“Photographs and memories … take me to another time.” 

—Singer/songwriter Jim Croce

The Oxford dictionary definition of nostalgia is “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.”

Psychologists say the yearning for our past selves and the positive emotions we once felt can be uplifting and provide a sense of comfort.

With that in mind, we thought we’d take a trip down memory lane, Lebo style, by asking you to share your memories of favorite places that aren’t there anymore. Here’s what some of you remember about Washington Road:

For Julie Dyson Imirie, Mt. Lebanon was an ideal place to grow up in. “It truly was the most magical place. I can’t even begin to think of another place where I would’ve wanted to grow up,” she said.

Parkside Avenue in Sunset Hills was the place she called home from 1952 until 1970. After living in a number of places over the years, the Delaware resident admits she’s often sad she left Mt. Lebanon.

Imirie has fond memories of shopping at Joseph Horne’s Department Store, 713 Washington Road. “We grew up with Horne’s as our department store. I thought it was so grand and elegant, like I was in New York City,” she said. “I remember walking through Horne’s with my mother and having to shop in (what was known then as) the Chubette section, which was embarrassing. But, I think it meant a transition from little girls clothes to teenage clothes. There was nothing like a Juniors department back then,” she pointed out.

Her mother did not drive, so whatever shopping they did was either in Mt. Lebanon, or a trolley ride away in downtown Pittsburgh. 

Judy Demmer-Cahill

Judy Demmer-Cahill, formerly of Greenhurst Drive, joined the military out of high school and married a man from Idaho, where she’s lived for about 35 years. She remembers that Kaufmann’s, which was originally at the site of the Galleria and then relocated to South Hills Village, was her mom’s favorite store. “That store was so clean and sparkly. I remember the little girls department, where my mom would buy me piles of clothes. They were so nice, top of the line that’s for sure. We always stopped and got a huge chocolate covered strawberry after shopping.”

Tacy Byham

Tacy Byham and her brother Carter, Pueblo Drive, were 10 and 12 years old when they made the trek down the hill behind Bimbo’s, where Primanti Bros. is now, and crossed the street to Kaufmann’s to buy their parents a nice anniversary present with the pocket money they saved.

“Walking there was a first and an adventure! We felt very grown-up and bold,” she remembers.

“I was mesmerized by all the pretty home goods. We ended up purchasing Mom (and Dad by association) a fancy trivet because she was always a wonderful cook and hosted all the family holidays. We both remember Mom opening the gift with glee and how excited she was to receive this token. To this day, the trivet comes out at holiday time. It’s not the fanciest, but it’s the most meaningful.

I often think of that backroads adventure with my brother and our shared conversations as we selected just the right gift from the grand Kaufmann’s that is no longer there,” she said.

Rikki Hommel

From 1971 to 1983, Bimbo’s was the place to go for 99 cent all-you-can-eat spaghetti, pizza, birthday parties and rollicking entertainment. Rikki Hommel, Ridgefield Avenue, and her brother celebrated a number of birthdays there. “We would get pizza and big plastic jugs of soda and my parents would bring in a birthday cake and a father and son duo would sing happy birthday and bring you up on stage and put a pie in your face,” she remembers.

Julie Williams Smith

Julie Williams Smith also remembers fun times at Bimbo’s. “We used to live nearby so we would walk there and get giant root beers and pizza. We used to have birthday parties there with a pie in the face — which was a plate of whipped cream,” she said.

Mark Desetti

Mark Desetti, Jefferson Drive, lives in Kansas now, but still remembers his parents taking him and his fianceé, now wife of 46 years, to Bimbo’s for “a night of fine entertainment back in 1979.”

LeAnne Fitzgerald Wherley

LeAnne Fitzgerald Wherley moved to Houston, Texas, after graduating from college, but grew up on Sage Drive, where the childhood friend she visits once a year still lives.

Wherley loved Horne’s. “I would usually go with my mother, and they always had great things. As I got older, I was sometimes allowed to go without my mother, but with her credit card, to purchase something I needed. It wasn’t a problem because the salespeople knew you or your family name,” she said.

Horne’s was also the place where she and her sister, Marlene, bought all their Brownie and Girl Scout uniforms.

Bob Ruprecht

Bob Ruprecht, former Orchard Drive resident who’s been living in Atlanta for more than 40 years, counts himself as “one of those things that’s not there anymore.” He has fond memories of Mandell’s Pharmacy, 727 Washington Road, and the short walks he and his pals took from Washington Elementary on weekday afternoons to use their unspent lunch money. “We used it on all kinds of important stuff, like little white triangle-shaped soft erasers, packs of baseball cards with gum, comic books and snacks.”

Mandell’s, also known for its soda fountain, was the place to go if you wanted a cherry Coke or chocolate Coke.

Meghan King Johnson

Meghan King Johnson, Sunset Hills, grew up in the Washington School area. She and her grade school friends looked forward to the World’s Largest Garage Sale, a giant annual flea market that took place every year in July from 1974 until the early 1990s in the old North Garage. She remembers taking the Pepsi Challenge there multiple times to get free soda. She also got her first and only tethered hot air balloon ride there. “I hung around the pony rides long enough that I started leading the ponies around myself, until the person in charge said ‘Wait, who is she? She’s not supposed to be doing that!”

Ed Mori

Ed Mori, formerly of Jayson Avenue, remembers buying his first record album at Gardner’s Record Shop, where Little Tokyo is now, which had a free listening room. The album was Surrealistic Pillow by Jefferson Airplane. “I needed a song, White Rabbit, for a music class project I was working on. I remember the record bins were parallel to the front door and they had a lot of bootleg albums I never saw before or since,” he reminisced.

Marianne Harris

Marianne Harris, who lives in Augusta, Georgia, left her Mayfair Drive home in 1973 when she went away to college. Except for an occasional class reunion, she hasn’t been back to Mt. Lebanon for an extended period of time in 52 years. Her memories of Washington Road center around her dad’s store, J.H. Offutt & Co., 504 Washington Road. Before the days of big box retailers, her dad sold appliances and televisions. “Lots of people I knew had an appliance from my dad’s store in their house,” she said. Harris, the youngest of six children who all helped out at the store, spent many Saturdays there. Liberto Photography, which was the chosen photographer for senior pictures at the time, was next door to her dad’s store. She remembers other Washington Road businesses, like Sun Drug and Walker Pontiac, where her family bought their cars.

“I could walk anywhere. We even walked to school through the woods.”

Harris gets emotional thinking back to her time in Mt. Lebanon. “This is where I grew up. It was a really special place.”