Sunday, October 19, 2003

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Arnie Fonzarelli, the Duke of Cubbage Hill, walks a 3-mile route along Ewing Road every morning. The guy with him is Bill Riddle, who's been taking the route for nearly two decades.

"When you're older than dirt you gotta keep moving," says Riddle, who celebrated his 39th birthday for the 34th time in May. He and the Fonz leave every day at 7:30 a.m., "unless it's pouring down rain," Riddle says. "If it's pouring, the dog just turns around and won't leave the house."

Everybody knows them.

"I wave at everybody; it's just a habit. Truck drivers, bus drivers, bicycles, motorcycles, occasionally a runner," Riddle says.

And they wave back. People in buses, construction trucks, trade trucks, regular commuters, neighbors, they all know him. If there are three guys riding in a truck, all three wave at Bill and his dog.

Riddle, a retired construction worker who has lived in the Carnegie neighborhood of Cubbage Hill for 35 years, started walking a dog named Major up from his home on Collier Avenue onto Ewing Road in the mid-1980s. He inherited Major from his father.

When Major died at 18, Riddle walked alone until the Fonz came along.

"He was throwed out in Claysville in the summer of 1998," Riddle says. A neighbor found the puppy walking down the middle of a road and brought him home. "They used to see me walking with Major, then without him, and they said, 'Do you want a dog?' "

Arnie Fonzarelli took to the morning routine right away, earning his name and royal title. He also gets a shorter afternoon walk and a 10 or 10:30 p.m. last-call walk.

"For a short-legged dog, he sure likes to walk," says Riddle. "He likes to move and that there."

Riddle has a collection of hats to match the day's forecast.

The battered Stetson he was wearing last week is the one he picks when it looks as if it's going to rain.

"Bobby Layne, the quarterback from the Steelers, he brought up three hats from Dallas, where he was from. My pappy knew him, and he gave one of those hats to my pappy. At the time it cost $50. Now it ain't worth 3 cents, but I still wear it."

He has baseball caps and a big straw hat as well. "I've had two or three ladies stop on the road and give me hats," he says. "I go by what I feel like wearing."

Cold, heat, fatigue -- none of it bothers Riddle. "I don't know, I got broke in so well on this, I feel great."

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An index to Here, a weekly feature produced by Post-Gazette photographers and writers who roam the region to capture close-up slices of life here.

Lillian Thomas can be reached at lthomas@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3566. Annie O'Neill can be reached at aoneill@post-gazette.com

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