{"id":1330,"date":"2013-10-07T04:01:52","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T04:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=1330"},"modified":"2015-01-09T15:27:45","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T20:27:45","slug":"who-were-we-in-1983","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/10\/07\/who-were-we-in-1983\/","title":{"rendered":"Who were we in 1983?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A <\/a>
A sign on J&L\u2019s Midland facility displayed optimism in June 1983. (Carol Morton\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Job <\/a>
Job seekers lined up around the City-County Building in March 1983. (Post-Gazette photo) <\/div> <\/div>
\"George <\/a>
George Mineard of Ohioville needed a job in May 1984. (James Klingensmith\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"President <\/a>
President Ronald Reagan spoke in Pittsburgh on April 6, 1983. (Robert J. Pavuchak\/Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The Lawrence Paint building remained across the river from the Point in 1983. (Jim Fetters\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

A few weeks ago, while digging through a cardboard box filled with ancient VHS movies we\u2019d been meaning to donate to Goodwill, we found an old copy of \u201cFlashdance.\u201d It took us a while to get the dust-covered VHS player to work, but finally we got the worn, scratchy video to appear on our TV.<\/p>\n

Yeah, we agree with the critics who panned the movie when it was released in 1983. It\u2019s a corny film about a stunningly beautiful woman who works by day as a welder in a Pittsburgh steel mill and moonlights as an exotic dancer.<\/p>\n

Despite its obvious flaws, we like the flick. It offers a glimpse of who we were \u2014 or, more accurately, who other people thought we were \u2014 when Ronald Reagan was our president and \u201cBeat it\u201d was a hit song.<\/p>\n

The movie version of Pittsburgh was all rusting steel mills, bars, hard-edged workers and artistic dreamers who just needed a chance to get away from their crummy lives and jobs. Oh, and a few of us were pretty good dancers, too.<\/p>\n

Truth is, many of us were having a rough time 30 years ago. Our legendary steel industry was proving much more fragile than we thought. We\u2019re still amazed at how quickly all those massive sheds and furnaces disappeared. Not to mention the jobs. That\u2019s where we really felt the pain.<\/p>\n

In January of 1983, approximately 17 percent of our city\u2019s workers were unemployed. The jobless rate in Beaver County reached a whopping 27 percent.<\/p>\n

Many of the lost jobs were manufacturing gigs paying wages that allowed workers and their families to live solidly middle-class lives. Those paychecks were not easily replaced. Nor was the pride and sense of identity that went with making something so basic and necessary to modern life. Pittsburgh steel built cities. It helped win wars. Many of us watched those blast furnaces topple and wondered, \u201cWho are we, if not the world\u2019s greatest steel producers?\u201d Any other identity seemed to diminish us.<\/p>\n

In the 30 years since, we\u2019ve learned a lot \u2014 about ourselves, about our city\u2019s tenacity and resilience. And about change. \u00a0We\u2019re a greener place than we used to be. Medicine and education have replaced steel as the foundation of our local economy. We\u2019re no longer viewed simply as that dirty, smoky city everyone wants to avoid. We\u2019ve become hip and cool, even if those of us of a certain age remain confused as to what that truly means. Certainly it\u2019s energizing.<\/p>\n

After watching \u201cFlashdance\u201d (and drinking an Iron City while doing so), we returned the movie to its overstuffed box. We like who we were; we like who we are. We\u2019ll watch the movie again in another 30 years. We\u2019re hoping it\u2019s on Netflix by then.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Learn more about how the city has evolved since 1983 in the PG\u2019s special report, \u201c30 years, 30 changes.\u201d<\/strong><\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Truth is, many of us were having a rough time 30 years ago. <\/p>\n

Look at the picturesWho were we in 1983?<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[946],"tags":[964,1143,999,1005,1171,1016,1029,1046],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/1983-2.jpg?fit=1280%2C1036&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2199,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/12\/18\/pittsburgh-press-reporter-maddy-ross\/","url_meta":{"origin":1330,"position":0},"title":"Pittsburgh Press reporter Maddy Ross","date":"December 18, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Everyone starts somewhere and Pittsburgh journalist Madelyn Ross is no 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