Pittsburgh-That Dirty City.

When it was first called "the dirty city", it deserved the criticism. That's a long time ago.

Since then, many favorable magazine and newspaper articles about the City of Pittsburgh have been written. Monday Night football games have captured the grandeur of the city on "light up nights". The views from the stadiums and blimps are also well publicized.

Even people who reluctantly got off their duff and visited the city for a wedding etc., come back with high praise about my old home town . Those priviledged enough to fly in, rent a car, and then drive out of the Fort Pitt Tunnels and into the "burgh", are simply dazzled by the sight laid out in front of them. And, they haven't seen Point Park, cable cars, or Andy Warhol's museum.

The truth is that "the burgh" wasn't always so pretty.

Picture yourself as a kid in the 40's or early 50's, travelling by bus or streetcar into "dun-tun" Pittsburgh. Your clean white shirt or blouse turned dark gray from the time it took you to get off the bus or streetcar stop until you walked to McCann's restaurants front door.

Forget the sunglasses. You couldn't see the sun through the smoke filled sky.

The Chamber of Commerce did all they could for shoppers. They provided an abundance of department stores: Gimbels, Hornes, Rosenbaums, Frank & Seder's, & Boggs & Buhls.

If you didn't want to miss getting together with a friend, the usual safe meeting place was under "Kaufmanns Clock", outside the great 13 floor department store, and a city landmark for years.

As a kid, I'm not sure I realized Pittsburgh was a dirty city. I had so little with which to compare it. I summer vacationed in Wilmerding - the home of the Westinghouse Airbrake.
You didn't wear white shirts there either.

In the early 50's bankers and politicians got together, started Renaissance I, and the city's transformation was soon in high gear . Pittsburgh really "cleaned up it's act" when the dirt culprits, the steel mills, started to shut down and were replaced by research facilities.

Regretfully, we sometimes forget that those same mills we knocked, their owners, and above all, the workers, also made us Pittsburghers what we are today. Throughout, the one true constant in my love of Pittsburgh is the residents. They truly made it a 'special place' to live and many of them came from generations of those hardworking millworkers.

When my wife, "Phyl", first accompanied me to Pittsburgh on "Barry's Personal Tour" I said to her, "I'm going to guarantee you that when we go into the first restaurant you select, a patron will strike up a conversation with you within three minutes." And, they did me proud.

Do you remember when you were a kid and your Mom taught you how important it was to make a good impression? Sadly, that first memory of Pittsburgh still remains in some folks minds.

We are two Pennsylvanians, now living in Florida, who heard a couple of senior women talking about Pittsburgh the other night. One, the "travel expert," who sounded as if she was from New Jersey, referred to it as "that dirty city". We shook our collective heads and vowed to make a return trip to Newark someday to see if they, like Pitttsburgh, got their act together.

For those of you who think purchasing the rearseat of a 53 Chevrolet will preserve what you remember as "the good times", I suggest a trip to Pittsburgh instead. See downtown, don't miss the Strip District, and make it a point to get out and about. The neighborhood towns are fantastic and the people are still great. You can wear your white shirts and blouses without fear.

Pittsburgh is a beautiful, friendly place to visit and an even better place to live.

A lot has happened in 50 plus years and we're not just talking about those Chevy memories.