Nobody knew why it was called Shady Avenue Ext. Shady Avenue in Pittsburgh didn't come close to our street. I've used the technology available to me in order to solve this mystery but I can't find the answer. Oh well. Maybe the mystery goes hand-in-hand with the charm and loveliness and privilege of having known the people we called neighbors.

But living there was more than all those things: it was--as the young people say--awesome. One block with a dead end and a deep drop at the other end, down to Beechwood Blvd, one of the busiest streets in the neighborhood--that meant the children could play in the street. The cars that passed along our street were almost always driven by people we knew.

My mother lives in an assisted living place in Pittsburgh now, and one of the mothers of the children on the street lives there too. I was talking to her during my last visit and she told me this: Brian (her youngest son) said that he didn't want to have children until he found a street like Shady Avenue Ext. I think all the adults who grew up there during the 1950s feel the same.

So what made it so special? Part of it is a comparison between then and now. Not only did we not have gadgets and cell phones, we had very few toys. Toys were scarce; and our occupation when we weren't in school was to play. To play outside and not be underfoot when our mothers did their housework, and get fresh air and execise. That's what my mother told me. Rain was the only excuse to be indoors. But when we were inside we weren't allowed to watch television during the day. So what am I leading up to? We--the children--were forced into using our minds, arms, and legs a good portion of the days. We made use of what we had, sometimes things our mothers were going to throw away. We invented recycling, and we also relied on nature. The picture that accompanies this entry--the plantain weed--has always been a reminder, for me, of that time and those days. Why? Because the seeds of the plantain were easily detachable. You just ran your hand up the spines and you had a handfuls of seeds which could be saved in old mayonnaise jars, used and used again for games of "store" and "farm" and "playing house."

Even getting sick was fun on Shady Avenue Ext. There weren't vaccinations available then for the childhood illnesses and we all "suffered" through them together. If Bobby Small "came down" with chicken pox the mothers would sigh. They were all in for a siege of weepy children and short sleep. But it was fun because when the whole street got the sickness in waves, the children who got over the illness were allowed to visit the sick ones. I remember my friend Naomi coming over and playing Monopoly with me when I had the measles. And--these were the only times that we were allowed to watch daytime television.
Watch for part II.