary would bring 2 bottles of gin in her purse.  When she came in the house she would give Rusty a big hug and a bottle of gin, while Ozzy went upstairs.  Then she would take the other upstairs.  She would start out by pouring herself a drink, and from time to time she would ask Rusty to fix her a drink.  Because he used the downstairs bottle,  Mary made it look like she wasn’t drinking too heavily because her upstairs bottle was still half full.

House in WinterSneaking Out.  The attic was used as the boy’s bedroom.  There were two twin beds and  a double bed.  There were two windows, one overlooking the vacant lot between our house and one over the kitchen area (see picture on left).  Although it didn’t happen often, the window overlooking the vacant lot was used to avoid going all the way down to the cellar for a pee. The other window  was also used occasionally for another purpose.  It was possible for healthy boys who wanted to sneak out for a little night time adventure by climbing out onto the kitchen door’s roof, then down to the yard.  Climbing back in was a little more difficult, but with a little bit of a leg up using a chair from the front of the house.  A scramble first thing in the morning was needed to put the chair back in place.

Short Posts about Joe

Last updated July 4, 2020

A couple of short memories:

I was unable to determine how Joe met Delores, but I do remember that Joe was vying for Delores affections with Christy Dorsch.  Guess who won?

Joe used to hang out at the Mobile station on the corner of East Street and Tripoli St. .   He had a couple of reasons , he had a girlfriend who lived on Madison Avenue whose grandmother lived across the street in the building next to the building Judi lived in.  He could meet her on the way to or from the grandmother’s home.  Because he station was owned by some one named Fritz or Frisch, and Joe was friends with the son he and others such as Bobby Texter and Charlie Saar hung out there .    He had a passing  acquaintance with Judi.

Rusty tells the story of Joe and Butchie Saar using an electric drill to turn back an odometer.  The car was pulled up a little on the unpaved section of Bly Street and  they had run an extension cord from one of the houses.  They took turns, lying on their back holding the drill against the connector on the back of the speedometer.  Because the drill did not have the latching device to keep the drill on, they had to keep spelling each other.

 

Tidbits about Bob

Last updated August 16, 2020

We could use a few short posts about Bob.  If you have information I can use, but don’t want to post it yourself, use the contact form and I’ll post it.

Bob was always wiling to help other people. On the night that the Kaufmann’s house on Bly Street caught fire, Bob ran over to the house and helped get some of the kids out.  I don’t know how many of the Kaufmann’s 24 kids were in the house, but Bob kept trying until the fire department arrived.

Bob was a jack-of-all-trades.  For instance, fter he got married, he and Marge moved into a cold-water flat on Bly Street.  Marge would not accept that, so Bob replumbed the apartment and added a hot water heater.

Charlie Saar’s dad walked up the back step on his way home from work.  When he was in front of our house, he was tired and sat down on the bench out front.  He asked Bob for a glass of water.  When Bob returned with the water, Mr. Saar drank it and slumped over into Bob’s arms and died. A little late that day Bob went in his car to pick up Marge and said “Maybe you don’t want to get in, I just had someone die in my arms”.

Bob came home one day with a wire reorder.  I was wowed when he  demonstrated it to me.  The wire recorder was the predecessor to the tape reorder.  The wire was wound on reels, and operated just like a tape recorder.

Bob was also the first person I knew who had a Citizen’s Band (CB) radio.  He was also the only person I knew who added an amplifier to boost his power from the legal 4 watts to 100 watts.  As far as I know, he never got caught.  I don’t remember what his handle was, does anyone else know?

I remember that Bob had some sort of an argument with Mom or Dad.  I was there when he was told to go out and get a job, and not to come back until he had one.  He found a job as a helper that day with A J Rick electrical contractors on the corner of Royal St. and East St.  He ended up being an electrician, including owning  his  company.  He was a successful electrician until his brain tumor ended his career.

For a while Bob had a side business doing electrical work.  He re-wired the hall above St. Boniface Elementary school.  It was rather low-paying but it was for the church.