Webbready

When I was much younger, in my late childhood and early teenage years, I used to ride in my grandfather’s car to and from church. My grandmother would drive the car, and almost always, the bulk of the route to church consisted of driving down Penn Avenue. At times, though, the route home would take a different path, down that of Bennett Street in the Homewood section of Pittsburgh.

I rode down this street on countless occassions aside from the trips from church, but a sight that always mesmerized me was that of three identical brick edifices, each with a name on the front of it. I always wondered why these triple buildings were created in this fashion, as well as the significance of the names that were chosen.

In the present day, not only are the buildings abandoned, but only two of the three remain. Worse yet, while the buildings with the labels “Syria” and “Kismet” are still standing, I cannot remember the name of the third one that is no longer present. A glance at an old map displays the name “Irona,” but I cannot remember if that this was the appellation of lost sister structure or not. The condition of the buildings and the absence of the name in my mind are a precursor to oblivion. Despite how much at the time of my witness, I cherished the presence and mystery of those three buildings, it is only the memory of my wonder and my discarded desire that now remains.