I’m looking back to see if she’s looking back at me , in my model “T”. That’s not quite the truth, as I remembered back to the late forties and early fifties when we were meeting at Lakeview for our Christmas Party this year...

The Lincoln Highway was a two lane road. There was no Lakeview, Wal-Mart Plaza or McDonalds and a Pizza Hut. But where the Pizza Hut is now was the “Everglades”, a local hangout for the young crowd from the Greensburg and Jeannette area. The Everglades before WWII had soft drinks and sandwiches, a juke box and a dance floor. Sometime after the war it had a bar.

Among the young group from Jeannette was a fellow who lived and talked about big motors and fast cars. He had a nickname of “Motor”. At sometime he showed up with an Oldsmobile Tudor sedan with the Rocket 88 motor. He had also installed a non factory accessory at the time, zebra seat covers. “Motor” was always looking for someone to drag with in front of the Everglades. He and some other fellow would line up, another fellow would drop the white towel and off they would take, either East or West on RT30. Of course “ Motor” always won. So one evening “Motor” was bragging about his rocket 88 and some fellow thought he had a faster car. This was music to Motor’s ears.

Out they went to the parking lot and the young man got into a Hudson Hornet. They lined up, motors revved up, the white towel dropped and off they took. At the top of the hill the Hudson was ahead. Back to the parking lot, “Motor” complained he hadn’t gotten of right, so they lined up again. The Hudson was at the top of the hill again. This ended “Motors” bragging about having the fastest car.

Eventually, the crowd of young people moved on and the Everglades was sold. RT 30 became four lanes, Lakeview was built along with the shopping mall and McDonalds but the memories of those years are still the best

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