Help save history in your community by recording the stories of long-time residents, collecting and preserving historic photographs, and sketching and writing about significant local landmarks.

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 Al and Donna, by Tyler

The one memory that stands out is all the people you would see along East Carson Street. When the J & L Steel Mill shifts were over the bars and restaurants would fill up. On Sundays you could see all the people going to the churches in South Side.

When we talk to others about their memories and experiences we are able to learn things about the past you can not find in a book or anywhere else. If you don't tell anyone your memories and experiences, people will have no way to know what happened in the past. You can find facts about places on the internet or in books, but you will never find out about how much fun people had in those places unless you ask.

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 Great-Great Aunt Alberta, by Thomas

In 1929 the stock market crashed and there was no money. The people on East Carson Street were hit hard. In the South Side, my Great-Great Aunt Alberta lived on 14th Street with her mother, father, and three brothers. She remembers how her father would work in the South Side mill and not get paid during the Depression. Usually he made $10.00 a week.

For extra money, my Great-Great Aunt Alberta's mother baked homemade breads, cookies, and pies out of her home. Her family stuck together and faith got them through. They simply did without and were thankful for what they had. There was no other assistance.

Interviewing her gave me the chance to understand how my Great-Great Aunt grew up. She had it tough, but she go through it. It makes me realize how grateful I am for what I have when I think about this. I have so much and she had so little.

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 Grandma Bobbie, by Thomas

My grandmother remembers seeing Senator John F. Kennedy in a parade on East Carson Street. He was in an open convertible. The motorcade, or group of cars, came in from the old Allegheny County Airport. They drove down East Carson Street towards downtown Pittsburgh.

I learned that when my grandma was little they did not have video games like we have now. They played a lot of neat games like “Release the Den,” “Red Rover,” jump rope, “Truth or Dare,” and all kinds of board games. Grandma played baseball in the school yard.

I got to learn about what my grandma did when she was my age. I saw pictures of where she lived and played. I learned how people lived back then. My great grandpap worked in the J & L Steel Mill.

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