The day the skies turned Red over parts of South Western Pa.

My parents often talked about the day the sky's over Pittsburgh turned red and how they walked home from school  in all the red colored smoke and smog one day in the 1940's
While many thought it was caused by massive forest fires in Canada  others are not so ready to give it such a simple explanation as other areas of the state where not covered by the mysterious red smog. northern county's closer to Canada you think would be covered by the smoke like Erie and Mercer where not.

Pollution in Pittsburgh was so bad some days as seen in noon picture above

But smog and pollution was so bad in Pittsburgh back in those days that there where days like in the picture above where street lights stayed lighted all day. A typical business man who wore white shirts back then had to change them up to 3 times a day.  I remember even in the 60's as a child how bad the pollution was certain summer days  even after efforts where made to curb it.

Of course red skies over certain communities where common  like in Connelsville where beehive coke ovens where operated but by the 40s most had been shut down and replaced with less smog producing ovens.
So that was not the cause of it possibly the Pittsburgh  area was getting ready to have its own deadly killer smog like that which hit Donora Pa. in 1948

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Donora_smog

What ever it was it is still speculated to this day to even being a Government secret experiment.  Because they did not have the complex capture and testing systems like they do today. What ever it was thank God it went as quickly as it came and did not settle over the valleys.


UPDATE

seems the smoke from the forrest fire  did effect all of waestern pa that day I recenty ran across htese arcticles talking about it in Erie pa.

A Story many have never heard of in Erie County "The Restless Dead of Grave Yard Pond

Misery bay in Erie County appropriately named for  a tragic tale long forgotten during the war of 1812
when in 1813 The body's of American sailors some still living but barely after a scourge of Small pox hit their vessels  where weighted with stones and deposited into a little known and forgotten  pond  that is part of Misery bay.
Which has become known as Grave Yard Pond.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nffTRUXIMbk

https://theparanormalpastor.blogspot.com/2009/07/restless-dead-of-graveyard-pond.html

 After Admiral Perry's fantastic victory his flag ship The Niagara and the Lawrence   stayed at Misery Bay in Presque Ilse  for the winter and settled in .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Niagara_(1813)

 

However Small Pox broke out and with little help available the officers on board  felt dropping the dead and dying into the pond was the only thing they could do to prevent the small pox from spreading.
The mens body''s are still there in the swampy  pond of misery bay  never recovered and at this point possibly only a few bones are left .

It should be recognized as a national military cemetery and should be taught in schools but this has not been done those men died alone and forgotten far from their homes.
Of course some claim late at night  that the place is active with paranormal activity which you would expect for such a tragedy. 

They say the Haloween attraction The Scare House in Etna has Real ghosts in it

Yes the Scare house is one of the top Halloween  Haunted House Attractions in the country located in an old Elks Lodge in Etna Pa. You go from one horrifying scene to the next as you travel thru the dark hallways

 There is even an evil bunny rabbit with an axe which chases people.

But when all the fun is done for the evening and the actors go home for the evening thats when they say the real ghosts come out to play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGwx0KoClmk

. http://www.scarehouse.com/about/haunted-history

As members of the Oakmont Paranormal Society recently discovered after being invited to check out rumors of actual paranormal happenings at the famous attraction. As guests and visitors report  cold spots and feeling they are being watched and other creepy things

Drake Bowan Director of OPS reports they picked up the sounds of a piano playing in one EVP
as well as several spots where K meters showed possible presence of activity. As they investigated the building which with all the joy and happiness as well as some times sadness that went on with all the different activates  you would expect memory's to stick around and this seems to be the case at Scare House.

Which is getting ready once again for the 2017 Halloween season  

Note: The Scare house is no longer located in Etna  after a disagreement they moved to  City of Pittsburgh Strip District and after difficulty in getting permits in city they moved to Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frasier Pa.

A little known story When Muslim community where Attacked in there Wilkinsburg Home in 1980's

It was a nondescript apartment building which sat behind the local KFC restaurant which I often stopped at beside an electrical supply house I purchased from as well.  and got lunch at when working that part of town  The building sat  on Wallace Ave  2  nondescript apartment buildings side by side  . Over time one  on right where things got out of hand  became a public parking lot.

However the property would become a heated battle ground which saw the posting of guards to protect it front and back  in a little known war between Muslim factors and neighbors  in the 1980's in Wilkinsburg.
Apparently when the Muslims moved in they where not welcome to the point some one threw a fire bomb  at the building causing damage thats when the guards members of the community in Muslim guard stood and protected the small community. What started it and what ended it I do not know very little was ever written about it . I talked to them a couple times always receptive to me we discussed our faiths  the weather or what ever. I never saw them as a threat but apparently others in the community did.  These where peaceful Muslims yes they do exist but like even in the christian faith there are those who take the word of god like extreme fundamentalists and the KKK who use there christian religion to hurt others just what has happened in the Muslim faith .

Then one day when I went to the supply house I found the guards where gone and building boarded up they had moved on. to where I do not know . The building sat empty several years and was then bulldozed and made into a parking lot .

I hope where ever they have moved they have been able to find peace in there lives.