But this week I am in Pittsburgh. It’s been on my bucket list since I was a kid. This is where my tribe of immigrants landed when they hopped the pond over a century ago. This week, I have spent hours just driving, seeing the sights, mostly the architecture and the lay of the land. I came at a perfect time of year, its spring, its cool and lovely. So I drive with my windows down, so I can smell the smells and hear the sounds. (Trying to capture, in vain, what my grandmother had been enveloped in so many years ago.)
As I drove down cobble streets, in slow traffic, I could hear the musical clink of loose cobbles as cars drove past. As I drove through different boroughs here I see all the little communities that were once isolated, but how, with time and a population boom, flow into each other. I could smell the amazing little Italian restaurants far before I ever saw them.
I have been taking mental pictures as I have driven these streets. They tell so many stories.
But I also learned that you almost need a driving lesson in “Pittsburgh driving etiquette”. It’s not so much that the streets are narrow, it’s more that there is nowhere to park. These cities were built when walking was the favored mode of transportation. And thus, there is so much walking still done. But the road ways have become the parking lots too. If you drive down a residential street, all the inhabitants have parked along both sides of the street. Making driving on that now narrow street very sketchy.
On the main streets, four lanes become two, when people stop to grab a slice of pizza or run into that shop. Without warning, someone in front of you will put their blinkers on and hop out of their car, right in front of you. My mind was blown! But I rapidly learned that this is the thing … and everyone just moves over without a fuss. There is an abundance of common courtesy here. Like this snippet I saw in the good news today:
(I will not be doing the parallel parking thing. No one has enough time or patience to watch me do that thing)
On the highway yesterday I saw another community kindness. I was driving south on one of the many highways, and had just driven out of a tunnel. I could hear the ambulance but wasn’t sure where it was coming from. The bumper to bumper traffic was moving slowly, but it was moving. With in a minute or so I saw the lights on the northbound lane. Traffic was bumper to bumper there too, and they were all preparing to enter the two lane tunnel. Yet all those drivers moved like one body, pulling over (there was no road shoulder) and stopping to make room for this emergency vehicle. I wanted to get out and applaud them all. I was so impressed.
Coretta Scott King said, “ The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.”
And I agree. I have fallen in love with this city of my forebears.
Don’t get me wrong, there are always exceptions. I was flipped off and called a “weirdo” by someone that wanted me to make a right on red, even though just about every intersection here says “No Right on Red”. He pulled around me to turn right on red. But I wasn’t phased. I just smiled as I met him at the next red light.
I♥️Pittsburgh
P.S.
After writing that this morning I happened to be driving onto an on-ramp to a bridge, when traffic stopped. The accident was just around the bend, and I could not see it, thank goodness. But emergency vehicles came out of everywhere, even a helicopter. You know it was bad when there was a helicopter. We sat in our spots for about an hour. Then we were all let go to attend to our own business. I couldn’t make out what happened, only some emergency personnel were still working on the spot. Again, maybe we all need a lesson on driving etiquette.
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