Pittsburgh was known for its steel mills but tucked away in a valley next to those mills was another major industrial enterprise. George Westinghouse invented the airbrake and followed that with the Westinghouse Electric Company. Nikola Tesla worked for Westinghouse whose chief competitor was Thomas Edison's General Electric. Above the Westinghouse plant was the Bessemer Terrace and just over the hill was Braddock Pennsylvania where General Braddock was killed while one of his young officers, George Washington survived to greater fame. It is a historic and industrially historic area.
Poland, England, Ireland and Scotland contributed to the making of two families that were my grandparents. The Westinghouse Electric Corporation supplied them with employment. Both Grandfathers, my father and numerous uncles retired from Westinghouse which took them through the Great Depression. Although not as bad as described in The Grapes of Wrath, there was no money to spare. My grandfather worked away in the basement for a toy cradle or doll that was added to an orange for a Christmas present. I have visited my mother and father's childhood homes on occasion, looked over the same hill where my mother and her friends climbed down a ways to smoke a cigarette. I visited the hospital building that my mother worked at a switchboard where my father would visit to talk after returning home from the Pacific, badly burned from a Kamikaze attack on his transport ship.
What might my son be able to say of me? He visited the modest apartments where my mother and I lived, the all boys high school where I wore a tie and sports coat, The storefront's that I hung around and ballfields where my time was spent or the university my wife and I graduated from. He can talk about a trip to Europe, Greece and Turkey and numerous vacations up and down the East Coast as well as Civil War battlefields and Disney World. He can talk about nightly conversations on the Christian faith, life and politics. Lord willing and only through God's grace, should He grant it, what will his son or daughter say of him?
The challenges of this generation will be enormous. They will be fighting for the very existence of America. They will have to ward off the long tentacles of Postmodernism. Will they see a Reformation, much needed in the church? Or will they be the generation that witnesses the climatic events the Bible tells of when Jesus Christ returns. Maybe, should the Lord tarry, something like this will make a good fiction trilogy. I wasted much of my youth. I contributed little. Maybe that is why I am trying to make up for lost time as the society that I helped corrupt through my narcissism and inattention begins to completely unravel. I do have the opportunity to give advice to a younger generation through the painful wisdom of past mistakes. God extended His grace and blessing to me, which should encourage anyone. If you have read some of my previous posts, you may think that I am a pessimist. I consider myself a complete optimist, for I know that the bleaker the situation, the more wonderful His rescue would be, and it surely would come about should He will it. And if He does not will it, then that is equally part of His plan that will bring Him glory and that is the only thing of real importance.
Poland, England, Ireland and Scotland contributed to the making of two families that were my grandparents. The Westinghouse Electric Corporation supplied them with employment. Both Grandfathers, my father and numerous uncles retired from Westinghouse which took them through the Great Depression. Although not as bad as described in The Grapes of Wrath, there was no money to spare. My grandfather worked away in the basement for a toy cradle or doll that was added to an orange for a Christmas present. I have visited my mother and father's childhood homes on occasion, looked over the same hill where my mother and her friends climbed down a ways to smoke a cigarette. I visited the hospital building that my mother worked at a switchboard where my father would visit to talk after returning home from the Pacific, badly burned from a Kamikaze attack on his transport ship.
What might my son be able to say of me? He visited the modest apartments where my mother and I lived, the all boys high school where I wore a tie and sports coat, The storefront's that I hung around and ballfields where my time was spent or the university my wife and I graduated from. He can talk about a trip to Europe, Greece and Turkey and numerous vacations up and down the East Coast as well as Civil War battlefields and Disney World. He can talk about nightly conversations on the Christian faith, life and politics. Lord willing and only through God's grace, should He grant it, what will his son or daughter say of him?
The challenges of this generation will be enormous. They will be fighting for the very existence of America. They will have to ward off the long tentacles of Postmodernism. Will they see a Reformation, much needed in the church? Or will they be the generation that witnesses the climatic events the Bible tells of when Jesus Christ returns. Maybe, should the Lord tarry, something like this will make a good fiction trilogy. I wasted much of my youth. I contributed little. Maybe that is why I am trying to make up for lost time as the society that I helped corrupt through my narcissism and inattention begins to completely unravel. I do have the opportunity to give advice to a younger generation through the painful wisdom of past mistakes. God extended His grace and blessing to me, which should encourage anyone. If you have read some of my previous posts, you may think that I am a pessimist. I consider myself a complete optimist, for I know that the bleaker the situation, the more wonderful His rescue would be, and it surely would come about should He will it. And if He does not will it, then that is equally part of His plan that will bring Him glory and that is the only thing of real importance.
