Pittsburgh in 1975? (Penn Hills, Pleasant Hills, West View: amusement park, houses, buy)

[Rocket88]

We would be remiss to not mention the role sports played in 1975. The Steelers won the first Super Bowl and were in the early stages of their dynasty. The Pirates continued their dominance of the NL East. Pitt Football was on the verge of a National Championship led by #33 Tony Dorsett. Unlike today, it was sports that put Pittsburgh on the map more than anything. Pittsburgh wasn't making any desirable top ten lists. The city was very provincial but proud. Sports kept the spirits high in a tired city that had seen better days.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

I turned 21 that year.

1975 was still the old Pittsburgh.

The air was dirty. You could actually see the pollution when you emerged from the Ft. Pitt tunnel onto the bridge. I had a Pavlovian response to this even if my vehicle's windows were closed: my eyes would start to tear just looking at the air that hung over the rivers. The rivers were also incredibly dirty and devoid of most fish, with the exception of catfish which could live in that water.

Unions were big. A good third of the male population belonged to a labor union...maybe more in 1975. They ruled economic life in the city back then.

The eastern european ethnicities that had the big immigration earlier in the century still had their ethnic ties and were a large part of the population. The older generations - in their 60's .70's and 80's by 1975 still had their accents. Their children, in their 40's and 50's, worked in blue collar jobs, often in the steel mills, and had no accents, but were active members of the ethnic clubs - Slovaks, Serbs, Hungarians, Croatians, Poles, Lithuanians... People still used the term 'Hunkie' to describe them. No one seems to know the origin of that word, but it referred to any Eastern European in Pittsburgh.

There had been no immigration to speak of since 1925, so everyone spoke English except for the older immigrants.

Downtown was starting to crack as THE place to go shopping. The streetcars were gone and the malls were on the rise. But there was still Kaufman's, Horne's, Gimbel's, the shops on Fifth Ave that the older generation went to. And there were still restaurants and movie theaters downtown. Back then, the big Hollywood releases ran in the downtown theaters before they were released to other theaters.

There was a serious recession in 1974-5 that put a lot of people out of work, but the recovery started by the end of that year and the steel mills were back at full blast by 1976. They were ubiquitous around Pittsburgh. South Side and Homestead were dominated by them, along with many other neighborhoods near the rivers. Oakland's air was really bad. I remember as a kid in the 1960's coming out of the house in summer mornings of the 60's to find a fine goldish-orange dust on the cars parked on the street in Dormont. We thought it was raining prosperity, but by 1975, people had a sense that this was hazardous.

River barge traffic was as busy as the Parkway.

And then there were the Steelers. That was the era of the steel curtain, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Rocky Bleier, Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Joe Greene, LC Greenwood, Jack Ham, Jack Lambert, Mel Blount, Donnie Shell... They won the Superbowl in 1975. It's really impossible to say how that affected Pittsburgh. You had to be there.

The suburbs were much less sprawling back then. I retraced a route we used to take in the 70's down towards Venetia and couldn't believe how built up it is now. Back then there were still farms on the outskirts of town.

And cars. There were far fewer cars back then. Except for the richer suburbs, there was mainly 1 car per family in that era. Now everyone over driving age has their own car. That means the traffic was half as bad back then.

I agree with most of this, but not the bold. My family got a second car in 1966 (I think, something like that anyway) and we were one of the last families in our little area to get said car.

[I_Like_Spam]

No PPG Place, no Oxford Centre, no Dravo tower on Grant & 5th, no CNG on Liberty, no National Steel building on Stanwix & Ft. Pitt.

3 Rivers was up, but no North Shore expressway or Vets Bridge, no Parkway Center Mall, the Immaculate School on Polish Hill and a hundred other Catholic schools around town were all in operation. The Church Brew Works was a church. The Brady Street Bridge took people from South Side to Oakland, the Birmingham Bridge was under construction.

Allegheny Center Mall was in its hey day, and pretty popular.

It was a different Pittsburgh for sure.

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

I turned 21 that year.

1975 was still the old Pittsburgh.

The air was dirty. You could actually see the pollution when you emerged from the Ft. Pitt tunnel onto the bridge. I had a Pavlovian response to this even if my vehicle's windows were closed: my eyes would start to tear just looking at the air that hung over the rivers. The rivers were also incredibly dirty and devoid of most fish, with the exception of catfish which could live in that water.

Unions were big. A good third of the male population belonged to a labor union...maybe more in 1975. They ruled economic life in the city back then.

The eastern european ethnicities that had the big immigration earlier in the century still had their ethnic ties and were a large part of the population. The older generations - in their 60's .70's and 80's by 1975 still had their accents. Their children, in their 40's and 50's, worked in blue collar jobs, often in the steel mills, and had no accents, but were active members of the ethnic clubs - Slovaks, Serbs, Hungarians, Croatians, Poles, Lithuanians... People still used the term 'Hunkie' to describe them. No one seems to know the origin of that word, but it referred to any Eastern European in Pittsburgh.

There had been no immigration to speak of since 1925, so everyone spoke English except for the older immigrants.

Downtown was starting to crack as THE place to go shopping. The streetcars were gone and the malls were on the rise. But there was still Kaufman's, Horne's, Gimbel's, the shops on Fifth Ave that the older generation went to. And there were still restaurants and movie theaters downtown. Back then, the big Hollywood releases ran in the downtown theaters before they were released to other theaters.

There was a serious recession in 1974-5 that put a lot of people out of work, but the recovery started by the end of that year and the steel mills were back at full blast by 1976. They were ubiquitous around Pittsburgh. South Side and Homestead were dominated by them, along with many other neighborhoods near the rivers. Oakland's air was really bad. I remember as a kid in the 1960's coming out of the house in summer mornings of the 60's to find a fine goldish-orange dust on the cars parked on the street in Dormont. We thought it was raining prosperity, but by 1975, people had a sense that this was hazardous.

River barge traffic was as busy as the Parkway.

And then there were the Steelers. That was the era of the steel curtain, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Rocky Bleier, Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Joe Greene, LC Greenwood, Jack Ham, Jack Lambert, Mel Blount, Donnie Shell... They won the Superbowl in 1975. It's really impossible to say how that affected Pittsburgh. You had to be there.

The suburbs were much less sprawling back then. I retraced a route we used to take in the 70's down towards Venetia and couldn't believe how built up it is now. Back then there were still farms on the outskirts of town.

And cars. There were far fewer cars back then. Except for the richer suburbs, there was mainly 1 car per family in that era. Now everyone over driving age has their own car. That means the traffic was half as bad back then.

Most of Pittsburgh's street cars disappeared in the 1960s but trolley service from downtown to the South Hills continued until it was replaced by the T in 1985.

LATE-1970s: An attractive feature that was introduced at the time was a new advertising scheme. Trolleys could be sponsored and then decorated at will. Soon, many of Pittsburgh's trolleys took on a new look. Some of the memorable designs that stood out were the Pittsburgh Steeler's trolley, the Clark Bar trolley and the Gateway Clipper Tripple Treat.

The Pittsburgh Steeler's Terrible Trolley.

1981: The Port Authority decides to try to refurbish forty-five PCC trolleys. The $763,000 cost is prohibitive and only twelve are done before the program is abandoned in 1987.

JULY 3, 1985: Trolley street operations in the Golden Triangle cease when the downtown subway, part of the new Light Rail "T" System, is opened. All above ground tracks in downtown are eventually removed or paved over.

Originally Posted by FallsAngel

I agree with most of this, but not the bold. My family got a second car in 1966 (I think, something like that anyway) and we were one of the last families in our little area to get said car.

My family first got a second car in 1972. We had a couple VW Beetles and than my Dad bought a new Chevy Vega. He sold it in the fall of 1973 for more than he paid for it because of the Arab Oil Embargo. This was when people first got sensitive about fuel economy. Many families still only had one car at this time.

[Kingunlucky]

Wow!!!

I didn't expect this much feedback

Thank you all so much!

Hmmm

What else do we got?

As I research the era.....I feel I got most general things down and I'm currently in the process of writing chapter but I still feel a little detached.

But information has been very helpful so far!

Of course its fiction but still trying to be authentic as possible.

How was the dialect?

I know 70s slang but how much was it used back then on a daily back then in like comparison today?

Was Pittsburgh English more prominent in speaking or less so?

[Goinback2011]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

My family first got a second car in 1972. We had a couple VW Beetles and than my Dad bought a new Chevy Vega. He sold it in the fall of 1973 for more than he paid for it because of the Arab Oil Embargo. This was when people first got sensitive about fuel economy. Many families still only had one car at this time.

He's lucky he sold it. That was one of the worst GM products ever. My sister had one. At the full-service gas stations, the attendants would emerge from the shop with a can of oil when she drove up to the pumps.

[Goinback2011]

Originally Posted by Kingunlucky

Wow!!!

I didn't expect this much feedback

Thank you all so much!

Hmmm

What else do we got?

As I research the era.....I feel I got most general things down and I'm currently in the process of writing chapter but I still feel a little detached.

But information has been very helpful so far!

Of course its fiction but still trying to be authentic as possible.

How was the dialect?

I know 70s slang but how much was it used back then on a daily back then in like comparison today?

Was Pittsburgh English more prominent in speaking or less so?

People spoke yinzer. Then more so than now.

[simetime]

The Hill district was considered to be the "hotspot" of black entertainment. There were at that time at least 15 bars and quite a few clubs from the 5th Ave corridor to Herron Ave. The Hill was such a popular place it was considered to be "cool" (not to mention safe) to know someone there in order to have a good time. There were stores and businesses that still supported the community since many downtown stores did not openly welcome blacks. Racism was alive and well in Pittsburgh as well. Many called it neighborhood pride, in short the city was very racially segregated.

[wpipkins2]

I was born in 1975.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by simetime

Many called it neighborhood pride, in short the city was very racially segregated.

A lot of people don't realize this, and I don't think Pittsburgh was unique in the least. According to current mythology, only the South was affected by segregation.

Plenty of Pittsburgh neighborhoods were virtually 100% white back in the day. If an African American walked down my street, he was almost undoubtably a meter reader, postal carrier or Jehovah's witness. And people would still peep through their curtains at him wondering what was up.