The Newtown Pentacle

Tuesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As described previously, your humble narrator was heading for a historical lecture being offered at a library, in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, and one had just crossed the South Tenth Street Bridge over the Monongahela River in order to facilitate a ride share pickup to carry me to said library.

The horizon line in the shot above is where I had been walking around in the posts published last week – an area called ‘The Bluff’ – which hosts both Duquesne University, and the neighborhood called ‘Uptown.’

I used Uber for this ride. Common practice that I’ve picked up here in Pittsburgh is to query both Uber and Lyft and see which one is cheaper for the same ride. Uber beat Lyft by about $7 so ‘win.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One arrived at the library, and it was thankfully quite cool within. This was one of the first truly warm days in late Spring for Pittsburgh.

Yes, the Newtown Pentacle time warp persists. Photos from May 11, words from early June, and you’re in mid July if I got my scheduling right.

The lecture itself was academic in nature, with a detailed description of the historian’s methodology. Personally, whenever I was doing one of these kind of talks about Newtown Creek back in Brooklyn or Queens, I liked to drop in a few jokes and use colloquial language, and avoided getting into the slog of how I researched the presented information, but then again I don’t have a PHD in Jewish history as the presenter did – as I’m just some schmuck with a camera who knows far too much about Newtown Creek.

I learned things, though, it was worth attending.

After about an hour, the presentation was over and one was vomited forth back onto the streets, where he belongs.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Squirrel Hill is a really nice neighborhood, and kind of pricey to live in as well due to desirability, at least compared with the rest of Pittsburgh.

This ‘zone’ is literally Mister Rogers’ neighborhood, as a note.

The plan… and this is where the second half of my efforts for the day begin… was to walk all the way back to the T Light Rail on the South Shore of the Monongahela River, and use that to get back to HQ in the Dormont section. More or less about a seven mile walk. Best to just lean into it.

I had more or less decided on a path, but left it kind of fuzzy to accommodate serendipity, should it manifest.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As mentioned, really lovely neighborhood.

Reminds me a great deal of Brooklyn’s Midwood, in the section where it nears Coney Island Avenue and Ocean Parkway in the east ‘teen’ streets, and along the H-N avenues. Historically speaking, Squirrel Hill is meant to be a Jewish majority neighborhood, just like Midwood is back home. Most of the ‘important’ non Jewish people live out here – politicians, and university brass, the wealthy corporate types.

It was hot on the streets, I tell you, hot. Your narrator was humbly shvitzing while scuttling.

I’ve got a whole routine for this sort of weather, by the way. Number one thing is breathe through your nose and keep your mouth shut or you’ll dehydrate quickly. Number two is walk in the shade if you can. I’ve mentioned that I’ve recently started carrying a water bottle, yes?

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s a lot of weird traffic interchanges in Pittsburgh, and the one pictured above is an example. It’s at a border where Squirrel Hill bumps up against Oakland, where a large park and the two big universities are found. Hills and valleys, hollows and peaks…

This leg of my day would end up adding about seven miles of wear to the hiking shoes. After returning to HQ, I noticed that the treads on those shoes had essentially been ground smooth in the last few months, and I had to order another pair. Merrel Moab 3, if you’re curious. Been wearing this model of shoe for years, and they’re a critical part of the ‘kit.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That water bottle recently added to the kit came in handy on this walk.

A paroxysm of comparison shopping led me to purchase one of the fairly leak proof offerings from the Nalgene outfit, and I now have a 16 ounce parcel of travel liquid to rely upon during scuttles.

A big difference between NYC and Pittsburgh revolves around the presence of Bodegas. NYC has them, Pittsburgh doesn’t.

In NYC, you’re never more than a mile from someone wanting to sell you a cold drink, in Pittsburgh you have to rely on a coroner retrieving your water starved husk of a corpse, found lying on the side of a road pointing towards a Bodega which doesn’t exist.

Back tomorrow with the next leg of this scuttle.

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“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.