Pennsylvania tourist

It's been far too long since my last post.  I found that i wasn't writing anything of great value and for the most part just winging it... like a daily in a newspaper.  writing something clever-ish because i was supposed to, not writing for the therapy and need of something to say.  So I opted to stop for a while and see if i missed it.  Well here i am.  Missing it.

About a month ago i went back home to western Pennsylvania to spend some time with my family and recharge a bit.  I loved growing up there.  It was rural farm country surrounded by mills, refineries and coal mines.  It was also populated by the greatest people i have ever known.  Hard working honest people.  Kind of a tough find these days.  I'm sure it's not the innocent, leave you keys in your car don't lock your doors at night place i remember but in my minds eye it will always be that way.

A few days before i went home my Dad invited me to go on a fishing trip with two of his buddies.  I haven't picked up a fishing pole in.... twenty years or so but i said sure.  He got me a pole and other stuff and i headed east.  When i got there i had to go get a fishing license and it was a Pennsylvania Tourist "good for seven days" which was good knowing i wouldn't be needing another one for another twenty years or so!  So the next day we get up at some God awful hour and jump in the truck and drive about two hours north east.  on the trip we got to catch up and tell stories and have fun but to be honest i wasn't all that excited about the fishing part it was just a chance to spend time with my Dad.  We met up with his buddies, who are arguably the greatest people in the world, and get to fishing.

 Something amazing happened then.  It was 1979.  I didn't have a worry in my head.  I was just fishing with my Pop and everything was right in the world.

The fishing was great, i literally caught a fish every cast.  So many fish i almost ran out of bait!   We're catch and release people so i didn't have to gut (and not eat!) the slimy bastards either.  Which is a real plus in my book.

every once in a while i would catch my Dad watching me and i could tell it was 1979 for him too.  It was that rare smile we all so rarely get.  The one that says life is good.

A week or so later I was cleaning out my Jeep and found my PA tourist pass and it dawned on me that i don't live there anymore.  I know.  I left there in 1995.  You'd think it would have sunk in but it hadn't.

I will always refer to PA as home and i still claim my yinzer blood with pride.  I miss my family and friends.  I am glad I grew up there.... I'm also glad i left.  I get to see it with new eyes and love every time I go back.

 I know people that live on the coast that never notice the ocean anymore.  They just live their life and sometimes get reminded that they live in somebody else's paradise.  By leaving, that farm town will always be my paradise.

So I kept my license and it is still sitting on my dresser.  Every time I see it I think of a boy and his father  and the best day they ever had.