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I was in high school, 1948, when that smog hit.Oh yeah, it was a Saturday, everyone played football.You couldn't see your hand.I mean, what the hell do we know what's going on, you know what I mean?I think they had a Halloween parade that day.
They had a Halloween parade, and my brother and me were standing on a curb, And I told my brother George, I said, I can't see nobody.You couldn't see anybody.He grabbed me and pulled me to the center of the street so I could see the parade.
I couldn't see anything.You couldn't see in front of you.All them people were dying.They were going to the hospital.I was lucky my dad didn't go then. After that, that's when the government got involved in that stuff.
They never checked the smoke and all that.They never did that.After that, they start checking every time you turn around.The zincworks closed up everything.
that was bad down at Zinkwerks oh man nothing would grow over there no nothing grew over there it was all it was nothing but you take a look at it today it's all grown out I was going to show you what we were breathing that stuff in yeah he wouldn't tell you though I blame it on that Zinkwerks
I'm Jean Marie Laskus, and this is Cement City.Chapter 8.Don't bitch about the smog.
Now we have so many questions, but what we're so wanting to hear is the story of the smog situation with you two and how you got started when the idea was hatched.
I just remember sitting out here and it was dark, it was late, we all had been drinking. We sat out here and we started coming up with ideas of how we could commemorate Donora.
We're here with Donnie and Deanne Pavelko, Mayor Piglett and First Lady, who, by the way, is also known as the Smog Queen.We're in the backyard of their house on First Street.There's a pool in the yard.Actually, the pool is the yard.
It's wedged between the deck where we're sitting and the garage at the back, where there's a mural of a beach scene, hand-painted, complete with a palm tree. This is exactly where they were sitting that night, back in 2007.
Donnie and Deanne, with her sister and brother-in-law.It was dark.It was late.They were drinking.
So I think Doreen and Marty were like, OK, Dawn, so now you're like on council.You weren't mayor yet.He was like, what can we do?You know, we need to do something to help Denoir.We need to, like, we need something big.We need to start something.
Like, what can we do? And, like, we just sat here, and I probably, my scratch pad's in there somewhere, probably have all the notes of, like, what we started writing down.
And, like, we said, Canonsburg had a pumpkin festival, and another town had an apple festival, and, you know, they had the Covered Bridge Festival, Mingo.
And we just wanted something for Donor, you know, and we kept on, like, throwing those ideas out there, comparing ourselves with, like, you know, what kind of festival could we have? And so Don says, I know what we could do.
He's like, it's going to be the 60th anniversary for the smog.And we all looked at him like, really?
You've got to be crazy.What are we going to do with smog?Damn it, we got smog?Everybody else got pumpkins and apples.We got smog.What the hell are we doing with smog?
Deanne's laughing, but it's an interesting question.
What the hell do you do when the thing your town's known for, if it's known for anything at all, is an environmental catastrophe that killed a bunch of people, 20 people over a weekend, and sent thousands to the hospital?
And here you are, all these years later, and you don't have apples or pumpkins or covered bridges.All you've got is smog.
We were like, oh my goodness, what are we going to do with it?Do we get fog machines and do we fog up the place?We started coming up with ideas and suggestions.
The smog was always looked upon like a black eye on Donora. where I looked at it as being a bright spot because Donora actually changed the world with the Clean Air Act.
— The next morning, when they woke up, the great idea they'd had the night before, when they were half-drunk, somehow still seemed like a great idea. And if you think about it, it was a pretty radical idea.
That you could take a 60-year-old death smog and turn it on its head.That this town, where all those people had died, could become a place where something was born.Donora, Pennsylvania.Clean air started here.
Tell us about that first meeting and how that came up.
Oh my gosh, there were so many people at that first meeting.I mean, people came.Like, when we invited people to come to this meeting, we had a — not like when you go to a council meeting.We had a full house in that council chambers.And so it began.
They formed a committee.They planned out a whole week of events, came up with a logo and a tagline and some t-shirts.They rented out space in an old Chinese restaurant and started a museum. the Genoa Smog Museum.
And it was just like I think it was even excitement and even planning it like everybody coming up with names and coming up with events and what we could do and and it was like the town was coming alive like even with the museum we started when they start bringing the things in and stuff and it was summertime and like you know every night we would get down there we had to sit in the museum and eat ice cream.
you know, and look at the things and everybody would stop in to talk and it was just like, you know, we were all, everybody was just going through.
I think everything has been packed away for so long because nobody's seen these artifacts, you know, and it was a way for people to like, you know, come together.
After a few years, the Denoir Smog Commemorative Committee got out of the museum business.They passed the whole thing off to the Historical Society guys to keep afloat.But Donny and Deanne kept running with the idea.They kept finding new projects.
There was all this potential.When the Chamber of Commerce dissolved, they took over the Halloween parade, then Twinkle Bright Night, and the Easter egg hunt. They started an annual Valley Boys concert and a smog 5k to raise money to pay for it all.
And they rallied the whole town behind this crazy idea that they dreamed up over drinks by the pool.
I love your optimism.And I love that hearing you talk about what you guys created.Like that's so cool.Out of nothing, just like an idea in the backyard.
Changing a perspective on this event and creating these celebrations around it, that's gotta feel great that you did that.Like you sparked a new life into this town through this, like you did.We did, yes.
The whole time we've been sitting here, Donnie's been mostly quiet, letting Deanne do the talking.That's how it is with Donnie and Deanne.Deanne's the social one, the party planner.
Donnie's the one who sits quietly and waits till he finds the right words and the right moment to say them.
So it was not — Depends on how you look at it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.And — By the time I do explicitly turn to talk to Donnie, I'm so sure I understand it all that I'm just rolling right over him.Like, you switched the perspective and made it something to celebrate, it seems like.Right.Or commemorate.
Like, I don't even stop to consider moments like this one, when Donnie corrects me for this word I keep using.It's not a celebration. It's a commemoration.There's a difference.It should be obvious.I mean, it was a death smog.
— And would people think that was strange or funny?
— I sort of think so, yeah.
— I guess part of me is still just stuck on the novelty, the branding, that amusement I felt when I first walked into this little town called Donora, PA, that had a smog museum and a mayor named Piglet.
— And they just kept the mule there long enough for a lot of them people to die off and, you know, retire.And by 68, they were gone.20 years after the smog, they wanted nothing to do with, they, U.S.C.O.says they had nothing to do.
There was no, nothing found.That was all BS.There was a lot of cover up. So if they did that in Zanora, you can imagine what other companies did to other places here in the United States with no oversight back then.That's my take.
It's late afternoon, the Thursday before Halloween.Oh, look who it is.Aaron and I are killing time before the Halloween parade. We're parked downtown, a block up from Kitty and Nivea's house.Kitty's out here, standing in the middle of the street.
She's all dressed up for the parade.
She's going to be a veteran.
She's wearing a camouflage t-shirt with black sweats and a matching bandana.Her mom did her makeup.Brown and green and black smeared all over her face.Kitty's fingertips are stained from where she tried to rub it in.
My friend lives over there.He's going to take me.Well, they're going to be having a parade down there, so you guys are going to be down there.
Are you guys going to be walking in there or just be walking down in the crowd?I think I'm going to watch. Who goes in it?I've never been to it before.Like firefighters, police and stuff like that.They'll be all in it.
It starts from Dolly General down here, down the street, and then it goes past the park, whatever.Who's taking you?My friend.Who's your friend?His name is Brayden.Cool.And his mom's name is Jamie.
This is the first time we've ever talked to just Kitty, without all the other kids around.And she seems different.It's like the pressure's off.For her to perform, to be the funny one.The one singing the Spider-Man song, driving everyone insane.
She's standing here dressed for combat, but she's somehow softer.Twirling this little dollar store flag between her fingers.
— And so, like, how did the costume— how was the inspiration for the costume?
— Well, when I get older, I want to be in the Army, so to speak, so we would talk and stuff like that.
I was like, maybe when we get older, I'll go in the same place as you, but they might stick us in different places, so, I mean… — Kitty's older brother Cameron just walked out the front gate carrying a skateboard.— Cameron's 17.
He always looks a little preoccupied.
He's squinting, staring down at his phone, then peering up the street.He's clearly not all that interested in Kitty's outfit.
— And then there's skating tonight for like $2, because it's free to go in, but then you have to pay for skates, so it's like $2.Did you hear that, Cameron?$2 for skating.You got money?
— How much?Because I want to go, but I don't have money.
— I have $15.— Huh?— I said I have $15.— Can I have $2, please?
Cameron keeps scrolling through his phone.He hasn't even looked up.He's not going to give her the $2.I wish he'd give her the $2.I mean, it's free skate night, and she's so close.
Well, I have to go over there and show him my makeup and see what he thinks about it.
But I'm also struck by how quickly Kitty moves on from this moment.It's like she wasn't expecting her brother to say yes.Like maybe she's used to being disappointed.
We follow Kitty across the street to her friend Braden's house, the one who's taking her to the parade.She's marching along in front of us, waving her little flag. Kitty and Brayden are standing in the doorway, just sort of looking at each other.
Like, they're not sure what else to say.He's dressed as Negan from The Walking Dead, complete with a bat wrapped in barbed wire.
He has to get his boots on. I got a flag and everything.I'm so happy.I've never been a prayed for.Is this your first time?Yeah.How come you weren't in them before?How'd you decide to do this one?Because Brayden asked me.
Yeah.He likes me instead of the other boy.
Okay.Which one do you like?
For the record, that's Jacob from the Pretzel Gang.
The one who's always it.But Brayden's cool too, so... Is Jacob going to the parade?Probably not, but he's probably going to be there to watch, though.
Are they friends, him and Jacob?
So what, do they both like you?
Do they know each other?Like, are they in competition? — They sort of have to be, don't they?
— Which one are you going to like the other one, though?— I don't know.
I don't know which one I'm going to like.
— For the past three seasons of Gone South, we've covered one story per season.We tried to figure out who killed Margaret Coon.
— She told me, I'm going to kill you.I said, well, do it, bitch.Go ahead and do it.
we delved into the violent world of the Dixie Mafia.
I'm an outlaw, and I was a thief, but I'm far from being the psychotic nutcase that I've been made out to be.
And we tracked a serial killer in Laredo, Texas.Now, Gone South is back for a fourth season.But this time, we're doing things a little differently. So in Gone South season four, we'll be bringing you new stories every week with no end in sight.
I'm Jed Lipinski.Welcome back to Gone South, an Odyssey original podcast.Listen and follow now on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts for new episodes every week.
C, B flat.No, I'm just gonna... She just listened to me mess up.
We're in the Dollar General parking lot.It's the staging area for the parade.Marching band kids keep pouring out of buses.They're settling into clumps.Baton twirlers and drummers in the brass section.People are assembling floats.
There are pirates and witches and mermaids and so many Elsas.We're standing here with Kitty and Brayden, who appear to be avoiding eye contact, next to a preschool Beauty and the Beast in a little wagon.
So how does this work?Well, there's going to be judges, judge costumes.I think they're going to win.They're the cutest.
Kitty's betting on Beauty and the Beast for the win.I wonder if they'll be considered a group or a float.You're a whoopee cushion.That's really awesome. We recognize a lot of the kids here.
There's our next-door neighbors, the three little kids with the yappy dog and the trampoline in the yard.And the skinny kids who put up a lemonade stand on the corner of Ida and Walnut.And Gibby Zachal's daughter, who we met on a hayride.
Gibby Zachal's the guy with the bandit mask.His daughter's name's Gabby.Gibby and Gabby.She's dressed as Harley Quinn.
Hey, I recognize you.How's it going?
— Then there's Cameron Shawley, 8 years old.We met him playing bingo at the fall festival of the park.
— How about a B-6?— Yes, thank you.
He's pretty unforgettable.
He looks kind of like that kid from Mad Magazine.Except tiny.
And then there's his tooth.
He's only got one giant tooth.And I mean giant.It's adorable.It sticks out over his lip like a cartoon baby.It's hard to look at Cameron without looking at his tooth.
Hi, how are you?That is too... It's Donnie's last year as mayor, so we're gonna go out peacefully, I mean, like, nice and, you know, everybody get together, try and love one another and all that good stuff, you know?
Deanne's out here dressed like a flower child.
We ran out of other ideas.
She's been in high gear party planning mode all week, getting ready for this thing.
I'm looking for my judges, though, wherever they may be.
This is Deanne in her element. She runs off to find her judges, the smog queen with her clipboard.Then we spot Donnie over by the fire truck.He's wearing a vest and bell-bottoms.And this wig.It's long, past his shoulders.He's a brunette.
He keeps flipping it back like a shampoo commercial.I totally can't look at him.There's actually a whole story behind this wig.It's on loan from Deanne. It's the one she wore when she was going through chemo a few years back.
Deanne's a breast cancer survivor.It's something she told us recently.At that spaghetti dinner fundraiser, Cindy held her jam.The local teacher was breast cancer.It seems like there are a lot of chemo-wigs in this town.
Well, we always had a Halloween parade.They had the parade in 1948 during the midst of the smog.And, you know, from what the older people told me and, you know, told everybody, they couldn't even see the crowd on the other side of the street.
So we're just keeping the memory, the commemoration of the smog and the folks that died.
— Donnie's standing here with this really serious look on his face.I'm trying to focus, but I'm distracted by the whoopee cushion running circles around him, and the jellyfish, and the marching band, and the fact that we're all having so much fun.
We're not thinking about smog or the people who died.At least I'm not. I'm just staring at Donnie, Mayor Piglet Pavelko, in his bell-bottoms and hippie wig.— But, like, I want to know whose idea the costume was.
— My wife's, I guess.And being this is my final go-around, peace out.
— This will be my last go-around.
How do you feel about that?
Good and a little bit nostalgic.18 years in public service.It's going to be a change.Change for the better, I hope, though.And I think we've got good people coming in, so keep everything going.
You have to feel good as outgoing mayor.
Look how much you've... I'm leaving with a clear conscience.
I mean, it's like you're leaving, like, ready to move forward.
You always catch me when I'm not supposed to be talking to anybody.All the time.
How do you do it?I could see, I could see. Donnie's daughter Emily's waving him down.She's standing across the parking lot holding a clipboard, just like Deanne's.She's dressed as a hippie, too.I guess her mom roped her into it.
Apparently, her first idea was to dress up as Erin.She was going to wear earmuffs and carry a toilet brush.
She had it all planned out.
People are so used to Erin at this point that she's become just another set of hands to clip you to your beast. That's Kenny, by the way.I love Kenny.Kenny's the kind of guy who doesn't do anything halfway.
He's wearing a big rubber mask and hands with claws.He's got a dog collar around his neck, with spikes, attached to a thick chain that his daughter's holding, leading him around.
Interesting fact about Kenny.
He lives in the biggest, fanciest house in town.It's also one of the town's most fantastic ruins.It was originally built as a private home for the big boss at the mill.
This is one of those infamous Donora stories Brian the historian likes to tell in his slideshows.Because get this, when they built the house, they put it right across from the zincworks, which I guess made sense at the time.
But the mill boss didn't live there very long, but with the fumes and all the trees dying.When he left, he donated it to the Spanish people of Donora.A lot of them worked at the zincworks.
They made it into a social club with a bar and a private pool.Then when the Spanish club finally closed, Kenny moved in and turned it into a haunted house.Now there's a hole in the floor above the ballroom and a tree growing out of the pool.
Even the haunted house is closed.Kenny lives up in the attic.It's kind of a perfect story when you think about it.It's like the story of this house is the story of the town.The grand dream that didn't quite work out the way they'd planned it.
Oh, look at the dog.It's so pretty.I want to see if I can see my mom.Is she going to be watching?Yeah, probably.Why are you cussing?Shut up.I didn't see nothing.
I'm standing with my back to the Dollar General, watching Deanne and her daughter Emily corral the chaos.And I'm trying to imagine what this scene must have been like back in 1948.The high school marching band moving into formation.
The kids lining up in their costumes, telling each other not to cuss.It was probably a lot like this.Except the air was thick.So thick that a little girl dressed as an angel in a bedsheet would get in trouble for getting it dirty.
That bedsheet would turn yellow.Ever since I heard that story about the bedsheet, I've been trying to imagine what was going through these people's heads.What would possess them to come out here?To bring their kids out here?
To even leave their houses at all?Wouldn't somebody just stop and think, maybe we should postpone this parade? Now, Mayor, can you explain to us what's going on here?
As they proceed past 6th Street, we'll have, I think there's three judges. The one gentleman with the beard down there and the clipboard, he's the one that organized the judges.So they'll pick the ugliest, the prettiest, the funniest, whatever.
And then we'll go to 7th Street, down 7th Street.So as they come back, there's a free skate down at the Rollers Center.They'll go past the fire department, and that's where the treats will be given out.
We decide Aaron should walk along with the parade, while I park myself here in the corner with the parade watchers.It's pretty standard parade fare.
The old guys in the classic cars, the handmade floats, the marching band in costume pounding on the drums. But it's impossible to express how happy it makes me, the whole thing.
There are firefighters tossing Tootsie Roll pops out the windows, and little kids scrambling on the pavement to scoop them up.There are stretches of McCain Avenue that are just totally jam-packed with people.
More people than I've ever seen in one place in Donara.More people than you'd even think live here.But then there are these empty stretches, where the baton twirlers turn and spin their batons at vacant storefronts, smiling and twirling for no one.
More than anything, this is the image that will stick with me. Not the vacant storefronts.Those baton twirlers.They don't miss a beat.They just keep twirling and twirling.
Look how cute this little costume is.She's a unicorn.Look how cute.Oh, look, it's Wednesday, isn't it?How cute. Snow White needs to pull her shirt up.Snow White needs to pull her shirt up.Right there.Yeah, she needs to pull her shirt up.
Remember skating is free along with State Rental today We're going to start with our right skate first
Erin and I head inside the skating rink for the free skate.This is our first time here.It's like the ultimate throwback Thursday.First of all, it's that smell.Dirty socks paired with hot dog grease and stale popcorn.
There's a snack bar with super pretzels and the slushie machine, the Mike and Ikes.Air hockey and Miss Pac-Man.The giant disco ball spinning over the rink.It's just like the place I used to take my niece to back in the 80s.
Right down to that guy at the skate rental counter, spraying disinfectant into the skates.
How long have you been working here?
I used to bring my girls here.
So you've been working here all that time?
Yeah.Wow, that's awesome.Yeah, I'm 63.My girls are 40 and 36.How long has this place been around?About 35 years. Piggy Wiggy across the river used to be open before this.You remember that?
No, what was that?Piggy Wiggy?
Yeah, we used a roller skating rink that closed and then they opened this one.
Now were they saying they were going to try and sell it or no?
Yeah, they're trying to sell it.But so far, you know, everybody wants it for nothing, you know.
I remember when I first heard the skating rink was for sale.Cindy told us about it.And I remember thinking, who's going to buy a skating rink in a dying town?I guess this whole area used to be just a wasteland, just the ruins of the old mill.
Cindy told us how she used to walk around down here back when she first met Jimmy. And they'd see these signs everywhere.Danger, PCBs.And then suddenly, they're putting in this skating rink, a children's facility of all things.
She couldn't believe it.She'll never forget seeing those signs.It's a pretty unsettling image.I mean, you don't want to think about PCBs while you're watching kids do the hokey pokey.
And I guess that kind of gets to the heart of the contradiction here.It's something I've been noticing more and more throughout the day.With the hippie costumes, with the chemo wigs.
It's like no matter how much fun we're all having, there's this dark undercurrent that I'm not sure what to do with.It's the PCBs under the skating rink.I find a place to sit down and watch the kids play spin the pin.
Whoever wins gets a free slushie. Erin's on the floor strapping some skates on.I'm sitting this one out.I'm looking around for Kitty.Turns out skate rental's free tonight.She didn't need the $2.I'm hoping she got the word.
I'm waiting for training wheels.My dad's... I see Cameron made it.
Cameron the killer teddy bear.Our little friend with the tooth.
I don't really know how to skate, so I'm getting training.
He's fresh off his win in the costume contest.There were five categories.He won the prize for Scary Ugly.
He's waiting on his training wheels.
And then over in the corner, by the bathrooms, I see her.It's Kitty.She's sprawled out on the carpet, with this huge smile on her face, trying to jam her feet into these skates.
at all.What's that?Do not know how to skate for anything.Have you done it before?Yes, but I don't know how really.So are you going to go out there?Probably, probably not.
Erin heads out to the rink.I'm watching from the sidelines, and she's making me a nervous wreck.She's fully geared up, in her headphones, with the curly cord dangling down, and the recorder slung around her neck, and her microphone.
It's a very expensive microphone.She's trying to keep her balance.Meanwhile, it's total chaos out there.I guess that's the thing about Free Skate Night.You can really tell the difference between the kids who come here a lot and the ones who don't.
I mean, some of these kids look like they were born on skates.They're zipping around, skating backward, spinning on one leg.For example, the tin man.He's a beefy tin man.
He's maybe 10, in full silver makeup, out in the middle of the ring, dancing on his skates like Michael Jackson.Then there are the little kids, hunched over these funny little walkers on wheels to keep themselves upright.
There's a lot of bumper car action. And then at the far end of the rink, there's Kitty.I spot her in her war paint.She's bravely clutching the wall, inching along.
Little Elsas with walkers are passing her, like many senior citizens, leaving her in the dust.
Are you okay?Yeah, I just didn't fall.
What?It was like tied to like the bump right here on her foot.This was all open.So I got, I was like, let me tie your skate.
So she came over and she let me do the one, but she had the other one so knotted that I couldn't get it untied and she could not sit for that long while I got it unknotted.So that's half the problem why she's like Gumby girl out there.
Kitty eventually lets go of the wall and gets some momentum going, but she can't keep her feet under her.She's flailing around, windmilling her arms like she's about to take flight.
Her makeup's half smeared off and her skates are half untied, and she keeps crashing to the floor and lying there, splayed out like Wile E. Coyote. And then suddenly, mercifully, the lights dim, and things go quiet and calm.
And it's all disco ball and hand-holding.But I can't take my eyes off Kitty.I've been watching her all night.And all night, she just keeps falling and getting back up again, and falling and getting back up.She doesn't seem embarrassed.
She seems determined, almost defiant.Skating's free.Even skates are free.This is her night to skate.
Alright, keep your arms in like this.Okay, keep your arms bent and forward and keep yourself forward, right?But if you pull me down with you guys... Super slow, okay?
At the end of the night, Aronald Turner skates in, and we'll head outside, past the for-sale sign in the parking lot, across from the boarded-up McDonald's with the Meals on Wheels van parked in the drive-through.
Up on McCain Avenue, the marching band will be gone.So will the floats and the classic cars.It'll be dark and empty and quiet.Everything will be back to normal.
There'll be almost nothing to suggest that anything happened here at all, except for a few stray Tootsie Roll rappers blowing down the street like tumbleweeds.It'll feel almost like waking up from a dream.
I just feel like today has been, like, a life-changing experience.I know.It was magical.
That parade was magical.I almost was in tears with happiness watching that parade.
I have to say, I did not agree with some of the judging decisions on the costume contest.
That bag was heavy.Hey, I'm heavy.Where are you at?Straight up.Straight up. And then make a left.No, make a right.Then make a right and go in that store that says Marty's Pizza.
Every year, two days after the Halloween parade, it's trick-or-treat night in Denora.Marty's Pizza closes down for a regular business and opens its doors to hand out free slices.
The kids line up down the block with their glow sticks and candy buckets, waiting to get in.Marty Jr.stands at the door like a bouncer, stamping their hands with a bingo dropper.
One block over, on Norma's famous porch, it's full-on haunted house, like she bought up the entire party store last season when everything went on sale.
There are animatronic spiders and bats with flashing eyes, life-size headstones and moldy zombie arms, spreading up out of the front yard.And of course, fog machines.Several of them.
Oh, good.I didn't think the kids were going to come.All this rain.What's that?
I was wondering if the kids were going to make it.I see them out there.Oh, my God.Is that thing fogging?You know what, David?I can't get your can in this thing.Yeah.
Or do you want to get a different koozie?I don't care.Maybe that's too tight.
Is that one fogging?Yes.OK.
Can you please turn on the bats?And you need to turn on the pumpkin.
Trick-or-treat night in Donora is pretty much like trick-or-treat night anywhere.
Except here, it's a culmination. Because Halloween in Donora isn't just a day.It's a week-long affair.The 5K, the parade, skating, and now this.It's like an Indian wedding.It just keeps going, getting bigger and bigger.
And I guess the thing that really gets me about all of this is the sheer amount of effort behind it all, in spite of it all.If this town knows how to do anything, it's holidays.Especially Halloween.
Is she out this year?Or she's a hippie this year? — That's the mayor's wife.
— Directly across the street from Norma's, Kianne Pavelko, the smog queen, is sitting out in her front stoop, in her paisley bell-bottoms and headband, holding an umbrella and a large glass of white wine.
— Merry Christmas!I'm just an old, burned-out hippie, and I forgot what holiday it was!
— And a bowl full of Fun Dip candy packets.
Hi.Merry Christmas.Go have some fun.
She's passing them out to the kids.
None of whom appear to be having as much fun as Deanna's.
Merry Christmas.Go have fun.Hi, honey.Here you go.Merry Christmas.Have a wonderful holiday.Merry Christmas.How are you, sweetie?Have you been good for Santa? Merry Christmas!
Jimmy got the best job in town and the worst job in town.
Well, he works in town.That makes it a good job.But he got to deal with every kind of situation you can imagine.
Every year, on trick-or-treat night, while Deanne's back home confusing the neighborhood children, blasting her Christmas albums, or dancing in a chicken suit like she will next year, Donnie's right here, riding shotgun with Cindy's husband, Chief Bryce, in his big white police SUV.
— I spent the last four years riding around with him on different things. Witness what actually the police do you have no no concept yellow?Trick-or-treat that's from cheap price Okay, be careful now
— I know, you're a zombie genie!Oh, man!— Chief Bryce brings out a different side of Donnie.Donnie's suddenly the social one.He's almost bubbly.It's his job to hand out the candy, to marvel at every costume.
Chief Bryce is sitting stoically, with his elbow out the window, saying nothing, occasionally nodding in approval.But you can tell he's loving it.
— It's funny watching the two of them together.They've got this whole good cop, bad cop thing going on.The mayor and the chief of police.
— Oh, that boy, honey. Huh?That was a boy.Well, one was.The other one was a girl.I thought it was a boy.I think you were... You were... You were... Somebody better get you some hearing aids, man.You used to live up behind me.
I'm sitting here in the backseat, taking this all in.It's raining.The kids are sloshing through the puddles, running up to the car, wide-eyed, reaching up with their little buckets on their tiptoes.Donnie's calling most of them by name.
I'm finding the whole scene so possibly sweet.It's exactly what you want in the backseat of a police car in a small town on Halloween.Honestly, I feel like I'm in a friggin' Rockwell painting.
If it weren't for the tinted windows and the police scanner running in the background. Then there's this moment.The mood shifts pretty abruptly.Chief Bryce straightens his back and turns up the volume on the scanner.
Chief Price makes a U-turn, and we start driving toward this street I've never heard of before at the far end of town, past the last of the trick-or-treaters trudging back to their houses with their moms and their umbrellas and their soggy shoes.
Suddenly, we're on a call, pulling up to the house with the dog and the hole in the wall. You say the dog chewed a hole in the wall.
I called.I just came down so you didn't have to knock on my door.Yes, the dog was up at my house.I brought him down.He was scared to walk into the yard.There's a hole chewed through the front of the house.I don't know if she's in there dead.
Someone has a drug problem.
Nobody's answering the door.I just came down.I live a couple houses up.
We're stopped outside a cluster of small frame houses.
There's a police cruiser parked out front, an officer holding a leashed dog in the yard, and another trying to beat down the door of an even smaller house tucked back from the street, pitch black against the beam of their flashlights.
When the light hits, you can see it.A gaping hole chewed straight through the front of the siding.Chief Bryce knows this house.He's been here before.— That woman's O.D.
We'll sit here in silence for what feels like forever, waiting to find out if the woman who lives in this house is inside dead.
Five minutes ago, we were on a trick-or-treat ride-along, and now I'm just sitting here feeling sick and thinking about what a jolt it is to keep having this feeling of getting yanked out of a dream.But this is kind of how it is here.
In many ways, it is impossibly sweet. There are the parades and the costume contests and the free pizza and free skates for your kids.But then there's also the rest of it.I guess you just learn to live with it.You get used to it.
You go along living your life, twirling your baton, looking forward to the time of year when you get to yank the headstones out of the garage and fire up the bats.You just go on living as if it's not there.I guess you have to.
Until the dog chews a hole in the wall of the house and gets out.
Then where is a microcosm of the country that's what happened to all the small little towns Especially here in the rust belt Now what?
And I've never been able to get this through I mean I've showed it to people I've talked about this and Could never I don't think I think it goes over a lot of people's heads well
Somewhere along the line, I don't know if it was in the archives, but I came up with the year-end address from 1948 from the president of the, it was in Wireco magazine, and that was American Wire, their monthly magazine.
And in it, it was featured Donora. And in this article, it showed new fire trucks, fire protection, a new park, Palmer Park, an up-to-date school, Denora High School, and it went on and on and on.And in his address, he said,
Just keep your mouth shut.Just keep on working and your good life will continue.It was pure propaganda.This man was saying, keep your mouth shut.Don't bitch about the smog and your good life will continue.
And I just can't seem to get people to, this should be, front and center of what industry did to this country.He had built a country, but also killed the country too.Killed people.
So why didn't they call off the parade?That Thursday in October 1948.Eventually someone will explain it to me in a way I can understand.Someone who was there.Because the thing about smog is, it's gradual.It builds slowly over time.
At first you don't even notice it.Then you learn to live with it.You get used to it.People here were used to sweeping the soot off their porches.
to driving their cars with their headlights on at noon, to looking out across the river at the barren hillsides where nothing grew.Children walked to school in it, careful not to twist their ankles stepping off the curb they couldn't see.
Smog was a way of life.It's just that it usually blew away by the time the kids came home for lunch.This time, it didn't.It just kept building. The Donora smog would go down in history as a disaster.The worst air pollution disaster in U.S.history.
But for the people living it, as it was happening, it was just the way things were.So they held the parade and the football game.People in the stands were getting called home as their families were falling sick.Some of them lay dying.
But still the game went on.And Donora lost to Monongahela.And Monongahela went on to the championship.And at the time, that was the tragedy.
It was only later, when they stood back, and looked at the empty oxygen tanks, at the bodies piled up, waiting for caskets.It was only after the rain came, and the fog lifted, that they could see.
That was terrible.Yeah.Zinc.That was zinc.We lost that mill, and I did it. And not only the door, you go all the ways down towards Ambrose, all them places, there's a lot of empty wheels down that way.
Sitting down, Erwin Works, that's still working, huh?Yeah, Erwin Works is, yeah, they're still going.Well, they make parts for cars, they make plastic for, and make all kind of junk.Yeah, and they make refrigerators and, Appliances.
That's why they're running.You better get home.Supper's ready.No.Hello?I gotta buy my supper.Are you done?Okay, I'll come right down.Okay.I'll see ya.I gotta go pick up my sister.You know George Dalby's wife? Yeah.She's down there.
I drive him down to play bingo.Oh, they play bingo with senior citizens on Monday and Wednesday.Oh, they play there.Yeah, I'm taking her to a bar.Geez.I forgot about them.I got to get going.I'll see you.OK.OK, Brown.OK.Brown has to go to bingo.
Keeps them going.Little by little, one disappears, another one disappears.Don't get old, baby.It creeps up on you.Yep.Well, I think all I'm going to have, I think it's just lunch meat.I don't think I'm going to do anything.
Have a couple of sandwiches, right? Couple of sandwiches later, I watch TV.Here ain't a damn thing to do.You go downtown, there's no one on the street, there's no one here, no one here.This is like a ghost town.
Cement City was written and produced by Aaron Anderson and me, Jean-Marie Laskas, for Odyssey with Cement City Productions.Our story editor is Michael Benoit. Sound design and engineering for Cement City is by Mike Woolley.
Production assistance by Kira Witkin.Research and fact-checking by Tim Maddox.Original music for this episode by Low Lumens.Additional music courtesy of APM.Our credits music is by Donora.
Cement City is an Odyssey original podcast from executive producers Jenna Weiss-Berman, Leah Reese Dennis, and Maddy Sprung-Kaiser.
To learn more about our series, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and X, at Cement City Productions, or visit our website at cementcity.org.
I can't even begin to tell you how bad it was.It was Lord of the Flies in a building.It was called Straight Incorporated.
This is the story of Straight Incorporated, an experimental drug rehab for teenagers that infiltrated communities across the country in the 1980s during the height of the war on drugs, where kidnapping, brainwashing, and torture were disguised as therapy.
It's the origin story of the troubled teen industry, which continues to profit from the desperation of parents and the vulnerability of their children.And its roots can be traced back to a cult called Synanon.How do I know this?
Because I lived through it.My name is Cindy Etler, and this is Season 2 of The Sunshine Place. Listen to and follow The Sunshine Place, an Odyssey original podcast in association with Robert Downey Jr.and Susan Downey.
Available now on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts.
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