Huntingdon is a wonderful little town. It's surrounded on all sides by the beautiful low mountains of Central Pennsylvania, with their forested flanks and their rocky peaks. The valleys on all sides are narrow and long and filled with ancient farms and their immense farmhouses and big barns. There are Trump signs on many of the yards in the countryside surrounding the town--which gives me pause, since I associate Trump with bigotry and hate. But the town of Huntindgon has pretty parks, classy old mansions, ornate churches, shady streets, a nice little shopping district, and some really cool features like coffee shops, and microbreweries, and antique stores. There's a private college here and no shortage of beautiful people. As mentioned recently, it also has an Amtrak daily to New York. Oh, and a cool little church turned Orthodox with an onion dome added just to bring the point home. What more could you ask from a small town in the mountains.
Having lived in huntingdon twice in my life, I might be inclined call it less wonderful, now, than it was in 83 and the start of stint 1 and 2000 at the start of stint 2. My family surname emigrated thru philly in the mid 1700's from what was Prussia, and were involved in the formation of the surrounding town and indeed county. What was so cool and quaint with actual shops and stores, a mall and a skating rink is now mostly vacant, with only second hand stores and mental counseling 'shops' courtesy of Ed Rendell. The real focus today is the lake, which is why I keep coming back for the last 38 years.
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