Category: default || By jt3y

The Tube City Almanac Information Booth is open for business once again. Ed in Washington, Pa., writes:

Don't ask me what I was looking for when I found your website, but I stumbled on the info about old nightclubs and bands, and I thought I'd take a shot.

Twenty-five minutes ago I was listening to an old four-track stereo reel-to-reel tape recording that I made live at The Cove nightclub on Route 51 in Large, Pa., in 1961 or '62. The tape was of the "Oncomers", that I'm pretty sure were making the circuit around the Mon Valley (including McKeesport) at that time.

You mentioned this band on your site, and if you have any clue as to how I might reach any surviving member, (I'm sure that lifestyle takes it's toll) I'd greatly appreciate it. I thought that their guitarist was one of the best I ever heard, and listening to this old tape as brought me hours of enjoyment.

My only reason for trying to find one of them is so I might give them back some of this music so they can show their grandchildren, if they want to.

If you can't help, don't bother responding to this. I'm sure you are busy enough with things that matter to someone.

Well, Ed, if you've read this Website, then you can tell I'm obviously not busy with anything that matters to anyone.

So I'll throw the question out to the crowd: Anyone remember The Oncomers? The only information I can find is a brief mention in a 2001 story by Ed Masley and Scott Mervis in the Post-Gazette. Email me if you can help Alert Reader Ed.

...

Alert Reader Jonathan, meanwhile, asks if I caught the reference to Our Fair City during Sunday's Steelers-Browns game:

A little Mon Valley anecdote for you, or something like that. I was listening to the Steelers game on the radio, and in the fourth quarter, safety Russell Stuvaints returned a fumble for a touchdown. Bill Hillgrove said "He's running straight up Lysle Boulevard" and I was thinking "Hmm ... why the McKeesport reference, or is there another Lysle Boulevard." Well, it turns out Stuvaints is from McKeesport.

Indeed, he is. In fact, Stuvaints lettered three times in football at McKeesport Area High School and set a school record for rushing. And other Mon-Yough types may have first seen him playing in the Foothills Football Classic several years ago.

Stuvaints is a graduate of Youngstown State University, where he played in the NCAA Division I-AA championship game in 1999 and set a school record in the 40-yard dash. At last report, his parents still lived in Our Fair City.

Lysle Boulevard, of course, is named for the late Mayor George H. Lysle, a Republican, who infuriated local Democrats for years and years by doing things like using the city police to harass union organizers, for instance.

In the 1930s, when Jerome Avenue was widened --- using federal tax money --- the city fathers decided to rename it in Lysle's honor.

According to contemporary newspaper accounts, the Roosevelt administration then threatened to make the city pay back the money on the grounds that federally-funded public works projects could not be named for people still in office. The name of the street reverted to "Jerome Avenue" --- hence the "Jerome Avenue Bridge" --- until Lysle left office.

Just don't ask me who Jerome was.

Speaking of Lysle Boulevard, our Steel Valley correspondent recently had to have some medical tests done and was told that he could visit a clinic in McKeesport on "Lissley" Boulevard. Um, not quite.

It reminds me of the time I tried to rent a car from the Enterprise agent in North Versailles Township, only to be told (rather snootily) by the reservation clerk that I was mispronouncing the name. "It's pronounced verh-SIGH," he said. "And I think you mean 'verh-SIGH,' Kentucky."

"No, I mean North ver-SAYLES, Pennsylvania," I replied, "which is nowhere near verh-SIGH, Kentucky. But rather than argue with you, I think I'm going to call Budget instead."

Besides, the jerk was wrong. According to a Sept. 19 article in the Lexington Herald-Leader, the town in Kentucky pronounces its name "ver-SAYLES," too. I have since learned that towns in Indiana and Missouri named "Versailles" also pronounce the word "ver-SAYLES," which someone recently tried to convince me was the "Italian pronunciation of 'Versailles.'"

Some how I doubt that. Still, the thought occurs to me that maybe it's the French who don't know how to say "Versailles," and that we here in the Mon-Yough area are correct after all. (Who are we to argue with Kentucky, Missouri and Indiana?)

And after we win that fight, we'll make the French change their pronunciation of "DuBois," to match the way they say it up in Clearfield County. To arms! Liberté, égalité, fraternité, ou la mort!

Which, roughly translated, means "Liberty, Port Vue, Glassport and Lincoln." Or something like that.