50 States: Pennsylvania (11)

May 12th, 2008 · 1 Comment

50 States: Pennsylvania

Soon enough I’ll move on to all of those states I’ve only visited once, but for now, they’re all meaningful ones, and Pennsylvania is another doozy. Pennsylvania was the first state I traveled to completely by myself, when I headed to Dickinson College in Carlisle for my first summer at CTY, a.k.a. nerd camp. Taking college courses in the summer between junior high and high school doesn’t sound like fun, but you had to be there, and you had to understand the way being at CTY gave you a real taste of acceptance and coolness, along with your first kiss, your first girlfriend, your first introduction to the entire New Wave catalog, and a strong desire to go to college and live your life on the East Coast (plus there was that time I sat next to Michael Landon on a commuter plane to Philly…).

I went to five sessions, over three summers, at both Dickinson and Franklin & Marshall, in Lancaster, and I count CTY as one of the formative experiences of my life. It was great for me, coming from the other side of the country, to meet kids from the East Coast and learn about music, culture, sports (Ultimate? Lacrosse? Never heard of them before CTY), and life outside Alaska, and I’m still in touch with a few of the people I met when we were fourteen and fifteen. Living in a dorm, eating in the cafeteria, running around after class all afternoon and studying at night – it was like practice for college, and gave me a taste for all sorts of subjects, from music history to geopolitics, that I delved further into when I got to Amherst. I went back during college to be an RA for two more summers, and had an even better time – wait, CTY without the studying? Sign me up! – but it was those years as a student that really meant the most. Those were magical summers, looking back, and I’ll always treasure the experience.

When I got to college, and roomed with a guy I had met at CTY (not my choice, and an eventual disaster), I found my best friend in George, a graduate of Pocono Mountain High in the honeymoon haven of the mid-Atlantic. People are actually from the Poconos? Does your house have a heart-shaped bed? I had to find out, and George was kind enough to extend an invitation for Thanksgiving dinner, far from home as I was. So, in November of 1994, our sophomore year, we traveled to George’s – was this the time we took the bus, and it was snowing like crazy? I think so – and I was welcomed into his home by his mother and father, his two sisters, and his brother, for the first of eight Thanksgivings over the next ten years. I spent my last one there in 2003, and wrote a more extended appreciation in 2004, by which time we had moved on, and were both spending Thanksgivings with our fianc?es (to be)…

In a nutshell, spending the holiday with George’s family and friends was a perfect weekend: it was a long break from school in the middle of the semester (or from work in the middle of a structure-less year), and it meant sleeping in, gathering around the fireplace, a delicious dinner, lots of bad movies, seeing George’s extended family whom I got to know over the years, and, best of all, it meant being an uninvolved, neutral observer when it came to the conversational fireworks that went on at Thanksgiving dinner, usually instigated by George’s little brother as he tossed out some left-wing socialist softball for his dad to take a crack at. It was always entertaining, and as I helped bring in firewood, peel potatoes, and set the table, I felt like a part of the family.

The photo I’ve chosen comes from Thanksgiving 2001, and is taken as we barrel down a country road in the trusty family Accord Camry on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving. I’m looking at the road ahead and avoiding the flash, George’s buddy Dave is giving a manic look of joyful abandon, and George is looking directly into the lens with a sort of piercing, ageless wisdom – I think it’s a great photo, and it captures some of the fun we managed to have, even after the weekend stopped being a break from college and became like a mini-family reunion.

There are more great things I’ve enjoyed in the Keystone State – The Warhol Museum, PNC Park, seeing Jeff Tweedy at Messiah College in Grantham, but my formative summers and long-standing Thanksgivings stay with me to this day.

Time for another map update.

Tags: Photos · Travel ·

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 G // May 13, 2008 at 5:37 am

    I think I recognize that as the interior of the Camry that my dad got from my Aunt Sally. The Accord had died by 2001, as I recall, with more than 200,000 miles on it…