You have to go to Google maps/satellite, etc. and punch in Natrona and the other places I mention(ed). You will ses Argonne at the bottom of the hills and parallel to the river.
The 1" or so rusty pipe coming out of the mountain was eventually replaced with a stainless steel one and the entire front area, about 5'x6' was nicely cemented frontage. Nice grammer.
The water still flowed 24/7 and their were ALWAYS cars lined up to get their 5 gallon maximum-unless no one was there which was unlikely-or they didn't already see how many you hid in the trunk before they got there!
I am fast forwarding here: mom and I were recently married and we had this cute little 2 room+ bath apartment. we were the first renter's. It was originally a a ranch house, kinda built into the hillside(small slope). there was a larger apartment next to us which use to be the basement and the top level was the biggest apartment; ours was originally the double garage. Serious! The owner had a remodel supply store next door and he made 3 units from this brick house. It really WAS cute! A 2 lane access road was in front, then a large divide of grass, then the new Freeport road,(expressway to be) which went from Freeport all the way to the city of Pittsburgh(and,yes Pittsburgh was one of the few "burg's" that had an "H" on the end. Behind us, was the quietest neighborhood around-probably about 3,000 people. It was called, "Mt. Airy" cemetery, and they were dead silent. We would love to go for walks in the evening because it was so peaceful. It was one of the new "garden" style of cemetery's, which meant all flat marble/brass name stones. Garden, my butt! They made it this way, like all new cemeteries so the lawnmowers could zip right over them. Otherwise, it was hand mowers and hand clippers around the elevated grave stones. Weed Eaters had not been invented yet. The old cemeteries were labor intensive. During the day. we worked in a suburb of Pittsburgh, called Fox Chapel. You could not build a house there unless you bought a minimum of four acre's of property. They were multimillion dollar estates. Our "office" was within a small office building, about the size of a ranch house. I came up with "M.E.D.I.card-had to use the periods after a copyright search. I got a hold of "Andy" and three of his investor's to put up the money for me to develop the product and I put mom on the payroll as my secretary. These 4 guys(Andy was a VP with Dari-Delite, the ice cream franchise my folks got involved with @ Pymatuning Lake, kind of like the Dairy Queen of central PA. They took the first letter of each of their name's and called their company "Able Investment." They were as close to working for a crime syndicate as one could find. FYI: The card was white, red letter's and had a small 3/8" x 1/2" piece of microfilm sandwiched in a lower corner containing a person's health history, insurance, etc. We were to provide all the hospitals in our sales area with a micro reader, so they could read the person's card if he/she were taken to an E.R. Neat, huh? The "boys got a hold of the governor's past campaign manager because of his connections. Their approach: Bill(salesman/crook) would talk with the big wigs of first, the United Steel Worker's Union. They would "vote" that their millions of members buy the card involuntarily through a union/payroll deduction. Cost: $6.00/ card and the union V.I.P.'s would get a $2.00 cut for their strenuous efforts. The Steelworkers biggies thought it was a great idea and suggested Bill not wait but go up to Detroit and see the UAW. This was my "baby," from design to securing a Graphics Co. to make them. But as time went on, I got an eerie feeling I was in over my head; after all, I was only around 23 years old. So we took everything out of the office, left a letter that I quit with the head secretary of the building to give it to the "Four." The next day, they show up at our cute little apartment and puled out a roll of cash. They finally realize I meant "NO," when they got to a "$700.00, won't you come back and run the place." I and only me had the knowledge(in my head) on how to make these cards. Sweat was running down the crack of my butt cause these guys could make me disappear off the globe. And I am dead serious(no pun intended). I only tell you these things now, becuae all the "investors are dead Back to Argonne, etc. One Christmas(B.C.-before church), I bought mom a cast iron coffee mill, which we still have and found at an off beat restaurant supply company on Liberty St. in Pittsburgh, plus a bag of whole bean "Eight O'clock coffee,(made by the front runner of big grocery stores, called A & P, for Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company) and a 5th of Tia Maria, a coffee liquor., which gave the coffee an interesting flavor, and 20 minutes later, all was right with the world.
This was before "coffee maker's and we had a glass Pyrex(brand coffee pot, glass lid and a glass peculator-which had glass sides and pedestal which had a glass container at the top. The only metal was an aluminum bottom that the glass sided container rested on a ridge on the stem. Often, @ 3 or 4 in the morning, we would go down Argonne for some ice cod, fresh spring water, Use the cast iron grinder, turn the wheel enough times to fill the basket with ground beans, to make 10 cups of coffee. If you don't know, as the water got hot on the glass bottom(it sat on a stove burner), capillary action would make it rise and bubble to the top, over the grounds and eventually seep through the aluminum bottom, full of holes. After awhile it would boil or "Peculate" like crazy and you could smell the aroma throughout the apartment. We actually loved the smell of the beans and making it, as much, or more, than drinking it! So that is why I have a fond memory of Argonne Drive-along with my wife.Side Note: It was also fun, and a lot more controllable, riding my bike down the Hill because it had a long and more gentle slope than Mile lock Lane or Morgan Street. Second side note: My Granddad Valencic absolutely refused to come up and see us (we lived in the 2200 block of Old Freeport RD.) because he was totally freaked out that we lived by a cemetery.Next(maybe!): Guppies and the Old Cemeteries.
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