Fashion River Night

I dreamt that Della, her awesome, now-adult, daughter Maya and I were in Pittsburgh, having just visited my father. I suppose we were headed back to the airport for our flights home. Dunno but there were a few stops on the way to where-ever.

Now then, this Pittsburgh was pure fantasy. Naturally – this was a cot-time imaginarium after all. It was filled with early 20th century style shopping arcades. The  Allegheny, Ohio and Monongahela rivers were all a beautifully crystal clear blue. The sky wasn’t clouded with smog – air was breathable. The joint was practically bucolic.

Della and I decided to do a bit of pre-flight shopping and stopped into a quaint, empty (!!!) dress shop. There she tried on a gorgeous, flowing, long dress. It was vaguely reminiscent of old west taffeta ball gowns with a large side of hippy coolness. Very Della. From there we found a place with the sweetest jammies. She tried on a cashmere, rose red union suit and effortlessly made the thing look swank and hip. On anyone else *cough* yurs truly *cough* it’d look all dowdy and oh please, NO. Lastly we picked up a winter coat for her – it was January after all. The jacket was quited but not Michelin Man-esque and made of a pale olive colored brushed silk. Again, Della took an unflashy garment, one not screaming FASHION CITY and made it look chic.

Yes, I'm jealous – how DOES she do this!

By this time, Maya was bored and decided to hop a train and head to…WHERE? Panic!  We were running along South Water Street near the Hot Metal Bridge, shouting for her to get off the train when I noticed, along DreamWorld’s pristine Monongahela River, it was the height of summer. Winter for us/summer on the water. Neat trick, eh? There were kiddles in swim trunks everywhere, jumping in and out of the water, swimming and even surfing.

Whoa, is swimming in Pittsburgh rivers actully OK now?! These had always been “working rivers” thus nasty and toxic as all Hell (Hell – not known for its hygienic, salubrious standards, just FYI)

Darren Miller, marathon swimmer and motivational speaker (AKA Cheerleader for Hire) sez:

“I never had issues running into logs or fish or garbage,” he said. “For the most part, the water is very clean. I can see my hands and my arm strokes ahead of me.” (source)

Ummmm, OK? but then there’s this:

The Ohio River ranked first among the nation's waterways for the most toxic discharges, with 31.1 million pounds, followed by the Mississippi River, the New River in North Carolina and Virginia, the Savannah River in Georgia and South Carolina, and the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
~~~snip~~~
The Monongahela River ranked 17th nationwide for total toxic discharges. The Schuylkill River ranked 49th and the Susquehanna River, 50th. (from a 2012 Pittsburgh Post Gazzette report)

I think I’ll stick with the science folk’s determinations, thanks.

Back in DreamLand, Della and I never caught up to Maya but it was just wondrous and beautiful to see all these adults and kiddles freely, happily (ecstatically even) frolicking to beat the band in a river, once so badly polluted that its waters could best be described as oozing not flowing. It may’ve never burst into flames like the nearby Cuyahoga but, ya know, it was, likely, a close thing.

Dirty Water – The Standells