I actually tried posting this entry a few days ago while we were travelling through Potter County, PA, which is advertised as "God's Country." But apparently, God does not like my writing because the library in Galeton blocked my blog under the category of Adult/Mature. What's odd is that Potter County, PA is also the home of the "Woolly Willy" and though I have no idea what that is, it sounds like it too deserves to be in the Adult/Mature category.
Take a look at a tourism map of the state and you'll see Pennsylvania suffers from poor self esteem. None of their attractions are good enough on their own. There's Bushkill Falls, the Niagara of PA. And there's the Grand Canyon of PA. Hell, there's even a town here called Jersey Shore. Pennsylvania, just be yourself. Take pride in your unruly Eagles fans and churned butter, your Hershey kisses and potato chip making industry. You don't seem me going around calling myself, Armin, the Matthew McConaughey of New Jersey, do you?
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7 comments:
Arm-in,
Keep on servin' up your slice of americana. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Muy delicioso.
One suggestion: Like your mother, I'm interested in knowing roughly where you are and what route you've taken. Instead of asking Google Maps after every post, perhaps you could post your own map and update that every so often? Setup would take two minutes and updating it about thirty seconds a time.
You could make something like this:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=41.590797,-75.377197&spn=4.16542,8.876953&z=7&om=1&msid=110187239815752759537.00043568dd568b1f0a212
Perhaps this is precisely what you are trying to avoid.
Keep it up.
Cal
I don't know what happened to my comment the first time. But it said that you make me laugh. And that I love hearing your updates. And that reading them makes me miss you like crazy!
A Wooly Willy is a small novelty item. It's a plastic-encased, el-cheapo piece of cardboard with the effigy of a bald man's face on it. You take a little swizzle stick type doohickey (with a magnet at one end) and then use the magnet/said swizzle stickamabob to move a bunch of fine metal shavings (also encased within the plastic packaging) around, in order to give Willy hair/a Hitler moustache/Prefontaine-like sideburns/an abnormal growth that might concern his dermatologist/a unicorn horn/a cleft chin/a unibrow/a mohawk. Anything, essentially.
I had no idea Pennsylvania was responsible for Willy. Say what you will about poor self esteem: today I feel almost proud to hail from the Keystone State. (I say "almost" because, allegedly, PA has also given you a lot of flat tires.)
But please do nuzzle Punxatawny Phil--and pound some Yuengling--before crossing the state borderline.
I'm glad to hear you guys are doing well; I got antsy when there were no postings, over the weekend.
-Count Chocula
ps: have you heard a lot of people using "yis" and "youse", yet? the further west you go, the more you encounter it. yuck.
pps: has anyone offered you Scrapple yet? I would strongly caution you against trying it--but knowing your love for Slim Jims, it's entirely possible you'll like it.
Yes, it is true what the last post said...the farther west the thicker the accent. My grandparents on my father's side were from Ford City, PA, which you may, in fact, encounter (it is near Kittanning, which is where great-grandma Nunny lived and died at the age of 99. My grandma and grandpa often said 'you'ins' 'ya-es' and 'ne-ooo'...as much as this place is the 'simple life,' I miss visiting and seeing my grandparents. They were good people. My grandpa took pride in his gold heart from WWII and my grandma did the same for the year she nursed him back to health. My dad (and so did we when we visited) ate a lot of 'haayy-em' in Ford City. Spam was very popular too!
Have you seen the tons of deer in PA? Dead and alive?
Miss you Armin! Just so you know, your students are great and they miss you too.
Pam
Oh, one more word that my father will never stop using and saying with his PA accent...
I need to use the warshroom...!
But that doesn't make him a bad guy, right!
Oh yeah, and some of these simple PA people have grand roots - my great grandmother, who I mentioned in the last post, had the last name 'Adams.' She discovered that my father's side is related to John Adams when researching her family tree!
Sounds like you are having a great time and seeing tons of interesting things on your travels. I'm loving the updates and the tales of your travels. Miss you Armin!!
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