Photographer focused on family legacy
He hasn’t lived in the mid-Monongahela Valley for many years, but John I. Orrison has never forgotten the positive experiences of growing up in the Belle Vernon area.
And there never seems to be a shortage of reminders about those formative years for Orrison, a 1963 graduate of Bellmar High School who has lived in the Atlanta suburb of Gainesville, Ga., for many years.
The most recent item prompting Orrison’s memory bank was an Internet collection of pictures from the 1950s by Railroad Jack. It was sent to Orrison by a longtime friend, Vance Bunardzya, also a Bellmar graduate and a resident of Rostraver Township.
The Internet collection features myriad shots of automobiles, fashions, celebrities, restaurants, food and beverages, entertainment, hair styles and other aspects of the decade that ran from Jan. 1, 1950, through Dec. 31, 1959.
“The photographs brought me some inspiration as well as fond memories of some of the best years of our lives,” said Orrison, 70, the author of a well-written and poignant assemblage of journeys to yesterday titled “Growing Up Bellmar: Reminiscences Of My Youth.”
The essays recount life growing up in North Belle Vernon and then Lynwood as the son of the late John Irvin Orrison and Dorothy Kirk Orrison and the brother of Marjorie Sue (Margie) Hedley of Denver, N.C., Mary Lou Englert of Bethel Park, and William K. (Bill) Orrison of Washington.
They often were the subjects of pictures taken by a favorite cousin, Donald J. Weiland. Hence the special interest in the great collection of 1950s photos Orrison received from Bunardzya.
“Back in the day … before iPhones and smartphones made everyone a photographer, each family seemed to have one person that was the family chronicler,” Orrison said. “In our family, it was Cousin Don. He lived in the Overbrook neighborhood of Pittsburgh but spent a lot of time in the Mon Valley for family gatherings and other events.
“While the rest of us were wrestling with our AnscoFlex or Kodak Brownie with either 110 or 120 film, Cousin Don had a metal camera with shiny chrome edges and twisty lenses, knobs and gadgets for taking 35mm pictures,” Orrison said. “Nobody in the family had anything like it.
“Don never made prints. He always had slides. So, watching his work involved setting up a screen, darkening the room and working the slide projector. But, it was worth it. Don had photos of family weddings, birthdays, baptisms, anniversaries, backyard cookouts, poker parties and you-name-it for years of family history.”
Orrison said his siblings and younger cousins – “all just kids” – used to joke that they didn’t know what “Cousin Don’s face looked like because he always had a camera in front of it.”
Don was an older cousin, Orrison explained.
“He married one of my grandma’s older daughter’s daughters (Irene ‘Reenie’ deGrutolla),” he said.
“Don was as old as my mom and dad, so, for a long time our generation called him Uncle Don. We had not yet come to grips with the fact that a cousin could be as old as our parents.”
Weiland had been a local sports star and is a military veteran. He did drafting for a living until he and a few of his friends pooled their savings and bought an Edsel franchise.
“As one might understand, a few years later he started another career as a mail carrier,” Orrison said. “He walked his postal route for the rest of his working life. He never wanted an inside job. He loved the walking route. That probably explains why he has survived to age 92 and is living in an assisted living facility in the South Hills. He and Irene, who is deceased, had three children, Sandra Hunt of Pittsburgh, Bob Weiland of Saint Louis and Donna Floyd of Nashville.”
After Orrison’s parents passed away, he asked Weiland If he could get copies of some of his slides “that had my folks in them.”
“Don graciously obliged,” Orrison said. “I remember when looking at them that I thought he never appeared in any of the photographs, because he was the photographer. Then I saw it.
“Occasionally, he had his back to the sun and his shadow appeared in the photo between him and the subjects. When I flip through the pictures and see his shadow, I know it is Don and his image is as clear to me as if he had been standing in front of the camera.
“Thanks, Cousin-Uncle Don. (Renowned Civil War photographer) Matthew Brady has nothing on you.”
If you have memories to share or story ideas, contact Ron Paglia at ronpaglia@verizon.net or c/o the Observer-Reporter, 122 S. Main St., Washington, Pa. 15301.