Sitting in his chair atop his porch, Mike “A-Sunday” Acendy is watching and maybe also observing things in his lifelong neighborhood of Lawrenceville. At almost 90 years old, Mike A-Sunday, as old-timers know him, is one of the oldest residents. Half-Irish, half-Italian, he lives in the home in which he was born and raised, and he carries in his mind’s eye a historical panorama of his fast-gentrifying formerly blue-collar neighborhood.
His mother, who was Irish, gave Mike one rule when she had him paint their house when he was growing up: “You can paint it any color you want, as long as it’s green.”
The house is still green.
Around this part of town, many of the older, longtime residents’ humble rowhouses are painted green. These longtime locals are blue-collar folk. Many of the early inhabitants were Irish, but English, Scots, Welsh, Polish, Slovaks, Italians, Croatians, and Germans also settled this riverside patch of mostly rowhouses. Oldsters survive here in small pockets, and if you get to know them, they open the door to local history and a network of friends you can count on.
So get to know your local geezers; you might not imagine how you’ll benefit. Mike A-Sunday got me a better bid on a roof replacement and a quick and thorough job done by his nephew, also a Mike. And he’s told me about the old well where people once drew their water from the steepest part of the alley by my street—and other historical gems.
This part of town is where Stephen Foster was born. The songwriter of more than 200 songs and “father of American music” is buried here in Allegheny Cemetery, a parklike 1840s-era cemetery encompassing hundreds of acres and surrounded by stately 10-foot sandstone walls. Foster’s music is remembered through local country-gospel-mountain music legend Slim Forsythe, who sings some of Foster’s songs.
Up the street from me on what the oldsters call “Homie Hill,” my neighbor Dave told me about the patch of now-overgrown field at the top of the street where residents used to play softball games and watch fireworks above downtown Pittsburgh from that faraway hill. Homie Hill is named after the great Pittsburgh philanthropist Jane Holmes, or, more properly, after the Holmes House for elderly people which once sat where a shopping plaza has been for a few decades.
Around here—that is to say, in any old Pittsburgh city neighborhood—older residents might seem a bit clannish, even to someone who’s from no farther than the other side of town, like me. But that cliquish nature of Pittsburghers is just a quirk of the Burghers, and it can be overcome.
I’ve been in this part of Pittsburgh for four years, and I think I’m still on a provisional basis, possibly for 16 more years. It’s fine.
You don’t know how good as gold these oldsters are, unless you stop and chat with them. I suspect such folk are sprinkled over all of the redeveloping parts of this town and many U.S. cities. They are a resource of help and information, small bulwarks of civil behavior and empathy in an uncaring, cellphone-absorbed populace.
Also, they might grant you free tomatoes from their garden or canned homemade salsa or spicy pickles they made, like my neighbor Mark,. And later maybe you can lend a hand if one of your neighbors needs something.
Historic memory, a sense of place, belonging, and helping your fellow man. One hand lifts with the other and lightens the burden, and one spirit lifts the other. That’s the bedrock of community, and it’s out there, at least in the long-established communities of this nation.
But sometimes you must befriend the oldsters first, to find that community.
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Image credit: Unsplash
3 comments
3 Comments
Cadence McManimon
October 7, 2024, 8:30 amSo true!! In the Driftless Midwest area, I happen to live across the street from my Godfather's cousin, down the block from aunts on either side of the family, who are caring for both my elderly grandmothers. I'm three miles from my parents, two sets of cousins, and my Godmother, too! This staunch intergenerational community is an absolute bedrock of my life.
REPLYJB@Cadence McManimon
October 8, 2024, 8:28 amCadence, thanks! You are lucky. BTW I enjoy your writing and appreciate you commenting.
REPLYMichele Taylor
October 10, 2024, 10:34 amGreat story! I’m looking forward to living close to family once again. Nothing like it.
REPLY