I live in the upper reaches of the Appalachian Mountains. This area is rich in bluestone, a beautiful, nonflaky stone with various shades of blue and blue-gray popular with contractors across the country.
For the past several years quarry owners in the area had enjoyed a boom in business. Quarries that had been closed for many years suddenly opened and thousands of tons of stone left here every week to be used in landscaping and home building projects in NJ, NY (especially Westchester County and Long Island), Conn., even as far away as California.
Tourism folks promote this as the Endless Mountains, but for a while there it looked like it would become the Endless Flats. Then the bottom dropped out of the market. Most of the quarries are closed, silent. No more unexpected dynamite blasts, no more rumble of stone trucks passing by, and a lot of out-of-work quarrymen at a time when there are amost no jobs to be had.
As a writer, I enjoy the peace and quiet but I'm concerned about all those people who don't have jobs. The help wanted ads in the newspapers used to fill 3-4 pages. Now they barely fill 2-3 columns of one page, yet another blow to struggling newspapers.
What about the young men who went straight from high school to the quarries? They didn't see any reason to go to college or train for a skilled job. Now many are married with young children.
We had escaped big problems from the recession around here. We had few foreclosures, lost jobs, or homeless people. That's beginning to change with quarries closing, companies just across the state line in New York laying off many PA residents, and the cancellation of the presidential helicopter project at Lockheed affecting us as well. My husband's machine shop business has been affected and many other small businesses here have downsized or closed.
Apparently we were one of the last places to be hit; I hope we won't be the last to recover. I'm retired from full-time work as a medical transcriptionist and my husband is about ready to retire, but we're just a lucky exception to the norm here. It's very sad.
Showing posts with label Susquehanna County. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Susquehanna County. Show all posts
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Fourth of July in a Small Town
Our country's birthday is a real big deal in Susquehanna County, PA. Oh you might go to Scranton for St. Patrick's Day or someplace else for a Christmas parade, but if you aren't in Montrose, PA for the Independence Day parade, you're nowhere.
Last night we drove down to Wyoming County to Tunkhannock High School for the opening salvo of our holiday. That town has the best fireworks show around in our estimation. We found a huge crowd already gathered when we arrived early and it grew until the football field and surrounding lawns were packed with people of all ages. There were also people lined up along Route 6 and on porches in neighborhoods with a good view. Kiwanis volunteers collected donations ensuring that next year's show will be just as spectacular as last night's extravaganza.
I've often wondered what it would be like to fly over a fireworks show. Last night some of the rockets went so high I wondered if any small planes were nearby. Guess not. Other fireworks just to the left of those rockets were new to me, swirling, pulsating, screaming streaks of color and the pop, pop, pop of blinding lights. At 69 I was sqealing and cheering just as much as the children around us.
Today was the big parade in the Susquehanna County seat of Montrose. It's a lovely town with many large old homes built in the early 1900's by wealthy Philadelphia people who discovered how beautiful it is here in the summer. It's a staunchly conservative Republican area. The people are religious and they maintain old-fashioned values. As a Democrat I'm part of a tiny minority here but I love the people so I just keep my mouth shut. When I was a reporter for the weekly paper, it drove the county commissioners nuts that they couldn't figure out where I stood on things so they actually looked me up in the voting records to find out. Imagine their shock!
Anyway, we're as patriotic as they are and my husband was in the Marine Corps as were many of our neighbors. We always show up for the parade. It lasts an hour these days with all the typical ingredients for a good country parade: veterans, high school bands (2), Dixieland bands, Cub Scouts, local clergy in golf carts (there's an excellent course here), old tractors, classic cars, fire engines, floats, and politicians. We also have a local group reminiscent of "Stomp" who we all love, gorgeous horses (one carrying George Washington this year), dirt track race cars, Ronald McDonald, and queens of this and that. Bringing up the rear every year is Charlie Chaplin with a janitor's cart.
The crowd is unbelievable. Everyone brings the kids and grandma, and we see people we haven't seen for months. The parade ends at the town green where there are craft booths and food stands, barbecued chicken at the firehouse, and wonderful smells.
This evening we'll see fireworks at our high school on the hill but most of the out-of-town visitors will have gone home by them. The population of Montrose swells by thousands during this day as folks drive in from New York, New Jersey, and other parts of Pennsylvania. Then they go home and the town easily slips back into normal quiet days. Well, that is until the Blueberry Festival next month. You ought to see the crowd then!
Last night we drove down to Wyoming County to Tunkhannock High School for the opening salvo of our holiday. That town has the best fireworks show around in our estimation. We found a huge crowd already gathered when we arrived early and it grew until the football field and surrounding lawns were packed with people of all ages. There were also people lined up along Route 6 and on porches in neighborhoods with a good view. Kiwanis volunteers collected donations ensuring that next year's show will be just as spectacular as last night's extravaganza.
I've often wondered what it would be like to fly over a fireworks show. Last night some of the rockets went so high I wondered if any small planes were nearby. Guess not. Other fireworks just to the left of those rockets were new to me, swirling, pulsating, screaming streaks of color and the pop, pop, pop of blinding lights. At 69 I was sqealing and cheering just as much as the children around us.
Today was the big parade in the Susquehanna County seat of Montrose. It's a lovely town with many large old homes built in the early 1900's by wealthy Philadelphia people who discovered how beautiful it is here in the summer. It's a staunchly conservative Republican area. The people are religious and they maintain old-fashioned values. As a Democrat I'm part of a tiny minority here but I love the people so I just keep my mouth shut. When I was a reporter for the weekly paper, it drove the county commissioners nuts that they couldn't figure out where I stood on things so they actually looked me up in the voting records to find out. Imagine their shock!
Anyway, we're as patriotic as they are and my husband was in the Marine Corps as were many of our neighbors. We always show up for the parade. It lasts an hour these days with all the typical ingredients for a good country parade: veterans, high school bands (2), Dixieland bands, Cub Scouts, local clergy in golf carts (there's an excellent course here), old tractors, classic cars, fire engines, floats, and politicians. We also have a local group reminiscent of "Stomp" who we all love, gorgeous horses (one carrying George Washington this year), dirt track race cars, Ronald McDonald, and queens of this and that. Bringing up the rear every year is Charlie Chaplin with a janitor's cart.
The crowd is unbelievable. Everyone brings the kids and grandma, and we see people we haven't seen for months. The parade ends at the town green where there are craft booths and food stands, barbecued chicken at the firehouse, and wonderful smells.
This evening we'll see fireworks at our high school on the hill but most of the out-of-town visitors will have gone home by them. The population of Montrose swells by thousands during this day as folks drive in from New York, New Jersey, and other parts of Pennsylvania. Then they go home and the town easily slips back into normal quiet days. Well, that is until the Blueberry Festival next month. You ought to see the crowd then!
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