Pittsburgh fall foliage (now in full color)

Updated, Sept. 23, 2015: Remember last year?

It would be great to have a few decades-old fall Pittsburgh scenes in color, we said.

What we wouldn’t give…

Well, turns out, all we had to offer up were a few hours spent scanning another envelope of color negatives. Inside, several hundred images of color popped. Orange and red and yellow leaves, plus those bright blue fall skies.

Add in some late 1970s style, and it’s quite a collection.

And, as always, if you have any idea beyond the first three images of the faces and places shown herein, we would love to hear your suggestions at socialmedia@post-gazette.com or in the comments below. These images are forever held in plain envelopes with a topic, date and no other information.

Here, too, are those images from last year.

Oct. 16, 1983: Beth McElhaney, left, and Alicia Huntsinger, 9, of Bethel Park team up in their yard of leaves. (Harry Coughanour/Post-Gazette)

Oct. 14, 1985: Joseph Medius, 6, props himself between two trees at Bird Park in Mt. Lebanon. (Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette)

Oct. 13, 1985: Emily Szylinski, 4, of Mt. Lebanon covered with leaves near Cochran Road. (Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette)

Oct. 13, 1985: Jared Henkel, 3, of Mt. Lebanon pushes leaves with his tractor. (Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette)

Oct. 16, 1984: Anna Maria Montano, 4, of Shadyside, lands softly from a Frick Park slide. (Bill Levis/Post-Gazette)

Nov. 4, 1979: Myrle Kaye, of Bethel Park, examines a historical marker about Pitt’s 1787 founding. (Albert M. Herrmann Jr./The Pittsburgh Press)

Nov. 21, 1990: City Parks Department employee Tom Packard battles falling leaves in West Park on the North Side. (John Heller/The Pittsburgh Press)

Original post, Nov. 5, 2014: What we wouldn’t give to have a few of these scenes in color.

Two seasonally relevant photo folders exist in our archive. One is labeled “FALL.” The other was “LEAVES.” (We merged the two during research for this post)

There were a few dozen photos between the two of them, but these are seven of our favorites. Besides the endearing joy obvious in each pictured child, it’s the subtle details that make a few of these pop.

The cigarette perfectly framed by the swirling leaves.

The perfect backlight on the pair of young leaf rakers.

The child old enough to leverage his frame between two trees while inspecting a leaf — though not quite old enough to tie his own shoes.

And the angle at which the boy and his leaf-mowing tractor were captured.

All of this reminds us at The Digs of why fall in Pittsburgh is a magical season. Even when it’s in black and white.