oldnumberseven

Then I was the night manager of a tall hotel along the Monongahela River in Morgantown West Virginia. The building was five stories tall, and the top floor was large apartments full of people who could afford the space. The Monongahela River was mostly muddy and crawled north. The river valley was narrow with creek tributaries, the hills were close to the river, wooded, with little bottom land. The river crossed the border into Pennsylvania and met the Allegheny, formed the Ohio at the triangle at Pittsburgh. The Ohio flowed west. The people who leased the large apartments spent warm evenings lodged on their balconies with their invited guests, listened to music, and served drinks. The river flowed beneath them. When the snow fell the balcony parties were over. Few lights shown on the far riverbank. The equipment and the workers of Oliverio and Son Builders threw up new apartments on the far bank in the daylight. The Westover bridge spanned the river.