【61】Three Float Ice Cream@Page Dairy Mart, South Side Pittsburgh

Few months back, when the summer just began this year, my boss +Michael Matesic at Idea Foundry, and my colleague and friend +Ruiying Yan went for a short sunny afternoon drive after a pleasant meeting in downtown Pittsburgh.

During the trip, Mike introduced his favorite ice cream growing up--Float, as well as a very special ice cream place in South Side Pittsburgh. Before heading back to our “smelly” office on Craig/Forbes right above bagel factory in Oakland, the golden corner of all time, Mike also showed us a suburb close to the ice cream place where he grew up . It was such an hearty experience.

We all ordered Float and felt happy about this early summer treat. Ice Cream, always good to lift spirits and sweeten memories. The Ice Cream place is called +Page Dairy Mart, which has been open since 1951. It is a family business and has gone through three generates within Page family to this day. We met Mr. Page, his wife and daughter in the store. Mr. Page even took some time and showed a wall full of the history of the shop and community behind his store. As he was vividly telling  old stories and pointing to those black and white pictures, I looked around and stepped into the old times thinking how magic time is and will always be. Behind the store, a huge bridge and some old factories are still there but have lost their old glories, yet this small store, a much vulnerable creature in size, is still enjoying prosperity after 60 some years. I wonder what the future would bring to this small yet delicious ice cream store as well as the mighty community it resides.

Visiting the neighborhood Mike grew up in was really Mike’s great intention to show Ruiying one interesting and signature part of American life--Suburbanity.  I enjoyed every minute of it. The old family house had been still beautifully maintained until recently was sold to a new family due to Mike’s mother moving into a nursing home. The house is so beautiful and I saw the family pride Matesic had growing up.  The community is well kept and gracefully holding the traditional American Pride. Mike even shared a story about his nickname amongst his friends growing up while passing a football field. I thought that was so sweet. Burger! Yeah, it seems that McDonalds has renewed their branding messages from a Kid’s fun restaurant to everybody’s favorite, since Mike’s affection for it as a kid. LOL . I think my nickname can be “Sugar Cone $0.47”.

Ruiying had a great time, so did I. We are very happy and fortunate to have a boss who cares people from his bottom of heart.

Now, looking back to have this experience entry, I wonder where did Summer go? Summer is almost over. So hurry up and go get some Page ice creams. Highly recommend Float, by the way.

Oh, Summer went camping.

Beer winning trivia @ Page Dairy Mart

Page Dairy Mart is currently located at the intersection of Beck’s Run Road and E. Carson Street, Pittsburgh, PA.  The Page family built a Gulf Service and Gas Station  in early 1910s. The family business went through ups and downs, including a flood’s destruction. In 1951, Page Dairy Mart opened. It is still prospering until today.

This Picture has significant value.  “Becks Run Road was eventually redirected under the railroad trestle approximately 75-100 feet south of where it appears in this photo.  The building that appears in this photo was known as the Ormsby Mansion and was the home of the Butterwick family.  Emma Butterwick was born here and grew up to marry Charles Alexander Page.  The building was destroyed in the Saint Patrick’s Flood and no longer exists.  It is interesting to note that the road is not paved but a wooden boardwalk is visible for foot traffic.  You can see what appears to be horse-drawn trolley tracks near the bottom of the photo (see the water-filled hoof marks between the tracks). There is a shadow of a telephone pole and power line coming up from the bottom left-hand corner. A gas streetlight is on the corner. This photo was probably taken in the spring and sometime near 1900.”

For more historical photos of this wonderful historical site, please visit HERE.

ID@South Side Pittsburgh

What are those cool government agencies located in South Side Pittsburgh? Let me start with FBI.

【60】 First Pirates Game--Go Bucks!@ PNC Park--And some random thoughts of a day

August 7, 2014

Went to bed at 4:30am on Thursday. Didn’t get up until 8:30am. So took a shower and headed to Pittsburgh Cares office in Lawrenceville. It was an eventful morning. Followed up on HandsOn Tech responsibilities. Need to think about making an infographic for HandsOn Tech work to hand it to Pittsburgh Cares and SJ. as a summary of Pittsburgh Team three year's duration.  I will get the number for Will, he would do it. What a great thought! Other things to consider to make sure no inconvenience would be brought about for Pittsburgh Cares staff after VISTAs have been gone.

Helped with Laura’s research on the Edu-tourism side for the responsibility at Idea Foundry. Outlined social media aspect of our foundation, and dealt with other small stuff. I felt that my brain is working very well. When i am feeling purely happy, I am also tired. So decided to take a lunch break and walked to see Suzi at Asian Influences, it is always so lovely to see her and her gallery. A woman with a passion for art, beautiful things, and the world, remains beautiful regardless of her age. Suzi is like that. Found two brush pen holders, and got them for $10 dollars. How nice! I also noticed that the Chinese characters on the holders are HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I want to keep them to myself, but also thinking to give them away as gifts. Well, I will keep it to myself. Matt's birthday just passed.…..LOL

Went to Mary Ellen’s Divertido to pick up three gifts chosen for Google mentors. Next Tuesday would be the last trip I make to Google for the HandsOn Tech work. After that, I will just miss the Google lunch. The gifts for Pittsburgh Cares crew would be given away on the 21st. Samira also has a mandatory meeting with VISTAs set up that day, plus the staff meeting. So everybody should be in the office. I also will donate 100 dollars for Pittsburgh Cares for all the opportunities I have had here, things i have learned, perks I have enjoyed., and mostly for all the good work the organization is doing for the region. It is a small contribution, but it is from my heart.

Wrote notes for everyone, including the last HandsOn Tech workshop speaker Amy on the 12th of August. Felt headache and went to Wendy’s to get something to eat. No cellphone, just walk and observe, and I felt that I am becoming so sensitive again. I miss my Grandpa, miss all those villagers who spent their life in the mountain and never got a chance to see the world outside, miss my parents. Felt sympathy for people in the Wendy’s. There are old folks, younger ones, smaller people and big people. People dress plainly and people dress extrovert loud. I wonder how their life is. I wonder whether or not they felt love and happiness once in a while. I hope everyone is loved and cared by someone. I felt bad about Father Morgan and Mother Morgan. It is a shame that they couldn’t make choice allowing themselves to have a peaceful and good life in the end.

When we are disconnected with our work, our immediate life, our cellphones and life on the web , in front of a computer, life seems to become more colorful and emotional. Sometime, I really like a dose of idleness. There is a value in that. The world somehow is becoming more and more indifferent in a way, I think it should be attributed to the fact that people are connected and immersed in their own world, and didn’t disconnect periodically to just take in others and their lives. That means to make ourselves vulnerable to honest emotions, which can become a distraction. Focus brings productivity, distraction brings creativity. Creativity along with productivity, life then garners gravity.

Pirates Game. PC perks again. It is the first time I experience it. from 7 to 10pm. I will miss out Luke babe and Matt’s sleeping time, but I got to experience it for the sake of the blog and experience itself.

Matt babe called, and it is so sweet that he said, since he would not see me in the evening, it is those time that he missed me the most….LOL. Happy Lingling.

The Pirates game itself is very slow and not so entertaining to me. Maybe we Asians have been accustomed to higher-pace games, like basketball, Soccer,  Volleyball, Ping pong, Tennis, and etc. After all, what we seek might be excitement rather than leisurement. However, the experience was still so very nice and I was very grateful that Pittsburgh Cares had all those perks.

PNC Park locates on the North shore of Pittsburgh. During the game,the clemente bridge, one of many bridges that connect downtown Pittsburgh to outskirts of the city across Allegheny River, would be closed for people who parked in downtown garages to work to the arena. Since I was terrified parking downtown, after all that is where I first time hurt my car and  Matt was very upset about it, I asked my colleague fellow VISTA Will True to give me a ride. He was gladly agreed and we parked and walked across the clemente bridge. As I was walking, I was amused by the fact that Americans finally gave up their cars and started to walk for a decent 5 minutes or so for a ballpark game.  This is quite unusual if you consider that most of them would drive from their garage to the mailbox at the end of their driveway to get morning papers. Maybe it is human nature to give up certain things they held dearly and stubbornly if the price is right. In this case, Pirates game served them well.

I walked around the arena and along the river front before the game started, it was such a great feeling to face all those high-up modern buildings across the river, to be backed by an elegant arena full of joyful people, and to know that in between the two magnificent beings the ever-wonderful Allegheny river peacefully channels a life on the water. Let it be those private boats, the tourist yart, those tiny rafts paddling, or even the carefree duck or geese families, and people who sat on the grass in  those tree shadows or those who are bicycling, fit and beautiful. It is a great feeling to know the city is not in a rush. If you want, there is always a place you can slow down and recharge. Called Matt while sitting along the river taking all these surroundings in. It was a nice appetizer for the game.

It is true that people are very much eating the whole way through a Pirates Game. When I found my seat, it was about 10 minutes before the game start. Half an hour into the game, I still saw people flowing into their seats with handful of food and drinks. One hour into the game, the arena became full. A lot of cheers started to circle the park. Deb and I tried to text our messages to the big flowing band screen, our message never made it. We do see a lot of people are not shy expressing their love for one and another, or their excitement for the game! Although I bet most of them were distracted by food, conversations, and the voice of the host  or music in the air. Many things were going on at the same time. I had no sense how the game works. Thanks to Deb to give me some ideas, I was not completely lost. As Deb put it, this is not a game with a great of labor, but it does require high-level of skills. Well, that would do.

Usually the game would last for three hours. Will and I decided to leave earlier to avoid the traffic jam following the end of the game. I felt bad about not following through, but then when we bumped into many other like-minded people here and there on the way out, I felt less unease. Maybe this is part of the experience. The results didn’t matter much for the spectators. What matters was the experience that many people came together for a function and each of them got some enjoyment out of that function. I definitely did garner a whole lot of memories.

Oh, it is not that matters, but the game was between Pittsburgh Pirates and Miami Martins. My seat was section 311 K-9. At the time we were leaving, the score was 5:0 Pirates was way ahead of Martins. Never knew the exact score at the end of the game. Didn’t make a small effort to even ask Deb, because that is part of my first ever Pirates/ballpark Game. Not knowing the results of the game but have been there and experienced a whole lot. No junk food or drinks though. How about that! But I will not be surprised if Pirates won. After all, Pittsburgh is a city of Championship! Go Bucks!

Here ends the day of August 7th, and my first Ballpark game ever. What a wonderful experience. Well if it counts.