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Thanksgiving Breakfast
In northeastern Pennsylvania about a hundred miles north of Philadelphia is the small community of Clarks Summit. Nestled on top of one of the Blue Ridge Mountains, it’s a picturesque little village with narrow streets shaded by large maple and oak trees. It was founded by William Clark, a veteran of the Revolutionary War. He fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill and spent a winter at Valley Forge with General Washington. For his service he was granted eight hundred acres in the Abington wilderness. He built a log cabin there in 1799; one hundred years later a school was built. In 1911 the borough of Clarks Summit was incorporated.
For thousands of years, the Indians roamed this area; but in the late 1800s, the major influences were coal mining, farming and the railroad. In 1913 Clarks Summit was scarred by what was known as the “big cut.” A deep ravine was dug through the town to accommodate the construction of the largest concrete structure in the world at the time: the magnificent Nicholson Bridge. Like so many other changes in Clarks Summit, the ravine still has a subtle but powerful effect on the community that an outsider may not notice.
The natural barrier of the mountains separated Clarks Summit and the Abington area from Scranton, the major city in the area. This environment also set Clarks Summit apart and isolated from the adjoining coal-mining towns of Dunmore, Moosic, Throop, Olyphant, Old Forge and Dickson City as well as the farming communities of Chinchilla, Newton, Dalton and Waverly.
Before Interstate 81 was built in the 1960s, State Route 6/11 was the major highway, feeding a steady stream of cars and trucks with a variety of state license plates through the heart of town. It was fascinating to watch the large tractor-trailers hauling loads up and down the Clarks Summit hill on their journey to customers throughout the country. At night, while lying in bed, you could hear the straining of the lonesome diesel locomotives as they pulled the long trail of freight cars to mysterious destinations. The movement of commerce through our little town amplified the sense of adventure to a young fertile mind.
Clarks Summit was a wonderful place to grow up. It was like Mayberry; although we didn’t have Andy Griffith, we did have a few Barney Fifes. On State Street we had a pharmacy, a movie theater, a variety of shops, a few bars and the Summit Diner.
Everyone knew everyone. It wasn’t until later in life that I realized I had grown up with Irish, Italians, Polish, Germans, Welsh, Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists, Jews, and various kinds of Protestants. As kids we didn’t notice any difference; they were our friends and neighbors. Our fathers all had jobs of seemingly equal importance although some were paid more. We knew the shop owners and employees of each business. We knew every schoolteacher and policeman, the people who worked at the gas stations, and even the town drunk, although some of those positions would change with the times. Respect for others was the unspoken community code we adhered to. We may not have liked everybody, but we respected everyone. To our innocent minds, all the girls and women were virgins . . . including our mothers.
Growing up we didn’t have much money; for us kids there weren’t any jobs except cutting grass in the summer, raking leaves in the fall, and shoveling snow in the winter. But we didn’t need much money. Back in the 1950s, movies were twenty-five cents, candy bars a nickel and a Coke was six cents. My parents’ cigarettes were seventeen cents a pack.
Though we may not have had much money, we did have a lot of freedom. We could explore the surrounding fields, mountains, streams, and lakes, and investigate the boundaries of life. In the summer we would sleep outside, talking and dreaming under the distant stars. We were able to build lifelong friendships that remain as genuine today as they were more than fifty years ago—providing some of those old friends don’t read this book.
Growing up in this area was a beautiful, enjoyable experience. It was a fun time to be born and a fun place to grow up. There have been so many fascinating characters in our town, with so many entertaining episodes. I chose to share just a glimpse of our life with some of these stories. The setting is real, many of the incidents are real, and the characters are combinations of the unique cast of characters I grew up with. Some of these people are more recognizable than others, and all were enchanting.