It’s a Saturday afternoon in June and I am sitting high up in PNC Park, gazing at the Pittsburgh skyline.
The Pirates are leading the Phillies by a comfortable margin, and the weather is balmy. Kayakers compete with barges on the river, which is visible from our seats. For the umpteenth time in three days, I am struck by how healthy and prosperous Pittsburgh seems.
I haven’t been to PNC Park since — well, never. The last time I was in the heart of Pittsburgh, the Pirates were playing in Three Rivers Stadium and they were wearing cylindrical black caps and overtly polyester uniforms that looked bad even for the 1970s.
For the first time in a long while, I am back in my hometown for a family reunion. I rode in from Mt. Lebanon on the light-rail system that runs right behind my hotel. Our group dined in the Grand Concourse restaurant in Station Square and took the incline up to Mount Washington. Downtown bustled with its annual arts festival. The Warhol Museum was fantastic.
The same type of vitality seems true of Mt. Lebanon, where I grew up. Downtown Mt. Lebanon in my childhood was fairly utilitarian; you went there for the post office, the orthodontist, Horne’s department store, maybe some ice cream or chipped ham from Isaly’s. (I have Proustian memories of Isaly’s seasonal cantaloupe ice cream.)
Entertainment attractions beyond the Denis Theatre were few. Imagine my surprise to discover Washington Road bursting with restaurants, cafes, art galleries, gift shops — even a hip new hotel. What a pleasant surprise to find the rest of the town looking just as busy and well cared for.
I observed the 1950s and ’60s of Pittsburgh’s history, but not the recent part. The steel center of my childhood shut down and gave way to the sagging economy of the ’70s, when jobs fled and “For Sale” signs popped up all over Mt. Lebanon.
College and career pulled me to the New York City area four decades ago, and the bonds of marriage and raising three boys kept me mostly away. When the family reunion was scheduled for this summer, I jumped at the chance to renew my ties not only with relatives but with the city I left behind.
Coming back makes me realize that some parts of me have never left. Pittsburgh’s stone-block streets, sharp hills and angled houses seem just right to me.
The modest hills where we took our boys sledding in New Jersey seem pathetic next to the steep incline of the street where I grew up, which afforded a long, swift and hair-raising ride to the bottom. Trolleys were the perfect way to get in and out of Downtown in my childhood, and there’s more than a hint of them in today’s light-rail line.
What’s more, the sense of community that will always make Pittsburgh seem like an overgrown small town still exists.
Baseball fans board the train in Pirates jerseys and nod to similarly clad riders. People hold doors for those behind them. If my cousins are any indication, people are fanatical about the Steelers and not just in football season.
Pittsburghers are inordinately proud of their teams, their food, their distinctive accent. I recently met a man in New Jersey whose speech had a familiar ring. After a few minutes, I said, “Any chance you’re from Pittsburgh?”
His face broke into a smile.
“Not far,” he replied. “Warshington, Pa.” He had not lived in Western Pennsylvania for 45 years.
The city exists in a distinct area of the country, not Midwestern and certainly not aligned with the East. Residents don’t think of themselves as anything but Pittsburghers.
The best part of my trip was to discover that it hasn’t changed in any fundamental way — it’s still the same distinctive place with the same stubborn identity. The city that shaped me has only changed for the better. It’s come through a lot in the past 50 years, but it has emerged unbowed, still the same place, the same people with the same spirit.
May it ever be so.
Abigail Gary of Mahwah, N.J., a copywriter, may be reached at agary@wordsandpictures.net.
The PG Portfolio welcomes “Local Dispatch” essay submissions. Send your writing to page2@post-gazette.com; or by mail to Portfolio, Post-Gazette, 34 Blvd. of the Allies, Pittsburgh PA 15222. Portfolio editor Gary Rotstein may be reached at 412-263-1255.
First Published: July 22, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
