Category: Pointless Digressions || By

As I've mentioned before, I could spend the rest of my life at the library, looking at microfilm, and not get bored.

Especially when I keep turning up items like this one:

That's right: Tailgunner Joe came to town in 1951 to make a speech at Tech High stadium. Tech High, for you young'uns, is what they used to call Cornell Intermediate School.

The stadium was next door along Spring Street; the bleachers were torn down years ago. (MHS alums of the '50s and '60s can probably remember when football games against local rivals like Glassport, Duquesne and Homestead high schools generated brawls among spectators that spilled out onto Spring Street and into surrounding neighborhoods. Ah, the "good" old days.)

We should erect some sort of monument to McCarthy befitting his personality. Maybe an upended whiskey bottle surrounded by blank sheets of paper --- like the ones he used to claim listed the names of "card-carrying Communists."

I sent that clipping to a friend with a historical bent, who asks:

Over the years, I often wondered what happened to the Junto, which I understood to be a group of people who enjoyed discussions about issues of importance. I know there was (and still is) a Junto Pavilion in Renzie Park, but little else about what happened to the organization.

Wikipedia says that the first "Junto" was founded in 1726 by Benjamin Franklin:

The group, initially composed of twelve members, called itself the Junto (the word is a mistaken use of the masculine singular Spanish adjective "joined", mistaken for the feminine singular noun "junta", "a meeting" ... The members of the Junto were drawn from diverse occupations and backgrounds, but they all shared a spirit of inquiry and a desire to improve themselves, their community, and to help others. Among the original members were printers, surveyors, a cabinetmaker, a cobbler, a clerk, and a merchant. Although most of the members were older than Franklin, he was clearly their leader.

Are there any ex-members of the McKeesport Junto around? I'd be interested to hear whatever became of the group. I think they lasted at least until the 1960s. The McKeesport Junto is also the organization that sponsored the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1947, as some of you know.

Like so many of these civic groups, I suspect they had a hard time getting people to join. Americans used to love to join bowling leagues, civic organizations, lodges, volunteer fire departments, clubs and fraternities; it's been well documented that all of those groups are in severe decline.

As a member of a couple of volunteer groups, including the model railroad club in Christy Park, I can tell you that plenty of people express interest, but when you actually ask them to commit to donating some time, they mumble and look at the floor. In the city, the Elks, Eagles and Moose have all faded, and I'm sure that the Kiwanis, Lions and Rotary clubs are suffering, too. (Do we still have the Jaycees?)

It's doubly hard in McKeesport; these things used to be run by local business owners, and we have very few of those any more. They're also primarily geared for young professionals, and we don't have enough of those, either.

I suspect, however, that one thing would feed the other. If we had some organizations in the Mon Valley that were dedicated to young professionals, maybe they would attract other young professionals into the area.

Pittsburgh has "PUMP" --- the "Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project."

Maybe we need the "McKeesport Urban Magnet Project." I can see it now: "Come to the Mon Valley and get MUMPS!" (Which you have to admit is better than syphillis.)

OK, I'm making light, but it's not a bad idea. There must be enough recent college grads around to support something like this.

And if no one's using the name "Junto," I say grab it. If it was good enough for Ben Franklin, it ought to be good enough now.

However, we won't be able to get Joe McCarthy to come back to town, and I, for one, am glad about that.