Living In A One Horse Town
I was listening to Blue Moves the other day, grooving along with the song titled as above, when I was filled with a kind of nostalgia.
I grew up in a one-horse town. Rather, a one-light town. Seriously. I was reared in Upstate Pennsylvania (NorthEast P.A., as we call it, here), in a former farming town by the name of Tunkhannock. (That's supposedly some Indian name for the area). I can still type that name without hesitating. I can still remember my phone number, and that to call Grandma, we just had to dial the last four digits (1563) - We were still on a party line! It's the land of my fathers and their fathers and their fathers, but right around then they kind of stole the land from some natives... but I digress.
So Tunkhannock is a beautiful little town "nestled by the Susquehanna" (river, that is). It's in the heart of the Endless Mountains (part of the Appalachians). It has beautiful autumns, freezing winters, and humid summers. I remember spending the summers with my nieces and nephews (I'm the youngest of eight children. My brothers' kids were my age) swimming in the pond, watching the adults putting in hay, camping in the fields. We hardly ever went down-town - it was so busy down in Tunkhannock!
All that traffic going through that one red light.
My dad farmed - dairy cows - as did the neighbors on both sides. But the area was changing. In the late sixties, Proctor and Gamble built a paper plant in Mehoopany - a sprawling suburb of Tunkhannock. (I actually lived in a different suburb - the village of Lemon.) With P&G came jobs, people, and the possibility of more traffic lights.
There was a Murphy's Mart and, when I got to Middle School, Fashion Bug buzzed into town! Tunkhannock grew as I did, and with High School came a McDonalds. When I went off to college, they got another light or two. Now, I think there are at least five traffic lights in town!
But, to me, it will always be the one-light town. Gay's (the hardware store), Gables (best daggone doughnuts around), and Bricks (grocer) are Tunkhannock. Sure, there's a Walmart now. And most of the farms are no longer functioning. But it's still the same old place. Love it or hate it.
I've certainly done both!
(*)>
I grew up in a one-horse town. Rather, a one-light town. Seriously. I was reared in Upstate Pennsylvania (NorthEast P.A., as we call it, here), in a former farming town by the name of Tunkhannock. (That's supposedly some Indian name for the area). I can still type that name without hesitating. I can still remember my phone number, and that to call Grandma, we just had to dial the last four digits (1563) - We were still on a party line! It's the land of my fathers and their fathers and their fathers, but right around then they kind of stole the land from some natives... but I digress.
So Tunkhannock is a beautiful little town "nestled by the Susquehanna" (river, that is). It's in the heart of the Endless Mountains (part of the Appalachians). It has beautiful autumns, freezing winters, and humid summers. I remember spending the summers with my nieces and nephews (I'm the youngest of eight children. My brothers' kids were my age) swimming in the pond, watching the adults putting in hay, camping in the fields. We hardly ever went down-town - it was so busy down in Tunkhannock!
All that traffic going through that one red light.
My dad farmed - dairy cows - as did the neighbors on both sides. But the area was changing. In the late sixties, Proctor and Gamble built a paper plant in Mehoopany - a sprawling suburb of Tunkhannock. (I actually lived in a different suburb - the village of Lemon.) With P&G came jobs, people, and the possibility of more traffic lights.
There was a Murphy's Mart and, when I got to Middle School, Fashion Bug buzzed into town! Tunkhannock grew as I did, and with High School came a McDonalds. When I went off to college, they got another light or two. Now, I think there are at least five traffic lights in town!
But, to me, it will always be the one-light town. Gay's (the hardware store), Gables (best daggone doughnuts around), and Bricks (grocer) are Tunkhannock. Sure, there's a Walmart now. And most of the farms are no longer functioning. But it's still the same old place. Love it or hate it.
I've certainly done both!
(*)>
posted by birdwoman | 1:10 PM
1 Comments:
Sounds wonderful! I'm putting a trip to Tunkhannock/Lemon on my bucket list. I grew up on the outskirts of Houston, surrounded by 80-foot pine trees, before Houston got so darned big. So, anyway, I'm working as a part-time caregiver in Richmond, TX, a wee bit southwest of Sugar Land. I'm helping a nice married couple, both 77 yrs old and mentally sharp as a tack, but both are going thru chemo for breast cancer and lung cancer. Anyway, she grew up in an Amish family in Punxsutawney, also on a dairy farm. She went to visit her sister in Birmingham, Alabama, fell in love and married a nice Methodist man and became a Methodist herself. Holy cow. So anyway, she is a totally laid-back Methodist now; we have a nice glass or two of Cabernet or Chianti every day at 5 o'clock, rain or shine. Hallelujah! Well, I need to go get the clothes out of the drier and then start dinner. To be continued.......
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