John Tener

Though he was born in Ireland, grew up in Pittsburgh, and is buried only a few blocks from my house, former Pennsylvania governor John Tener's historical marker is in Charleroi, where he worked as a banker between his professional baseball career and his political career. Tener served only one term as governor, from 1911 to 1915, but he established the first state standards for education and established state control over thousands of public roads. Not too shabby for four years' work. During his brief time in Congress, he established an annual Congressional Baseball Game, which apparently is still held.

Charleroi

Friday's post, and the rest of this week's, came from the town of Charleroi, a small town on the Monongahela about an hour south of Pittsburgh. I'd never been there before, but I thought it was a nice town, and it seemed better off than a lot of other places in the region. According to Wikipedia, the area's population has declined substantially, but some industry remains in the area with a large Pyrex plant, which I'm sure has helped keep it relatively well off.

Theatricals

Next week we're starting a new photo series here at PDP, but today I wanted to put up this teaser photo, mostly because I know frequent commenter AWG will enjoy it. Tune in next week when we find out where T.F.P. is.

171st Air Refueling Wing

Thanks to Faithful Reader Chris for this excellent photo of the 171st Air Refueling Wing, part of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard based at Pittsburgh International Airport.

Summer

I found this photo in my "miscellaneous" file and know I took it last summer, but I'm not sure where. Volant, maybe? It looks exactly like the weather feels these last few days, though, so I thought I'd put it up.

Quiet Storm mural

OK, I think we're actually all better now, and back to normal. Sorry about that. And today we're concluding our series on Garfield street art with this mural, found above the Quiet Storm coffeehouse.

Garfield street art, part 3

We continue today with these lovely flowers. I've seen them in several places, actually, which makes me wonder if they're some organized project or insignia. If anyone knows more, please let me know.