Country Roads, Take Me Home...

The hostel where I am currently residing in Santiago is a bit cluttered, to put it in polite terms. While rummaging through a pile of magazines, I found a National Geographic from 1994. One of the cover stories was titled "Central Pennsylvania." How odd that I would travel so far, and in Santiago de Chile stumble upon a 14-year old article about my homeland.

The article was written by an Altoona native returning home, and on the second page there were several substatial paragraphs about Lock Haven, along with a photo of a hang glider off Hyner Mountain. In 1994, the levee was just being built, and the town was still divided over it, which is what the author focuses on. He should have assured them not to worry, they could fight over consolidation in a few years. Don´t know what they´re fighting over now.

The mention of Peachy Paterno at the University Creamery at Penn State made my mouth water (but for Coconut Chip, not Peach Paterno, which I´ve never had), not to mention shoefly pie. Not together, obviously, that would be silly.

The other day, for the 857th time, I was asked which part of the US I hail from. And for the 325th time, the persons response to "Pennsylvania" was "Like Dracula?" So in honor of this nearly ancient National Geographic article, here is a list of differences between Pennsylvania and Transylvania.

Pennsylvania Transylvania

Location The United States, Romania, Europe
North America

Cuisine Shoefly pie, Tastykakes, Um, don´t actually know
Utz potato chips

Famous sons/ Will Smith, Michael Dracula
daughters Scott (fictional)

Politicians James Buchanon, Vlad the Impaler
Tom Ridge (Dracula)

Hero Ryan Howard (non-fictional) Jonathan Harker


Famous exports Dunder-Mifflin paper, Gymnasts,
Little League vampires



So there you have it. Very, very different.