It’s Friday night after another Blue Devils football game, and Andrea Smith and her friends aren’t ready to head home just yet. Like many Mount Lebanon teenagers in the 1950s and ‘60s, they’re making their way to The Rec, a popular gathering spot where music is playing and the dance floor is filling up.

“We always danced,” she recalled. “I loved to dance.”

Friday nights at The Rec were a regular part of her teenage years and one of many memories she still carries from Mount Lebanon. A cheerleader at Mount Lebanon High School, she spent much of her free time with friends, whether at football games, parties or on the dance floor. Though two of the group have since died, Smith still meets one of her fellow cheerleaders for lunch at Eat’n Park near South Hills Village.

“It was great growing up in Mount Lebanon,” she said.

Smith was born during World War II in an apartment on Central Square. When she was 5, her family moved to Shady Drive West, to a home that no longer exists.

Today, the site is the Rollier’s Hardware parking lot.

Driving by, she still points to the pavement and jokes, “That’s where I was born. That parking lot.”

She remembers a neighborhood where students walked to school, often picking up friends along the way and stopping at a small store at the end of Cedar Boulevard for a cup of coffee before class.

While her childhood and teenage years were rooted in Mount Lebanon, her life took her elsewhere after graduation. She attended Shenandoah Junior College in Winchester, Virginia, where she also was a cheerleader. After returning home, Smith began working at Industrial Rubber Products in Pittsburgh, where she met her future husband, the company’s vice president and a widower 18 years her senior. Friends and family predicted the marriage would not last, but the couple proved them wrong, remaining together for 46 years until his death in 2020.

After marrying, the couple settled in South Park before later moving to Jefferson Hills. Smith remained active in the community through volunteer work with Pleasant Hills Community United Presbyterian Church and Meals on Wheels. She also crocheted hats and blankets that were donated through St. Thomas More Church.

When her husband retired, the couple found more time to travel. They visited Ireland, where he fulfilled one of his bucket-list dreams by kissing the Blarney Stone. Smith climbed to the top with him but decided to leave that tradition to her husband.

For her 50th birthday, they traveled to the Grand Canyon, where Smith hiked partway down despite her fear of heights.

“That was quite an experience,” she said.

While she has checked many destinations off her bucket list over the years, one dream remains.

“It’s still my dream to drive Route 66 to California with my dog,” she said.

Before her husband’s death, the couple had begun exploring communities that could provide security and future health care needs. She moved to Providence Point shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic.

She credits her dog, Ali, and the support of her cousin, who also lives at Providence Point, with helping her through the transition. Ali, a mix of shih tzu, bichon, poodle and Maltese, settled in right away and helped make the new community feel like home.

Though she left Mount Lebanon decades ago, she has never forgotten the community where she grew up. More than 60 years after her days at The Rec, many of the memories — and friendships — remain.