This photograph is dated 6-2-45 and shows the Wyckoff Steel plant supervisors with a banner showing awards for extraordinary efforts in World War II steel production

The men are second generation Ambridge residents. Their parents remain culturally tied to the old country, but most have been educated according to the precepts of the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the old ties are loosening. Their children speak English almost exclusively and, while they identify with their backgrounds, they function as Americans.

My father is standing second from the left (in the hat). He and his fellows all witness the end of Ambridge as a steel town. They will see their company's buildings converted into a recycling facility and the machinery replaced by trash when steel production ends.

In 1945, that end was incomprehensible.