EWEAA Halloween Party

I received that following from Bessie Miller that she wanted me to share with you.

Starting September 18th Elliott soccer will begin playing games on Herschel bottom field. come and watch the kids play and enjoy some homemade chili, along with drinks and snacks.

The games will be played Tuesdays, Thursdays and Friday nights starting at 6PM until 9:30.

Any questions please call Bessy Miller at 412-889-4509


Halloween Parade and Family Fun Night

RAIN OR SHINE
October 25 will be the annual Halloween Parade at the Herschel Little Field starting at 6pm. Prizes will be awarded for best costumes in each age group and for best carved pumpkins
newborn -4
5-6-7
8-9-10
11-12-13

Free Hayrides will be on lower field, weather permitting

all children in costumes will receive a treat bag and the candy stand will be open for food and drinks

any questions please call Susie Kiesel at 412-922-6203 or Bessy Miller at412-921-2548.

Public Schools

Here's another reason I am glad my child goes to Propel-Montour. Here's an excellent letter by Elliott resident Beth Caldwell.

Letters to the editor
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

With cutbacks, Roosevelt's raise is out of line
I am shocked at city school board members supporting a raise of $15,000 for school district Superintendant Mark Roosevelt ("City Superintendent Receives $15,000," Aug. 28).
What other organizations in the region offer this generous of a raise to their executives on an annual basis?
Wouldn't we all enjoy such rewards from our employers?
I am the proud mom of two Pittsburgh Public School students and an advocate of Mr. Roosevelt and the district; however, this year both of my sons' schools have suffered from "budget cutbacks."
My youngest son now travels 1 hour and 40 minutes each way to school due to combined bus routes, meant to "save money."
My high school student has a library available to him just two days a week to "save money."
How can the board justify such a significant raise while our students, teachers and principals continue to struggle with cutbacks?

BETH CALDWELL
Elliott

POWER BACK ON!

After being without power for a whole week, I'm finally able to get on line, watch TV, do laundry, run the vacuum, etc. I didn't think I would miss it as much as I did. Here's a couple of things I want to get caught up on.

* Langley lost against non-conference opponent Phillip Barbour High School in West Virginia. The bright side about this is the fact they lost 29-26. This means they are at least scoring points finally, and they are throwing the ball too. I hope they continue to improve.

* I am convinced that 9 out 10 people that are involved in either city or county politics don't even know the West End neighborhoods exist. We are last to get fixed for everything it seems. This might not be the case, but from my point of view, it really seems that way.

* I came aross this article in the Post -Gazette. It shows you how to pull up articles from 1929 to present on Google that you would have had to get from the Carnegie Library on microfiche in the past. You can find a lot of historical articles about the West End area. Be careful though, it can be addicting once you start using it. Click here to take you the advanced archive search page.

* I took my daughter to the West End Overlook friday evening to watch the fireworks from the Pirate Game. It was 9:00 P.M. and all the lights went out. It was pitch dark and you could barely see where you were walking. It was a little scary for a 6 year old. There were a few other people there with kids that were complaining too. There were 4 people that didn't seem to mind. They were a couple that was making out pretty heavily and 2 guys sitting on the wall sharing a joint. I don't think I'm taking my kids up there after dark anymore. I am going to write a letter to the city. I let you know if I hear a response.

* I am so glad I send my daughter to Propel-Montour instead of Thaddeus Stevens. Take a look at this article and you'll see why. Instead of getting these kids to rise above their expectations, they dumb down everything else to make the appearance of decent grades. At first I was nervous to send my child to a charter school, but it was probably the best decision of our lives. It's an excellent school and it's free.

* My Elliott Soccer team is officially 0-1 after losing our first game by the score of 2-0. The kids had fun though. The 4 and 5 year olds really don't even understand the difference between winning and losing. The 6 year olds are pretty competitive. It's amazing the difference a year makes.

POWER STILL OUT

Like many other people around Allegheny County, some of us in the Elliott/West End area are still without power from the Sunday night wind storm brought on by Ike.

I'll share with you my timeline of events on how we are dealing with this so far.

Sunday 8:15 P.M. ~ The family, dressed in Steeler gear sit down to watch the much anticipated match up of the Steelers Vs Browns on NBC Sunday Night Football.

Sunday 8:20 P.M. ~ After the opening kickoff, the Browns trot out onto the field for the first possesion and we hear a large crash and the power goes out. Unbelievable.

Sunday 8:21 P.M. ~ My wife gathers the kids and I set out to find some light sources. I feel my way to the laundry room where I know we have a few flashlights sitting on a shelf. The first one I grab is dead. I set that aside and find another...........yeah, it's dead too. I find a 3rd flashlight, cross my fingers and press the button. It comes on...barely. It shines a nice dull yellow light. It at least gives me enough light to find the long grill lighter we had stuffed in a junk drawer. I go around the house lighting every candle I could find.

Sunday 8:30 P.M. ~ On to priority # 2, THE GAME! The only radio we have in the house is my daughters Strawberry Shortcake radio. We've put batteries in it as it's plugged in next to her bed all the time. I open up the back, and it takes "C" batteries. I head down to the junk drawer again. I see "D" batteries, Triple A's, Double A's, of course no C's. There's even a pack of 9 volts in there. I remember that my MP3 player has an FM radio tuner. I take the speakers off of my PC and plug them into the player and waalaa, we have sound! We set this up on the coffee table, and "watch" the radio.

Sunday 9:30 P.M. ~ My wife and both kids are sound asleep on the recliner. She looked uncomfortable so I woke her up to go up to bed. We let the kids sleep in our bed since the power was out and they were scared. I went back downstairs and continued to "watch" the radio. I heard a very loud "BOOM" then saw an explosion out of our window. Huge green, red, and blue sparks, it looked like Zambelli fireworks. It was so loud it literally shook the house. This proceeded to happen about 5 more times in a row. I heard crying from upstairs so I flew up the steps. My daughter was in our bed crying and shaking like I've never seen before. Just before I arrived in the bedroom my wife explained to our daughter that "everything was OK, it was just a Transformer". My daughter wasn't thinking of a transformer at the top of a utility pole, but a Transformer as in Autobots vs Decepticons. She saw the movie recently and was remembering the scene where the Transformers were outside the house looking in the windows. She thought this was happening to us. After a better explanation, she calmed down and soon fell back asleep.

Sunday 11:45 P.M. ~ I slept on the couch, since we didn't have any air or fans going and it was about 150 degrees out. My wife wouldn't open the bedroom windows because the 60 mph gusts of wind scared the kids. The transformer blew again. No one else woke up but me. This proceeded to happen at least 20 times throughout the night. I got very little sleep.

Monday 5:30 P.M. ~ I wake to the sounds of trucks working on the transformers on Corliss Street. I walk out on my deck and see, 3 Duquesne light trucks, 2 Comcast trucks, 2 Verizon trucks, and a few tree service trucks all lined up in front of each other.

Monday 6:45 P.M. ~ I notice cars coming down the street, then turning around and going back. I walk down and see why. A tree fell across the street bringing down the power, cable, and phone lines with it. That explains the bang and power going out last night.

Monday 10:00 P.M. ~ My wife takes all of our frozen meat and other products out of our freezer and takes them to her mother's house for temporary storage. She fills coolers with the perishable refrigerated products.

Monday 12:00 P.M. ~ I decide to call Duquesne light on my lunchbreak to see if they had a scheduled time of restoration. They had no idea that we were out of service or that there were live wires down. The gentleman said he would mark us down.

Monday 5:30 P.M. ~ Knowing that I was still out of power, I decide to stop and get a pizza on the way home. Bad move. It normally takes 15 minutes from the time I walk in and place the order to the time I leave. Since there were so many people without power, they were very busy. It took 45 minutes to get my pizza. By this time I was tired, hungry, and frustrated. Needless to say, I had a beer with my Pizza when I got home. It was warm.

Monday 7:30 P.M. ~ I'm informed we have no Hot water left. I thought since we had a gas water heater, it wouldn't be affected. Apparently I was wrong. We heated water on the stove to give the kids sponge baths.

Monday 9:30 P.M. ~ Since we had no power and I couldn't watch Prison Break or Monday Night Football, I decide to *gasp* read a book. I read 2 chapters and fell asleep.

Tuesday 3:00 A.M. ~ I wake to the sounds of trucks and workers removing the tree that fell across the street. I'm not upset. I figure this is a step towards getting service restored. I never fall back asleep.

Tuesday 6:30 A.M. ~ I realize that the Pittsburgh Public Works deptartment removed the tree, not Duquesne Light. I called Duquesne Light to use the automated system to get a service update. When I entered my phone number, the lovely computer voice informed me that there was no records for a service outage at my address. Great. She says she recorded the information. Thanks, sweet sweet computer voice.

Tuesday 7:30 A.M. ~ I get an ICE COLD shower before I drive my daughter to school on my way to work. That sucks.

Tuesday 1:00 P.M. ~ I decide to call Duquesne Light again to see if there is an update. I get a real person this time. She names 10 places that are due to be restored by Thursday and 10 places that are due to be restored by Friday. I asked her, "What about West End or Elliott?" She didn't mention that at all. She says..."Uhhhh, probably between Thursday or Friday". Gee thanks for that highly educational guess there. What a genius.

Tuesday 3:00 P.M. ~ I decide to blog about the experience. I have nothing better to do. I will update this when I have access.

Ever Wonder What This Is?

I have asked myself many times what this blocked up tunnel could be on West Carson in between the circle and the Corliss Tunnel. Please click this LINK that will take you to a story on pghbridges.com. It raises a few good theories on what it could have been. It also has a really good history of Elliott and West End within the article.

LANGLEY WINS !!!!!

After I mentioned earlier this week that it looked like Langley was heading in the right direction, they went out and proved it by beating Oliver 34-32. You can see by this Post-Gazette Article, that is was a pretty exciting game.

Langley ends 22-game skid in OT
Friday, September 12, 2008
From local dispatches

As far as long losing streaks go, they don't end with much more drama than this.
The Langley football team snapped a 22-game losing streak with a 34-32 overtime City League victory against Peabody last night at Cupples Stadium.

Jesse Bell threw touchdown passes with no time left in regulation (21 yards to Stephon Faye) and on the first play of overtime (10 yards to Tyrone Smith) in addition to rushing for 118 yards on 12 carries and scoring the tying 2-point conversion at the end of regulation.
Bell's brother Joey had 114 yards on 29 carries for the Mustangs (1-2, 1-2), whose previous victory came Oct. 14, 2005, against Brashear.
"I want to keep this [new] streak going," Langley coach Ken Wright said. "Everyone remembers the bad one, but we want to start a good one so everyone can remember this streak instead."

Pierre Carr had four touchdowns for the Highlanders (0-2, 0-2).

First published on September 12, 2008 at 12:49 am

I'm Back

OK, everyone, I had to take a few days off after a short bout with a nasty stomach virus, be careful, it's going around. So what did we learn in the last few days, BESIDES Langley losing 48-14? Although both touchdowns were passes, so I can say that may be a step in the right direction.

According to THIS article from the Post-Gazette, council is trying their best to get some of our roads paved.

Legislation would put $2 million toward city paving
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh Councilman Jim Motznik introduced legislation yesterday to plow $2 million more into street paving so an ambitious 50-mile resurfacing schedule can be completed in spite of high asphalt prices.
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl announced in May that the city would aim to lay fresh asphalt on 50 miles of city streets -- up from 39 miles last year -- at a cost of $9.5 million.
"The South Hills neighborhoods and the West End neighborhoods have been neglected," Mr. Motznik said. "We want to just complete what we had scheduled."

Football Weekend

The Langley Mustangs will play Brashear tomorrow in city league action. Let's hope they make up for their opening 40-2 loss to Oliver. At least make it a little closer. I haven't been to a game the last couple of years. Are they at least passing the ball? The last game I went to, Langley had 0 pass attempts. The ran the ball EVERY play. Wow. Exciting. That's even more conservative than the Wannstedt/Cavanaugh Pitt Panthers.

Let's hope those Pitt Panthers redeem themselves and come out swinging against Buffalo.

Good luck to the Stillers n'at on their Home Opener.

Have fun this weekend everyone.

Old Photos

Check out this picture I came across from the "Moods Image" website. I'd like to order this someday and put it in a nice frame. Anyone out there have any guesses as to what year this is from?

If you have any old pictures of the Elliott West End area, I'd love to put together an online photo album of the area. Check your old family albums, ask your parents and grandparents. Scan them and email to elliottwestend@gmail.com If you don't have a scanner, please email me and we can get together and I'll scan them for you. They don't have to be really old, even street scenes from the 1980's will be nice to see.

Neighborhoods in the News Media

I'd like to share one of my Pet Peeves with you. It really goes right through me when I'm watching the news or reading the paper and they have the wrong neighborhood in the story. An example of this, is the previous story posted on this blog. I hate to use something as devastating as a shooting story, but it's the most recent example so I'll use it.

The Post-Gazette reported that the shooting was in Elliott. Now crucible street does flow through Elliott, but this was the section in Greenway that is actually Crafton Heights.

KDKA reported the same story, and they say it was Elliot. So not only did they get the neighborhood wrong, they spelled it incorrectly. As you'll find in future postings this makes me really upset. When I see reputable news services use the spelling of Elliot or Sheriden it's just non excusable. I'm not a grammar expert, and I'm sure you'll find a few mistakes in most of my blogs, but the neighborhoods have been here quite a long time, and the spellings have never changed.

WTAE also claims the incident took place in Elliott when it didn't.

If the media simply reported that it was the West End, this is something I could live with, as Elliott, Sheraden, Crafton heights, Windgap, Chartiers, West End etc are all considered the West End of Pittsburgh. It is acceptable, yet it is the safe way out.

The Tribune Review was the only news source I could find that listed it correctly as Crafton Heights.

The thing that is troubling to me is that these media outlets can find the correct location in under 2 minutes by using Google Maps in conjunction with these City Neighborhood maps provided to us on the City of Pittsburgh Website.

Sorry for the rant, I know it sounds petty and meaningless, but it's just something that bugs me. I also didn't like to use the story of a shooting as the example, and our thoughts go out to the victim and his family.