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Today’s blogging prompt asked me to explain the socioeconomic class structure in the neighborhood where I grew up. That would be West Mifflin, PA. I have six attempts in my drafts folder. All devolved from thoughtful class analysis of a working class suburb into various rants. Clearly, I have some unresolved issues with my hometown. […]
Do you still feel pressure of conform? If no, what age did it stop? Also, Write a post inspired by your sixteenth birthday. Oh, my dear question generator, you are obviously not part of a subculture or a subculture within a subculture. The “pressure to conform” to being straight is all around you. Open the newspaper […]
Today’s blogging prompt involved finding a headline in my local paper and this is what I found Teacher Evaluation Fight May Prove Costly I could tell you about my public education in the 1970’s and 1980’s in the West Mifflin School District. I could tell you about what I’ve learned through my work as a […]
Friday evening, Pittsburgh native Karen Mould known professionally as Bitch will perform one show only at Club Cafe, fronting her new concept BEACH. You can buy tickets for the 7 PM performance of her show (doors at 6) online. When Opus One Productions first hinted that Bitch was bringing a new concept to Pittsburgh, I […]
I didn’t watch manyepisodes of GLEE last year because of the change in the schedule. Still, I felt an investment in knowing what happened to the characters I had come to appreciate. I was also pleased GLEE made it this long – I still feel bad about “My So Called Life” and “Popular” ending too […]
Remember when Schenley High School was closed? In 2008. Four years ago. Remember when nearly 300 employees of the Pittsburgh Public School District (PPS) were laid off? Four months ago. Sigh. Schenley had/has a robust alumni group that vigorously protested the closure of an important institution to the East End identity. That’s fine. They are […]
Editor’s Note: This week, I’ll be sharing guest blog posts from folks who identify as allies and what that means to them. Jason Togyer shared a personal commentary at the Tube City Almanac. Jason grew up near McKeesport; I grew up near McKeesport, too. His perspective resonates with me both as a reflection on my […]
It is a terrible burden to carry – the realization that someone you trusted violated other children. I know this because tonight I learned that a third person in my life is being investigated for “inappropriate contact via Facebook with minor children.” The second person was a Catholic Priest in my home parish of Holy […]
Growing up in West Mifflin, I had no real idea what Memorial Day was about. We typically had a cookout and there was a parade near our house. It was next to a cemetery dated back to pre-Revolutionary War times so I had a sense of history, but not necessarily any connection to veterans in […]
As soon as I hear her name or the first chords of the song “She Works Hard For The Money,” I am transported to a dinky sub basement room in the West Mifflin Area High School gym where the “girls” learned coordinated quasi-aerobic routines while the boys did something completely different. I was in 10th […]
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