Monday, February 13, 2006

Spent All of Sunday in Pittsburgh


Pittsburgh was cold and blustery with big fluffy snowflakes falling off and on all day... but lovely, no? You should visit Crackpot... you might be pleasantly surprised (Flickr slideshow).
Hubby, BabyGirl and I left our Ohio home by 8:00 am and arrived in Pittsburgh just before 10:00am, where we spent the entire day taking care of things for Hubby's work, strolling thru The Strip area, looking at the architecture & bridges, riding the Incline to take a great pix, buying Steelers/Superbowl T-shirts & baseball caps for family members from street vendors on Penn Ave, visiting my great Aunt (she is the coolest nun I know) and eating lots of great food (Italian at Carmassi's and Polish pierogies take out... yummy). Very, very, very tired... must go beddy-bye soon... but I think the most wonderful thing that happened Sunday was that while buying a cap for my Pittsburgh native dad, we saw a very old black man who had a missing leg and many missing teeth. He was wrapped up in a heavy tattered blanket in a wheelchair, sitting with a plastic cup in his hand. We had some small bills left over from our purchases, so we gave BabyGirl some singles and I walked her over to the guy and I told her to put the money in his cup. She did and she stood there smiling at him and checking him out w/the curiosity that only a 3 yr old can get away with, and he reached out and touched the top of her mitten and said: "Bless you young lady." BabyGirl put her hand up to her nose, pretended to sneeze w/ a very exaggerated sneeze noise and said: "Thank you. Bless you." The old guy looked Hubby and I in the eye and said "Thank you young folks." We told him he was welcome and we hoped he would stay warm and safe, and started to walk away... but BabyGirl wouldn't budge. She just stood there looking at him, and finally she let go of my hand, stepped right up to him and said "You welcome" and blew him a kiss w/her mitten covered hand. It was so sweet. And I hope that we can always instill in her that we don't do these things out of pity or shame, but that we do it b/c that could very well be any one of us on the street in the cold, and I would pray that someone would bestow some kindness and charity on me and mine. Good night all.
Posted by Tina :: 12:30 AM :: 11 Comments:

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