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The Inspiration For This Site
Irene Caldwell O’Neill, Escondido, CA, c. 2013. [Photo courtesy of Judy McCracken.]
Several years ago, I received a surprise email from the younger sister of my childhood friend, Judy Caldwell (Nelson). I remembered her as a little skinny blond kid that sometimes tagged along with my girlfriend and me as we did the things that teen girls did in the 1950s. Her name was Irene Caldwell, later acquiring a married last name of O’Neill. Irene was a 1960 graduate of Sharpsville (PA) High School.
Now I had to imagine her as all grown up, not only with two daughters but grandchildren as well. Even after many years of living on the west coast, she had not forgotten the small western Pennsylvania town that we spent our youngest days in, the Borough of Sharpsville.
Irene’s emails described her strong desire to write about her memories of living in Sharpsville in the 1950s and 1960s and to invite others to add their own stories as well. Here are her words in a March 2012 email:
My idea for writing about Sharpsville may have originated in part from homesickness, for no matter how well I’ve adjusted to being a California resident, those wonderful summers in a small, safe, and lushly green little town still hold a very warm place in my heart.
She approached the right person with her plan, as I was eager to join in. I sent her several essays and, along with those from a few other former Sharpsvillites including her sister Judy (SHS 1958), she was building up a collection, maybe not book-size but enough for a presentation yet to be determined. Some topics were covered more than once, as different writers had different memories of the same subject.
Sadly, Irene was battling breast cancer and passed away in July 2013 without seeing her dream of a Sharpsville memory book to completion. Knowing that she would want the project to become a reality, Judy gave me permission to pick up where Irene left off.
In honor of Irene’s goal to preserve memories of Sharpsville before they are lost, the essays that were submitted to Irene are now gathered at this website and more have been added throughout the years since then.
This site is copyrighted as of 2014.
– Ann Angel Eberhardt (SHS 1958), Goodyear, AZ, March 2014
Send Us Your Story
Would you like to transport yourself 50-plus years back to life in our little town and the surrounding area? An excellent way to relive those days is to put together a story for our collection. “Small Town Memories” welcomes writings and/or photographs about Sharpsville and its environs in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
Click on the “Leave a Comment” link at the end of each story to submit your entries. Or send them in email attachments to bissella9@hotmail.com. Please include the author’s full name, city and state, high school and graduation year and email address. Only the writer’s name and city of residence will be shown in a published article.
To add your thoughts, additions, or corrections to an already-published article, also please click on the “Leave a Comment” link at the end of each story.
We reserve the right to determine the appropriateness of any submission and to edit it for readability and grammar. The authors of comments or articles published in the “Small Town Memories” site are solely responsible for the “facts” presented in the comments or articles.
Please Note
All photos, documents and graphics contained in the Small Town Memories pages are copyrighted by the submitter and by this site. You may not use them elsewhere, whether in print or electronically, without written permission. Contact: bissella9@hotmail.com
All possible efforts were made by the editor to secure permission and ensure proper credit was given for every entry within this blog. If any such acknowledgment has been inadvertently omitted or miscredited, receipt of such information would be appreciated.
Any advertisements that may appear on this site are placed there by WordPress.com. The ads you see are determined by your location, browsing history and other factors. They generate a small amount of revenue which helps to partially cover expenses when the viewers of this site click on the links in the ads. This website has no control over the ads placed by WordPress’s advertising software. The presence of any ads on our site should not be viewed as an endorsement by us of any advertiser, their product or their agenda.
Any internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) in the stories on the “Small Town Memories” website are offered as resources. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by us for the content of these sites.
Small Town Memories 
For me no memories of Sharpsville would be complete without reference to Shenango Furnace. As a young child its sheer size, sounds, and smells were a fascinating mysterious sight and draw for a curious youth. The perpetual motions of the ore bridge crane loading the ore bucket car that then was hoisted to the top of the blast furnace dumping its load of ore into the belly of the furnace animated the colossal structure. Here and there a worker dwarfed by the structure of the great plant would be seen tending to some mysterious chore. At night the plant would glow when a blast furnace heat was tapped. The Shenango Furnace would later be a place of temporary summer employment for many young boys needing to earn money for college. For me, my curiosity about what went on inside the blast furnace and boundary was revealed: Tough stoic workers performing heavy, hot and dangerous duties. Working the weekend night shift was most difficult since the areas around the casting bench had to be cleared of sand, run out iron leaked from casting flasks built up during the day shifts. The men who worked there were gentlemen, Little League coaches, and church ushers. I never heard bad language spoken in the plant or at the local watering holes by these men.
One could write a book on working at Shenango Furnace. There are so many stories related from one generation of workers to the next that have since faded. In so many ways the Shenango Furnace and its employees were the heart and soul of Sharpsville. Both contributed so much to the community.
So true, Gerald! Your vivid, well-written homage to the Shenango Furnace and its workers brought back my own memories. Although of course I never worked there (did any girls or women?), the plant was literally always in the background of my daily life on Second Street along the train tracks, only a few blocks away. The rhythmic sounds of the machinery, the trainloads of coal headed for the plant, the fine flakes that sometimes drifted down onto my mother’s wash on the clothesline, and, yes, the bright orange-red flames shooting out from the blast furnace at night. You need to write that book (or a page for “Small Town Memories”)! Thanks so much for your comments. Ann Angel Eberhardt
Thank you; at least the great Furnance and foundary has not completely faded from some of our memories.
Regards,
Jerry Buhi
After noticing Old Glory flying perpetually at various local schools and ballparks, I thought back to Robinson Elementary School at 7th and Main and Principal Mr. Kelly. He made crossing guards feel special with our white belts and brass buckle. More importantly he instituted the practice of having the crossing guards raise the American flag each morning before classes began and again in the afternoon when the school day was over. What a different era it once was.
My brother, Mike Angel, has shared similar memories of his Robison School days, including serving as a crossing guard. His descriptions are recorded in the post titled ROBISON SCHOOL I. Thanks for writing!
Thank you for posting. Robinson Elementary School was indeed special both inside and surrounding campus areas including the iron ore covered baseball field, playground rides, sandbox and asphalt basketball court all maintained by the Shenango Furnace. While not a formal part of the campus, one can not forget “goats hill” for sledding in the winter and using Gordon Ward discarded packaging cardboard boxes to slide down the dry grass in the fall. Great and memorable times indeed. It’s good to know others remember and value similar positive memories.
Yes, it feels good when such pleasant memories are shared. Goat Hill is also mentioned in “ROBISON SCHOOL Class of 1960 (Part II)” by Irene Caldwell O’Neill.
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