Category: History, Mon Valley Miscellany, Politics || By

Put on your poodle skirts and saddle shoes, girls! Guys, get out the Brylcreem and comb your hair into a "DA." "It's Pony Time"!



OK, this clip from about 1968 is too late for saddle shoes and Brylcreem. Would you believe Nehru jackets and go-go boots?

Last month on Pittsburgh Radio Nostalgia, local broadcast historian John Mehno posted a link to a clip on YouTube from "Teen Time," a live dance-party show on Steubenville's Channel 9. Channel 9, then a CBS affiliate called WSTV-TV, is now NBC affiliate WTOV-TV ... the calls changed in 1979.

"Teen Time" was hosted by Del Curtis, who as John and Ed Salamon pointed out on PRN, later worked for legendary New York City country station WHN (1050) under his real name, Del Demontreaux.

(Read the rest at Pittsburgh Radio & TV Online.)

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In Other Business: This is not a photo of the Upper St. Clair police department trying to restrain the McKeesport Tigers on Friday night, but it's close:

(Photo credit: New York Daily News)

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Continuing Decline of Civilization Dep't.: After reading this story, I'd swear that more and more people around here are eating dumb flakes for breakfast:

When the New Pittsburgh Courier reported last week that Sylvia Washington, who is Black, stormed out of the North Shore Deli after being greeted by an employee wearing a T-shirt depicting lynchings, the store’s’ owner, Karl Mattern, said he, too, was stunned by the incident.

“I grew up in this neighborhood. I know where my roots are, and people know me and my family and know we’re not like that,” he said. “I’ve known Sylvia for years, and for her not to come to me directly, blows my mind.

“I told (the clerk) this ain’t how things are here, but he’s a kid and they don’t always think. I got a business and my livelihood here—and I don’t go for that at all.”

It turns out that the T-shirt was promoting a local punk band; the designer said it's actually an "anti-racism" message.

Yeah, but ... who the heck thinks photos of people being lynched are appropriate to decorate a band T-shirt?

I think the lady is overreacting a little bit, but on the other hand, I can understand why she had that reaction.

I'm hoping the guy that made the T-shirt, and the kid who wore it, will both learn a lesson. I'm not holding my breath.

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Silberman Move Confirmed: As first reported by The Valley Mirror and picked up here at Tube City Almanac on Sept. 18, Braddock's A.J. Silberman & Co. is moving to Indiana Township. According to Mike Mallory of Tarentum's Valley News Dispatch, it's a done deal, and the move is all but complete.

Silberman's website has already been updated with the new address.

Braddock Administrator Ella Jones told the newspaper that the borough is "comfortable" with the arrangements it made with Silberman's regarding its business privilege tax.

It was Braddock's ham-fisted attempts to penalize Silberman's over that tax that convinced the company to leave in the first place.

Mrs. Jones, you should not be comfortable. Braddock Borough Council extracted a pound of flesh from A.J. Silberman & Co. at the expense of chasing one of its few legitimate businesses away.

What's worse, your borough just told new businesses to stay out of Braddock --- as if any other discouraging signs were needed.

No, Mrs. Jones, you and the Braddock Borough Council should be upset and embarrassed, not "comfortable." Unfortunately, based on the past behavior of some councilors in Braddock, I think it's all but impossible to embarrass them.

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Speaking of the Alle-Kiski Valley: This month's murder of 82-year-old Flo Ranta of Clairton was truly shocking in its brutality. That a 15-year-old kid killed her, basically for what seems like "kicks," is nauseating. Pat Cloonan had the story in the News.

Not quite as sickening, but definitely annoying, was this little item from the Valley News Dispatch about last week's Leechburg Area school board meeting:

High school Principal Cynthia Portman related concerns that band director Robert Reams has about the band travelling to Clairton for Friday's football game ...

Board member Robert Cinpinski recommended school administrators contact the Clairton School District and police department concerning security at Neil Brown Stadium. Board member John Peterman said Clairton officials put the team and band buses inside the stadium and there are separate bleachers on either side of the stadium for fans.

The board recommended the administration make the final call to whether the band and cheerleading squads should not go, but both units will either go or stay home.

That's gross. You might say their fears weren't motivated by racism, but it sure smells bad to me. The only thing Leechburg had to fear Friday night was the 67-8 whomping that Clairton's football team put on them.

The sooner that our attitudes around Western Pennsylvania move away from the mindset of 1957 Selma, Ala., the sooner we will stop losing young people in droves. Until then, they don't call us "Pennsyltucky" for nothing.