Skip to main content
The largest online newspaper archive
A Publisher Extra® Newspaper

The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 17

Location:
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Issue Date:
Page:
17
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

The Pittsburgh Press Tuesday, November 27, 1973 Page 17 LIVING73 Pages 20-24 EDITORIALS Next Page She Likes Bikes Now Philadelphia Rides Ahead Nepal Elephant Ride Trunk Line Protocol Vine Street: It's East Street East Third of a Series. By Joe Grata Press Staff Writer iL CI FP'fiTOi'A 'iii izmw 1 $Lri PHILADELPHIA This metropolis has its own version of Pittsburgh's controversial East Street Valley Expressway project. Called the Vine Street Expressway, It will pass through center city in a neigh-borhood occupied by thousands of Chinese-Americans. Entangled on the drawing boards since the early 1950s, the proposed limited-access highway will cost an esti- mated $111 million and virtually cut the i community in half. Unique Church Threatened Last April, more than a thousand demonstrators blocked roads in the area to protest Vine Street Expressway, principally because the right-of-way threatened to destory the nation's only Chinese-American Catholic Church.

Milton J. Shapp interceded to deliveries impede traffic flow. Synkonis' staff has discovered building highways in Philadelphia isn't much different, or any easier, than in most other metropolitan areas. Church Threatened Residents objected vehemently when another expressway project threatened to isolate the Gloria Dei "Old Swedes" Church, the oldest in the state, between railroad tracks and the elevated barrier of the highway. In 19 4 2 Congress declared church, dedicated in 1700, as a national historical monument.

Despite the hangups and "in-house" controversies over whether or not to build the $150 million Northeast Freeway and $100 million Pulaski Expressway, only 5.5 miles of Interstate 95 need to be constructed in this area. This makes its status more advanced than 1-79 through Allegheny County, although all sections of 1-79 (except the still-unresolved East Street "spur" known as 1-279) are under contract. When completed, 1-95 will provide better access to nearby but difficult-to-reach Philadelphia International Airport as well as remove some of the "thru" traffic from the overcrowded Schuylkill Expressway, now carrying an average of 160,000 vehicles daily. Synkonis claims 1-95 will be finished in time for the nation's bicentennial in 1976. Residents of fashionable Society Hill, located on a bluff near the west bank of the Delaware River, protested the 1-95 design as a negative impact on their environment.

First, PennDot agreed to "depress" the highway in a trough-like structure along the river. Now it also has proposed to cover 1,600 feet and build what essentially will be a tunnel lying on the ground as opposed to passing through a hillside. As an examnle of citv-PennDot coop spare the church, but over the few years other' problems have blocked progress, such as: Relocating 300 to 1,200 residents, a number officials contend "is hard to pin down because of seasonal fluctuations in population." Appeasing the local bar association which called for a moratorium on construction until new environmental Impact Studies are undertaken. i Solving the problems with men posing as skid row inhabitants, seeking to collect relocation payments between $200 and $2,000, who threatened workers a the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDot) relocation office. Guards have since been assigned to the office.

"There Is a difference between the East Street situation and Vine Street," noted PennDot District 6 Engineer Jo seph P. Svnkoms. "In Pittsburgh, the whole project is under question and here" we're talking about four or five blocks." The 13-vear-old East Street Express way project on Pittsburgh's North Side has evoked opposition from the mayor, residents and abutine slopes dwellers over design, relocation payments and demolition conditions among otner things. Bridse links Hilly, New Jersey projects In contract awards made during the same period. But officials in the Pittsburgh area admit their "fair share" was a long time coming.

$400 Million Needed Synkonis 'estimates it will take $400 million to complete the interstate system in Philly within the next couple of years. "We don't know where we'll get the money," he said. Maybe he can take a cue from Mayor Frank Rizzo who came to Pittsburgh seeking a loan from banks to operate the troubled Philadelphia school system earlier this year. TOMORROW: Transit cn masse. Coed Dormitories Giving Mom And Dad Headache Fuel Crisis May Power Return Of Old Mart By James Foster Scripps-Howard Staff Writer WASHINGTON What does one wear to a formal ceremony as guest of the king of Nepal when one's mode of transportation is an elephant? That, it appears, was one of the most perplexing questions faced by Carol C.

Laise in her 6Vi years as U. S. ambassador to the kingdom of Nepal. Only Way To Go That elephant ride, Miss Laise recalls, was something of a command performance, and there simply was no way, other than atop an elephant, to get from the palace to the temple for the annual rice feeding ceremony honoring the king's son. "I finally settled on a pink, black and gold cocktail dress with a matching coat," Miss Laise recalled.

"It was in December and by the end of the ride, about 5:15 in the afternoon, the sun had dropped behind the Himalayas and it was oold. The coat felt good." The 56-ycar-old Vermonter's lifelong dedication to tennis, golf, bicycling and camping made getting up to and down from the elephant no problem. There was a carpeted ladder and the animal was kneeling. But "when the elephant got up from its kneeling position, it gave sort of a heave-ho, which was rather unsettling. Then it set out at a pace very sedate and easy to take." Eyes Of Nepafese She recalls the faces, thousands of dark eyes of the Nepalcse glued on her as the procession wound through the streets of ancient Katmandu.

Miss Laise, who to avoid confusion of ambassadors retained her maiden name seven years ago when she became the wife of U. S. Ambassador to South Vietnam Ellsworth Bunker, now serves the State Department as assistant secretary of state for public affairs. She succeeded astronaut Michael Collins in that post in September. Official duties In Katmandu involved overseeing an annual U.

S. aid program of $8 million geared to dealing with terrible deficiencies in basic medical care, education and agriculture. Two decades ago in Nepal there were Erma Bombeck I was against coed dorms from the beginning. Not because it was a sensuous supermarket, but because I felt if anyone ever saw my son's bedroom in its natural state, I'd never get the kid married off, and now my worst fears have been realized. At Stanford, male and female students (although not given permission by the school) are using the same bathrooms.

Take my word, when you see a man, dribbling toothpaste and hair into a washbowl each morning and gargling like someone just pulled the plug on Lake Erie, love goes right out the window. I know the trend is for young people to go the frankness and honesty route, but pre-marital clutter could stamp out marriages forever. Men! Could you establish a meaningful relationship with a girl who stretches an annnra sweater to drv on vour last bath towel? Can you shave in a roomful of steam with your face framed in a j- Roy McHugh tolnmnist-at-large A i There are reasons why It doesn't necessarily follow that no oil from the Arabs should mean less light in Pitts-burgh. Only when there's a peak load does Duquesne Light generate electricity with oil, and then just a small amount. The rest of the time it uses coal or nuclear power, but mostly coal.

And coal is still fairly abundant. President Nixon, however, has asked for a curtailment of ornamental lighting and Christmas lighting. As he said while standing in front of a huge electrically lighted American flag at a Realtors' convention one day about a week ago, we simply can't go on wasting energy. Last night downtown there was evidence that he had made himself perfectly clear. Alcoa Sijn Of Times Up on Mt.

Washington, the Alcoa sign remained dark. It's the one that gives Downtown Philadelphia truck Wodern, seven-lane Walt Whitman For sports fans, it will provide zippy passage to John F. Kennedy and Veterans Stadium as well as the Philadelphia Spectrum. All told, according to a 1971 study by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, some $37 billion will be needed to provide Greater Philadelphia Area with sufficient highways by 1990. Synkonis said PennDot District 6, covering a five-county southeast corner of the state, placed under contract 48 highway projects with a worth of $1.21.8 million last year.

PennDot District 11, embracing Allegheny and Beaver counties, claims to have had $166.9 million covering 38 to be shipped by river to New Orleans. The stock drovers tended to stay at one of the The hotel was patronized by "drummers" selling city goods to the stores, plus other horse and buggy trade. Such gentry could pay 25 cents for a chicken dinner and that much again for a horse's board. Even the elegant visitors sometimes got their rigs stuck in the mud in the middle of town. Independence didn't get a paved road until 1925.

It was using kerosene lamps until electricity came to town in 1938. Today the once-bustling business center of the village has shrunk to little more than a post office, two of the original churches and a store-and-gaso-line-station combination. One wonders if the energy shortage, long continued, might bring back at least part of the prosperity of rural shopping centers. Meanwhile, we'll pick W. P.

Wilson's memory and files at a later date for some interesting accounts of village life in Western Pennsylvania a century or so ago. OFTN and built a little copper mountain. Melanie burst into tears and fled the scene. The delivery man shrugged, got into his truck and drove away. And that Miss Betty Higby is what's happening to pennies today! 1 tf I ijjiH i in i i i iwiii i in ii ii nt ii frmrtr rf pv 1 eration, however, the city plans to convert two million cubic yards of sludge fro mits Southwest Philadelphia sew-age plant to be used for fill for 1-95.

Delaware Expressway The remaining link in the highway, also known as the Delaware Expressway, will become the vehicular focal point between here and southern New Jersey. By Gilbert Love It also had three active churches and a one-room school with around 80 pupils, who might range in age from 5 to 21. Industries included two establishments weaving rag carpets and rugs, some tanneries outside of town and a coal mine. The latter was a coal "bank" operated by one man, who charged l'i cents a bushel for his product. One of the stores was run by the local grange, which is still going strong.

It did co-operative buying and selling for the members. Goods and services were taken to many customers out of town. There was a butcher wagon. A huckster from Carnegie carried packaged groceries and traded them for eggs, butter and other farm products. At Thanksgiving time, live turkeys, each with a wing clipped to prevent flying, would be driven in a flock to Carnegie, some 25 or 30 miles.

The Independence of a century or more ago was accustomed to livestock on the hoof. Many herds of cattle and flocks of sheep were driven through the village on their way to Wellsburg, W. Yet, there have to be pennies. That's because stores are always selling things for like 69 cents, or the tax increases a nice even dollar sale to $1.07. Or something.

And, to meet this need, the mint, according to Betty, has to turn out 16 million pennies on an average day. carol c. Laise Reuerfs to bicycle. virtually no hospitals, no roads, no telecommunications, no electric power, no industry, and no civil service. There was no university, one high school and a limited number of primary schools.

Today there are 6,600 primary schools, 840 high schools and 35 colleges and universities. Malaria, an ages-old problem, is said to be virtually under control. The country is self-sufficient in food. More than 2,000 persons have undergone training to provide a cadre of civil servants attunnd to the people's needs and the leadership of 27-year-old Harvard-educated King Mahcndra Bir Bik-ram Shah Dcva. Also, Miss Laise notes, during her service there a woman became vice Win husband now an ambassador at large and this week taking over U.

S.Panama Canal treaty negotiations, Miss Laise has further opportunities to travel. While overseas, the Bunkers got to see each other only about once a month, either in Katmandu or Saigon. dripping pair of Little Prune pantyhose? Do you really want to know how often she has to shave her legs? Could you ever be important enough to a girl to have her take the rollers out of her hair? swear I saw a ken-age bride at her own wedding with her hair in When I asked her why, she said, "We might go somewhere afterwards." Women! Could you have a meaningful relationship with a boy who entered school in September with 38 pairs of sweat sox and is just getting around to asking where the laundromat is? Could you afford a man who uses a can of deodorant a day under each arm? Who belches before breakfast? And hangs his trousers under the mattress? As a housemother once told me, "There is nothing that attracts the opposite sex like a busy signal, a locked door, and the word 'No'. If you want a friend, buy a dog." Laugh at me, will the time and a public-service message "Hire the Handicapped," "Boy Scouts Make Men" at 20-second intervals, and its the biggest electric sign anywhere, bigger than the biggest sign on Broadway, 222 feet long with letters 30 feet high. At 5 p.

the Joseph Home Co. five-story Christmas tree was aglow. In years past during the Christmas season it had glowed night and day. This year it had been glowing only from dusk to 10 o'clock and a spokesman for the store said, "We're in the process of going over what we've done and what we're doing, but we haven't come to a decision." Fifteen minutes later, they came to a decision: Somebody pulled the plug. At the top of the Gulf Building, the weather beacon was flashing.

The wea-ther beacon was flashing, but four wraparound tiers of neon lights directly below it were not, which over the winter will save enough kilowatt hours to light 109 homes. Once the 64 floors of the U. S. Steel Building all seemed to be blazing every night. Now the orders are that the lights go off at 7 p.

m. without a special request and the cleaning people race a computer. If they don't get their job done within a certain time limit, they'd better be able to see in the dark. Other office buildings rely on the honor system. Thomas Edison probably wouldn't like it, but Pittsburgh Is turning the lights down low, its patriotism shining through the murk.

By When they can control their hysteria, officials still tell the story of the mother who registered her daughter at a western university and then asked, "Where's the housemother so we can check out the curfew and the rules?" For readers under 30, housemother is an inactive noun that went out with Donald O'Connor and tap dancing a mother figure as popular as dormitory food and just as repetitious replaced by coed dorms, open hours and student form of government. Of all the changes parents have had to adjust to, the coed dorm has probably been one of the most difficult to understand. Some dormitories have even conducted parent-student seminars where the student explains patiently, "We need a freer atmosphere where boys and -girls come to know one another as friends, rather than sex objects," and the father of a freshman daughter laments, "That can be done in a cotlce tall Uc UUiic ill a uuiitc onuy. There ware "shopping centers" in the old days too. They were villages with business houses that served large rural areas before the auto made it possible for farm people to go to larger places offering more variety.

A crnnd f.xamole of such a shopping center would be Independence, a place of 150 population at the junction oi siaie Routes 50 and 844 northwest of Washing ton, Pa. it's 9 otwH exairmle because we can draw on the memory and historical research of W. P. Wilson, retired wasn- ington newspaperman, who was born in Independence 95 years ago last month. When Wilson was a barefoot boy, and for a number of years before and after that, Independence was a thriving place of some 400 residents.

It had three general stores, four physicians, three blacksmiths, two wagon-makers, two harness-makers, four shops making shoes, a butcher shop, a maker of men hats, two millinery shops mat made ladies' hats, a custom tailor, a hotel and two taverns. City Cooperates In Dark Age Saving Pennies Makes Says By Norton Mockriage My heart goes out to the U. S. Mint wheih is having troubles with its pennies. too, have had troubles with penjiies, I and so have some of my friends, i It was Groucho Marx who saidj "A penny saved is a penny or maybe it was Phyllis Diller, I dunno.

mi he, she (or they) were wrong. You may save a toenny today, but you haven't really got A I A- The earliest street lights were torches, the history books say, twisted fibers coated with vegetable oil and fastened in metal holders to the outside walls of houses and buildings. Their effectiveness is best judged by the name for the period in which nobody could think of anything that would be an improvement-the Dark Ages. In London, in 1807, the first gas lights came on and by the middle of the century an Englishman named Sir William Grove had feebly illuminated a music hall with primitive electric lights, platinum coils heated to incandescence and covered with inverted tumblers as they reposed in glass dishes half full of water. But there were no really practical incandescent lamps until after Thomas Edison holed up in Mcnlo Park and plodded through 1,200 experiments.

A Lot Of Failures As John Dos Passos tells us, to find a filament that would work, Edison tried fishline, thread, Celluloid, coconut shells, maple shavings, punk, cork, flax, bamboo and a hair from the beard of a redheaded Scotsman. At last with visiting-card paper he kept a light burning for several hundred hours. That was in 1879 and the world has been getting brighter ever since-or had been getting brighter before the Arabs shut off the oil spigots. Now it Is getting dimmer, even around here. Few Come Back Hardly any of them ever come back.

They just vanish. About $160,000 worth at a clip! "Where, oh, where do 'they go?" moans Betty. Well, here's a for instance. A lady I know by the name of Melanie saved thousands of pennies. One week when she was home with a broken toe she put them all down on the dining room table and laboriously rolled them into packets of 50.

(She scraped the table's surface and refinishing cost $48.) She put them in three shopping bags to take them to the hank. But she couldn't lift theiri. Finally, she gave a delivery man $5 to put them in his truck and drive them to the bank. When they got there, the man yanked the bags off the tailgate, lost his grip, and dropped them to the road. The bags and the packages burst open One-Wey Coins f.

1 And that's what's troubling the mint. People accept pennies, but never put them back into circulation. Betty Higby, director of the mint, is going out of her cute little mind because she's gotta keep churning out pennies, and for what, she -wants to know? .4 Just so people can keep getting them 'and keeping them, that's what! They fcever use them, cries Betty. They don't Spend them. They just throw them away, toss 'errt into piggybanks or old mason Jars, or slop 'em into shoe boxes in the attic.

They're a drag, pennies are; just a drag. i "Even the banks won't take them," lobbed Betty the other day, "unless they're wrapped, and nobody wants to Ipend the time wrapping 400 pennies to get $4." i.

Get access to Newspapers.com

  • The largest online newspaper archive
  • 300+ newspapers from the 1700's - 2000's
  • Millions of additional pages added every month

Publisher Extra® Newspapers

  • Exclusive licensed content from premium publishers like the The Pittsburgh Press
  • Archives through last month
  • Continually updated

About The Pittsburgh Press Archive

Pages Available:
1,950,450
Years Available:
1884-1992