The Point

I don’t think I’ll ever call myself a bad Pittsburgh parent. After all, I’m not from Pittsburgh. Although I want my kids to see some of the highlights of the place where they are from, it will never be my goal that they go to a Steelers game or tour the Andy Warhol Museum. I’d like them to be more well-rounded than most Pittsburgh natives I know who think Indiana is a nearby city (not a state) and taxes are simply high and one pays a multitude of them because…well, aren’t they everywhere and doesn’t everyone?

On the other hand, I do confess I am often a bad parent when it comes to Ethan. It’s that whole second-born thing: less pictures taken, less one-on-one attention given, less energy to exert on his behalf. So, even I will say it is a shame we have never taken our 18-month old son to The Point until yesterday. (For by the time Emry was 18-months old, she had probably been half a dozen times!)

For those of you who know nothing of Pittsburgh except steel, Andrew Carnegie and smog I will give a brief history/geography lesson. “The Point” is more properly called Point State Park. It is the location where the three rivers of Pittsburgh meet: the Allegheny and the Monongahela to form the Ohio. It is also where Fort Pitt (for which Pittsburgh is named) and Fort Duquesne once stood, protecting the region from the French and Indians. Neither are there any longer, although there are outlines of the forts created in the grassy areas where they once stood. For a long time, two bridges spanned the rivers from that point but both were removed in 1970 in order to make the area a state park. All kinds of designers entered the contest for what should rise over the “Golden Triangle” including an outlandish one from Frank Lloyd Wright. A fountain won and was dedicated in 1974. Today it is a focal point of the city and a very pretty place to visit.

All kids (and probably all adults) love fountains. Emry always enjoyed seeing it, sitting on its wide edge and watching it spout into the air, getting a little (or a lot) wet if the wind blows the right way. This time, she wanted to take her shoes off and dip them in the lower basin. Ethan? Well, he loved it, too. Only he wanted to do much more than simply put his feet in. Hence the signs that warn against wading. I never really had to worry about Emry around the fountain but, as usual, Ethan was another matter entirely. And maybe that’s the real reason we never took him to The Point…

Emry happily splashing her feet and watching the fountain.

Ethan in a moment of stillness by the fountain.