Cool grave marker

Observer-Reporter writer Barbara S. Miller found this creative grave marker while working Memorial Day 2011 at St. Patrick Cemetery in Canonsburg, Pa.


Obviously the late Carmine Pacano, an Italian immigrant, had a talented mosaic artist as a friend or relative, either of whom spent hours putting together this memorial to him. The tablet is level to the ground, Miller said.


It also is in need of some restoration work because this one is too cool to fall to pieces.

Happy New Year

Crowded lawn speaks to town's good spirit

CANONSBURG, Pa. – The jumbled assortment of lawn ornaments outside Canonsburg’s borough building could rival the number in a national park.

There’s a flagpole donated by the Jewish community in 1941, a dozen American flags, five lampposts, more than 20 shrubs, four plastic park benches, a fire department bell and hundreds of memorial bricks in this Pennsylvania lawn. The list goes on and on.

If this keeps up, there won’t be a blade of grass left in the postage-stamp-sized lot that pays testament to a small town with more community pride than a major metropolis.

A covered-over lawn would be fine for me because 68 E. Pike St. is my favorite place in Washington County, one that can bring out a smile, even on the gloomiest days.

It’s the life-size statue of 5-foot-6-inch homegrown crooner Perry Como, and especially his songs broadcast over a loudspeaker, that seal its special place atop my list of happy places.


Sure, it’s funny that the microphone on the granite statue looks more like an ice cream cone aimed at the lips of Como, who died in 2001 shy of his 89th birthday. He didn’t live long enough to see, up close, his likeness that was created in stone in 1999.

But the music is the punch line, especially on days when Como can be heard belting out “Papa Loves Mambo” when it’s my turn to rummage through the borough police reports.

The recordings fill the air, thanks to the ingenuity of borough manager Terry Hazlett, who made national headlines and drew many chuckles in the fall of 2002, when he turned the masterpiece into the “The Singing Statue.”

The first rows of the memorial bricks around its base were reserved for relatives of the former barber who became one of the most successful television hosts of a musical variety show.

It seems that nearly every Canonsburg family has left its name on something outside the building – Italians, Greeks, the Irish, the Polish.

These hard-working families, symbolic of America’s melting pot, are what make the borough of 8,600 residents so special, Hazlett said.

“You talk about family names – some of them are 100, 200 years old,” he said. “It really is home to certain families.”

And on the music front, they have more than Como to brag about. Bobby Vinton grew up there and went on to have a string of hits in the 1960s that made him the “most successful love singer of the rock era.” A popular vocal group, The Four Coins, also consisted of members from Canonsburg.

These are among the reasons why Canonsburg hosts the county’s largest Fourth of July parade and the sixth-largest Oktoberfest in the United States.

Yet, Hazlett has looked outside his office window toward the lawn and thought it looked a mess because nothing was staged with any rhyme or reason.

“It is overwhelming,” he said.

But if council ever considered moving anything out to make room for more grass, it would meet with resistance, Hazlett said.

“The people wear Canonsburg on their sleeve. It’s apparent by the front lawn on the borough building.”

Observer-Reporter

Nightmare on North Central

Vandals have caused rather severe damage to this old house that is the only still-standing relic of the oldest college in the United States west of the Alleghenies. It's a larger tragedy that this house was allowed to fall to this state of disrepair in the first place.

Here is a story about the vandalism that appeared today in the Observer-Reporter:

CANONSBURG, Pa. – The vandalism to the last surviving Jefferson College building couldn’t have been found at a worst time.
Extensive damages were found Friday inside the historic Roberts House in Canonsburg, Pa., on the same day a nonprofit obtained its federal tax-exempt status to raise money for its restoration.
“It just makes you sick to the stomach,” said Canonsburg Mayor Anthony Colaizzo, who also is a board member of the group that wants to turn the house into an arts center.
The log, stone and brick house, with portions dating to the 1790s, was used for decades as a home for presidents, vice presidents and the faculty at the college before it merged to become Washington & Jefferson College. Founded in 1787, Jefferson College was the first school for higher learning west of the Allegheny Mountains. John Roberts then operated a post office and general store in the house, beginning in 1808.
To the dismay of the Washington County Cultural Trust, vandals reduced a priceless cherry bentwood stair railing to pieces. An antique mirror was shattered, too, as were many windowpanes.
“It was a senseless act of vandalism,” Colaizzo said. “You’d have to be sick to do it. I am just lost for words.”
This isn’t the first time vandals have struck Canonsburg in recent months. In mid-June, someone scrawled the word “nemesis” in black spray paint on houses and vehicles in the East End of the borough – about 30 tags in all.
Canonsburg police continue to investigate the incidents, which detectives said caused between $15,000 to $20,000 in damages.
Police and firefighters also were called Saturday to St. Patrick Church on Pike Street after a recycling bin was set on fire.
The trust had reached an agreement for the house to be purchased by Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation for a year. The foundation is expected to sell the house with a sagging roof at 225 N. Central Ave. back to the trust.
The Landmarks Foundation dispatched a crew to the house to resecure it Monday.
For information, call 724-514-6106. Donations for the restoration project can be mailed to the trust at P.O. Box 45, Canonsburg, PA 15317.

Ice cream crooner

No. This is not a likeness of 1950s crooner Perry Como eating an ice cream cone. It’s a cherished sculpture of the singer holding a microphone outside the borough building in his hometown of Canonsburg, Pa.

Most days, a loud speaker attached to the building bleeds the sounds of Como singing his hit songs, including “Papa Loves Mambo” and “Hot Diggety Dog Ziggity Boom.”

And the statue honoring Como, who died in 2001 without ever having laid eyes on his stone self, attracts a steady stream of tourists from as far away as England.

“People are crazy about Perry Como,” said Carol Imperatore, the borough police clerk, whose office overlooks the town plaza at 68 East Pike St. “Oh yeah, they love it.”

“When we made that statue sing, I got calls from New York, BBC twice, Las Vegas and Seattle,” added Canonsburg Mayor Tony Colaizzo. He confessed to once breaking into the library side of the borough building to flick on the switch controlling the music after a bus load of people from Rhode Island arrived and were sad to find the air quiet.