The Next Page: Dear Porky Chedwick -- You changed my life
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Dear Porky,
Several months ago, I received my invitation to the 55th anniversary for the 1955 graduating class of Homestead High School. It was held at Dave & Busters at The Waterfront last weekend.
As I read the invitation, I thought about my meager beginning: growing up in the 1950s between the Hole-In-The-Wall (the entrance to the US Steel mill on City Farm Lane) and the senior citizen apartments currently located on Dixon Street.
During that time, the only dream that many of us shared was that of just getting out of high school and getting a job ... anywhere. I often think about those days when you were at WHOD. I don't really believe that the Western Pennsylvania residents realized how important you had been to the area.
I knew your magnitude because I was there with you in the early '50s. I remember seeing you in the record store on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Amity Street, next to the Skyrocket Bar and Grill in Homestead, looking for jazz and R&B music. The other stores in the Pittsburgh area had this kind of music categorized as "race music" with little signs that differentiated "race music" from country, polkas and pop.
Most people did not know that you were the first DJ in the Tri-State area who refused to book a "record hop" unless it was integrated. I had been at WHOD many times when calls would come in and you would tell the promoter your rules for bookings. When they finally gave in and the booking took place, they soon realized that the extra money they spent for security was a waste since the anticipated troubles never occurred.
Most people forgot that these students attended the same school together and proudly wore their school-lettered jackets or sweaters to Kennywood and other amusement places in Western Pennsylvania together.
To those kids, color was not an issue. During that era, the negative thought and ideology came directly from the parents and adults, not the teens.
I often think about the dances at Braddock Junior High School where our group The Sabres was formed. Two years later, we recorded "Calypso Baby" on the Bullseye Label and we travelled all the Mon Valley with you -- places like the Jumpin Jive Bee Hive in Charleroi, the Trinity Parish House in Washington, Pa, Monessen and Clairton, as well as many other locations. A Homestead guy just like us, you knew them all.
First Published September 19, 2010 12:00 am
