I Come From The Valley

Tim, my brother. Edinboro, PA. March 2015. Great end to my spring break from teaching. Long walk and good conversation about the greatness of Nintendo 64 and 80's horror flicks. I was helping to produce stories yesterday with students at a workshop and now I'm recharged for the end of the semester.

On my way out. Monongahela, PA. March 2015. Early morning with no one on the road allowed me to take this. There are a few amazing views around here and this is one of them.

Storms a brewin. Donora, PA March 2015.

I had to stop the car to get this shot early in the morning on Friday. The Monongahela splits the valley and was once a major industry for this area. Barges still make their way up and down the waterway, but the steel mills that once lined the river banks are long gone. It's a ghost of what it use to be, slowly winding it's way through the valley. It's always there but sometimes we forget about it in the background and only remember when flood waters rise and swallow up roads.

Do you feel lucky? February 2015. Monessen, PA. I really want to believe you bus stop ad. I really do. 

Donora from across the river. February 2015. Monessen, PA. The last few months have me feeling stagnant. I believe sometimes you jump into a project and you're excited and prepared to tear the world apart. Soon you start comparing yourself to others or feel that you might not have the skills you need to make this happen. Kind of how the Monongahela has been feeling once it freezes over. Stuck in time, moving very slowly. I'm trying to push through my own ice blocks and get the current moving again, If you don't tell these stories soomeone else will.

Elizabeth, PA. January 2015.

Industrial Park in Donora. January 2015. The end of the road at the Industrial Park of Donora. Area filled with warehouses and a few businesses. I read that they believed this would be a big kick start for the area, but they haven't added much to this place in a quite sometime. 

Heard a lot of stories about the old Donora High School and the Donora Dragons football team from my grandfather. This use to be the old high school before it became Donora Elementary Center. That has since closed and was recently bought by the town. No idea what they plan to do with it at the moment. Although my grandfather wanted to play on one of the historic football teams his dad, my great grandfather never let him. I've been thinking of opportunities and doing something with the chances we have. If my grandfather would of got the chance to go to college he would of been a radio broadcast major. Those opportunities were few and far between, I hate to think I'm wasting my chances. I wonder if everyone has that same thought? What would the people who came before me think of me now?

More images and thoughts coming soon. This is just the start.