Issue 3 - Summer/Fall 2007

Putting a Positive Spin on Things
Valentine J. Brkich

Well, it’s been a while since you’ve last heard from us at The Bridge. Sorry. I guess we’ve been a little busy this summer.

I’ve been working on a nursery for our first child who is due in late September. Since I’m a writer and not a carpenter, you can see why this would be a time-consuming task. Luckily my father-in-law—who, unlike me, knows what a router is—has been generously donating much of his valuable time to the project.

My partner in crime and co-editor of The Bridge, Nate (a.k.a Raphael, a.k.a. Pete Striker, a.k.a. F. Nathan) has been busy this summer as well, but it has nothing to due with a nursery. He’s been overseas teaching English to students in Austria, a noble and exhausting undertaking.

So you can see why we haven’t had time to pump out a new issue in some time. But we finally found some time to get something down on paper—hence the latest issue, which now rests in your hands.

I’ve been feeling a little grumpy lately and was planning on using this issue as a soapbox, if you will, to air my grievances. You see, I’ve been listening to way too much talk radio lately. Especially during the afternoon from 12-3 p.m. on our beloved KDKA. This has proven to be a grave mistake on my part. It has done nothing but get my blood boiling and fill my mind with a boatload of negativity. This is never a good thing. Although I always strive to be positive, more than not I find myself focusing on the negative. This can be an extremely unhealthy practice, not just for myself but for those around me as well.

In light of this enlightenment, I’ve decided to change course and not use this issue as my own personal rant. Instead, I’d like to reiterate the purpose of The Bridge to the Beaver County community.

The Bridge is intended to be a positive, enlightening, informative, creative resource for the people of our communities. Today’s media is too focused on shock value and negative stories. Our local newspapers are filled with way too much negative news and way too little positive news. If you have something good to say, something that will be beneficial to the community, it seems impossible to get anyone to listen.

But not here.

The Bridge is your community journal. It is a place for the people of Beaver County to share their creative talents. It is both a literary journal and a community newsletter. It is a place to share your stories, your poems, your memories, your musings. It is also your platform for sharing good, positive news about your community. If you have some information you think would be of value to the rest of Beaver County, this is your tool for getting it out there. And we won’t charge you to print it like some other so-called “local” publications do.

For example, just a few weeks ago, from August 17 through August 19, my town of Bridgewater held the annual Beaver County River Regatta, which last year came back home to where it all started back in the 1970s. If you weren’t able to make it down to the event, it was a wonderful celebration. With the help of some beautiful, sunny summer weather, this year’s Regatta was even better than the last, with so much to see and do. It was the perfect example of the kind of family-oriented events that make this county so special. Thank you to all who participated in the Regatta and to all who helped to put it all together.

Also, on October 13, Bridgewater will be holding its annual Fall Festival from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. on Bridge Street. The main street will be closed to allow for vendors and fun activities for the whole family. There will also be great live music all day long, including a performance by the talented singer/songwriter Joel Lindsay, a native of London, England. You really won’t want to miss it.

If you have similar good news about your community or school or organization, this is the place to publicize it. And again, we won’t charge you a penny to do it. Just send it along in an email to ContactTheBridge@gmail.com.

If you’d like to advertise in The Bridge, we can help you out there, too. Just send us an email today, or give me a call at 724.775.9815. We distribute The Bridge to all local cafes, coffee shops, public libraries and other places where people gather together. We can help you get the word out.

Once again I’d like to reiterate that The Bridge is here for you. We want to know about your positive, informative, beneficial good news. I’m going to do my part to be more positive by stopping listening to so much negative talk radio and by stopping reading all the negative news printed in the newspapers. It’s just no good for me, and I’m sure my wife will appreciate it. Now we just need you to do your part and share your good news with the rest of the Beaver County community.

The Bridge is your vehicle for spreading good news. Take advantage of it today.

ContactTheBridge@gmail.com



In Town
by Valentine J. Brkich

I see a lot of strange and remarkable things when I’m walking around Beaver and Bridgewater.

For example, a couple weeks ago I was walking in Bridgewater with my wife when we saw a man pushing a baby in a stroller. Nothing strange about that. What was strange was that the man was wearing a gasmask and had an air tank strapped to his back. Usually, such a sight would have alarmed me. But since the baby was sans mask, we figured the air was safe to breathe. I can’t explain what the man was doing. My guess is that he was acting on some sort of dare.

Then in Beaver the other day I witnessed a battle between a rabbit and a crow. I was running along River Road when I noticed the courageous hare fending off the rather large black bird. I assume the rabbit was protecting its young, which were probably nearby somewhere. It was quite a show of bravery on the rabbit’s part. The crow was twice its size. I did my part by chasing the bird a few blocks down the street, hopefully driving it away for good.

I feel very fortunate to live in such a walk-able community that allows for these types of bizarre and exciting encounters. We’re lucky to have so many safe, scenic, tree-lined streets and sidewalks to stroll along. Most people don’t have this.

I was in Fayetteville, NC, visiting a relative a couple months ago. The weather was nice, but there was no town. There were no shady streets and historic neighborhoods. There weren’t any parks with kids and dogs jumping around either. Neighborhoods were tucked away off the four-lane highway that seemed to stretch on forever. Every mile or so there was a strip mall or a fast-food joint and then another strip mall and another fast-food joint. And if you drove long enough, you’d see the same stores and restaurant chains again and again. It wasn’t a town. It wasn’t a community. It was just a place. A place without an identity.

Fayetteville reminded me of a similar “town” in Pennsylvania about 20 minutes northeast of here—a “town” that always talks of growth and progress. But is it really a town at all when you can go to the same stores, day after day, year after year, and not see a familiar face? I don’t think so.

Our towns aren’t perfect. We’ve seen some rough times, economically, and the population is a fraction of what it used to be. But we’ve persevered, nonetheless. We still have our downtowns and our historic neighborhoods and our brick streets and our community parks and our rivers and friendly people and so much more. And we are seeing changes every day as our towns evolve and become new again. In Aliquippa, Ambridge, Beaver, Beaver Falls, Bridgewater, Freedom, Midland, Monaca, New Brighton and Rochester, I see new stores and new life and new possibilities. What do you see?

When’s the last time you took a walk in your town? Put down the remote. Step away from the computer. Wash the car tomorrow. Put on your sneakers, head out the door and see what you discover. Keep your eyes open and take it all in. Take advantage of your town and all it has to offer. And when you see a man in a gasmask pushing a stroller, or a struggle for life between predator and prey, or anything else of note for that matter, write it down and send it to us. We’d love to hear about it. And so would your neighbors.


Feels Like Fall

Wind is blowing
Leaves are falling
Squirrels are hording
School bus rolling
Footballs flying
Towels a’swirling
Pumpkins growing
Lawnmowers slowing
Days are shortening
Nights are cooling
Pools are closing
Pace is slowing
Summer’s fading
Fall is knocking
Winter’s coming
Wind is blowing

—Valentine J. Brkich

Good News!
By Staff Writers

Jim Johnson of Beaver rides his bike to Giant Eagle for groceries with saddle bags.......now he's super happy! The new mayor of Beaver County (as yet to be determined) decides that connecting all of the towns with bike paths and walking trails is the best thing to do...and everyone unanimously agrees, and that’s how he becomes the new mayor of beaver county... Mary and Tom Hanover decide to stop shopping at all fake pharmacies like Right Aid, Eckurd, CeeVeeS, and instead get all their things either from their garden, local stores such as Giant Eagle or their hometown pharmacy, and by making it "Like it should be," says Tom. "I always felt like those weird box drug stores were trying to take over the town...like Aliens!" Big Gary Wendt of Center says he's had enough of driving and only will get by on his bike, walking, or taking the bus. Since he started three weeks ago, he's much happier now. Tracy Jones of Bridgewater has banned all strip malls from her shopping experience. In fact, she now only goes places with nice architecture. Val Brier-patch, also of Bridgewater, says now that he's "stopped listening to such fools as Honsman and K-Mill, and other right wing propogandists", his doctor says not only has Val’s blood-pressure dropped and he's lost ten pounds, but his rosy complexion can mean nothing less than he and his wife will have a baby soon, and everybody's happy! Nate Erikson and Dave McD of Beaver and Center respectively, decide to go out for drinks on their bikes. "Cops actually waved to us and gave us the Mentos smile" said Nate. Also, they got compliments from random passerby's; and three different chicks said that "That's cool, we dig bikes!", and "So do we!" added dave. The Women’s Federation of Beaver County, the FBC, decides unanimously last week to “only shop on Main Street”, or so it says in their new constitution, and this makes not only them happy, but their husbands too, so now, everybody’s happy!


GEOGRAPHY LESSON
By Don Bemis

We are on the bank of the Beaver River, more or less in the town of Beaver, in the county of Beaver, in the valley of Beaver, eight miles south of Beaver Falls where they built a dam (but not a beaver dam due to a beaver shortage) so there aren't any falls any more, about fifteen miles south of New Beaver which was new a long time ago, and sort of southwest of Big Beaver which isn't very big and isn't on the Beaver River. An Indian chief named King Beaver lived here more than two hundred years ago. When these folks find a name they like, they stick with it. We have a Beaver zip code but really live in Bridgewater, population 780, four streets wide, squeezed between the railroad and the river. It used to be called West Bridgewater to avoid confusion with another Bridgewater outside of Philadelphia. Now it's just called Bridgewater, and confusion reigns. Yahoo will tell you we live 321.4 miles from here. We don't.

In our Bridgewater, Bridge Street crosses Beaver River water via the Bridgewater-Rochester Bridge to get to Rochester on the opposite bank, where Bridge Street changes its name to Madison. Many Rochester streets are named after deceased Presidents who probably never made it to Rochester. There is no street named for President Garfield, who nearly drowned nearby. He was eventually assassinated instead, but not in Rochester.

The Bridgewater-Rochester Bridge is not to be confused with the Beaver-Rochester Bridge a block further south, where Highway 68 changes its name to Highways 68, 65, and 18 just in case somebody isn't lost yet. If you're in the wrong lane, you may find yourself on the Rochester-Monaca Bridge across the Ohio River. Meanwhile, back in Bridgewater, a block south of the Beaver-Rochester Bridge, a railroad bridge crosses Beaver River water right where it becomes Ohio River water. A different railroad bridge on a different railroad crosses Ohio River water - including former Beaver River water - on the line that separates Beaver from Bridgewater. Trains can't get from one train bridge to the other.

So Beaver isn't actually on the Beaver. Bridgewater is. The Beaver Valley nuclear plant isn't in the Beaver Valley. It's ten miles down the Ohio Valley, on the south bank in Shippingport, where they mostly ship electricity. If the plant were three miles further west, it would be in Chester, West Virginia (not to be confused with Rochester, Pennsylvania), within a stone's throw of the World's Largest Teapot, and across the water from East Liverpool, Ohio, which is a long way west of the more famous Liverpool. If the power plant were on the north side of the Ohio, it would be in Midland, Pennsylvania, which is about as far from the middle of the state as you can get without changing license plates. Midland is south of Ohioville, Pennsylvania. The World's Largest Teapot, by the way, was an ice cream stand. They didn't sell tea.


the re-integration project
by nathan peluso

a re-constitutional rough draft this fall, the reintegration project is going to focus primarily on one thing, a constitution – maybe even a ten commandment of sorts. this constitution/ten commandments is to re-outline, in no uncertain terms, the reintegration project theme which is, as you know: back to nature, back to the basics, back to a better understanding, and connection, for us all ................ thus... walk if thou can if thou cannot walk, bike if thou cannot bike, walk if thou must drive, do it sparingly if thou must purchase fuel, do it scornfully if thou sees a road, see it better as a field or forest if thou sees a field or forest, think of it as nature, not a road plant trees if thou can if thou cannot plant trees, plant shrubs and flowers plant shrubs or flowers even if thou can plant a tree cut down a tree only to plant three plant three only to plant three more breathe in clean air, from the tree remember that the tree, and the shrub, and the flower give back think of progress as more trees, not less think of development as planting trees, not cutting them away if thou sees a field, leave it that way if thou sees an old building, use it and make it better and if thou sees a field, again, plant a tree, or lay there and look at the sky think of trees as better left that way, or as friends if thou can plant a tree, do it and do it again think about what you need, if anything buy nothing, if you can buy local if thou must buy something buy from main street if thou can, and put food in the saddlebags of your bike buy from giant eagle if thou must, or because it’s from pittsburgh buy from the mall if you have to, or if your niece works there, if at all buy from cvs, rite aid, eckerd, & walmart, only if you hate yourself, and your town buy nothing and things might actually be better buy absolutely nothing, be happy with what you have, better yet think of buying as supplying only your wants think of not buying as supplying your needs buy nothing if thou can need much less if thou can too eat food that’s good, if thou can know what’s in it if it’s possible know what’s in everything, if possible at least care, if thou can if thou can read this far, then thou gets the point if thou can read history, think of it as a tree cut down plant another, walk, ride, eat good, buy local, be happy, be nice read the reintegration project, if thou really cares key: thou=you you=thou



bikingboyfrombeaver
by nathan peluso

there was a boy from beaver and he rode his bike so far one day that after a while he became tired but it didn’t really matter because he liked the river and he liked his neighbors and every now and then someone would wave and this made him happy at each peddle round and round and round and his skin could feel the cool breeze and the wind in his hair was refreshing and all around he saw goodness and beautiful things that reminded him of childhood and all the memories of growing up and of today because he was still just a boy and all the world was ahead of him even though today the sun was casting its last golden rays and falling slowly beyond the nice green hill which meant surely it was time to go home and so he turned the last bend towards that direction through the hills and past the farms and back again to the quaint village houses and all the people from his town and soon he could smell the bakery up ahead and he knew that his mom was so lucky to have such a good biking boy to pick up the bread and bring it home for dinner