Western Pennsylvania
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Why Places Matter
I will always remember our Halloween this past Friday in Parnassus. Why? Two reasons: 1.) We got over 200 trick-or-treaters at our house, just like last year and the year before that. 2.) …
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5 Spooky Places for New Ken Ghost Stories
I love ghost walks and ghost stories based on local history. The last time that I Googled “PA Ghost Walks,” I found several dozen cities in the results. Gettysburg. Pittsburgh. Philadephia. Erie. Harrisburg.…
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So Many Questions . . .
What ghost stories exist for Elliott’s, the Old Stone Tavern in Pittsburgh’s West End Village? I read about Elliott’s in two historical novels: “The King’s Orchard” and “The Day Must Dawn” by (Western PA…
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Elegy to My Old Front Porch, c1930 – 2014
I am getting a new front porch for my birthday this year. Jonthan and I planned and saved for this for years. We tweaked some of our career goals for this. We can’t wait…
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Remembering World War I
This month (June 28) is the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie. The aftermath led to World War I. My relatives suffered and sacrificed as a…
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It’s Maple Sugar Season!
Every winter, my sisters and I listened to a radio broadcast of the Maple Queen Contest for the Pennsylvania Maple Festival in Meyersdale, PA. When March came, I and the other members of…
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My Hometown Has an Elephant Farm
This is the first blog post in an occasional series about what makes Berlin, Pennsylvania fantastic. About a year or so ago, I saw a job posting on the Pittsburgh Zoo’s website for…
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“Down by the Riverside”
This is what the Allegheny River looked like today, on one of the coldest days of this century. I had Jonathan stop at Firemen’s Park in Arnold when we were out so that…
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Fort Pitt Had A Moat
January is the perfect month to . . . catch up on past seasons of Downton Abbey and read. After I finished “The Day Must Dawn,” I read another historical fiction novel by Agnes…
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A Local Novel by a Local Author: “The Day Must Dawn”
One of the main characters in “The Day Must Dawn” by Agnes Sligh Turnbull watches Colonel William Crawford burn at the stake while Simon Girty laughs. That scene isn’t the only dramatic one in…