Living in Pennsylvania
 

I know lots of you make your abode in PA, so I would like your input on what it's like to live there... what's the economic climate, political climate, education, weather, geography, anything really... I've never been to Pennsylvania, so I really don't know anything about it. Please share any quirks about the state or things that you really like about living there. If you went to or go to Penn State, please tell me about State College.

The reason I ask is Mr. Saur just took a faculty position at Penn State.

Thank you!

Congratulations! Pennsylvania is a big place. Not much anybody has to say about other non-State College parts of the state will be relevant. I'd suggest you immediately start working the network of similarly situated faculty. For better or worse, it's a college town.

I didn't go to PSU but my ex did. I travelled there every year during my childhood for the Arts Festival, and crawled every inch of the campus.

The town is your proverbial college town. Everything there is related to the influx of tens of thousands of students. Sometimes interesting, sometimes rude, generally diverse. Town size triples on home game weekends, as a virtual city of RVs suddenly appears.

Capable of being quite snowy and cold in the winter, since it's nestled in a smaller mountain range. Very beautiful; not as beautiful as superior mountain ranges, but the rolling landscape is always picturesque, especially in the fall.

Rolling Rock "ponies" = 7 oz. bottles, generally consumed in large quantities.

As a whole, I enjoyed living in PA. I've never been to State College, but I hear it's a great college town...as such, it will probably be more liberal than most of the state. And it's in the mountains, so the weather will probably be cooler and less humid than what you're used to in Champaign.

Pennsylvania apparently has the highest percentage of old folks in the country, and the population is fairly stagnant. The economy wasn't all that great when I lived there, but it seemed to be getting better. But that was in Philly...maybe it's better out in Centre County.

The quirkiest thing about the state (and it may not matter to you and your hubby), IMO, are the liquor laws...very different from IL. You can't buy alcohol in grocery stores. You can only buy 6- and 12-packs from bars, delis or specially licensed shops. You can only buy cases of beer from a beer distributor. And you can only buy liquor from state-owned liquor stores. And the prices of beer and liquor in PA are fairly high compared to other states I've been to.

But as a whole, PA is a nice place. Beautiful scenery, low taxes, Lake Erie, Philly, Pittsburgh, the Poconos, only a few hours from the Atlantic, close proximity to the rest of the East Coast, great food, nice people...nice place!

This will be the millionth college town I've lived in - I was born and raised in Ames, Iowa (Iowa State), went to college in Kirksville, Mo (Truman State), worked at Valparaiso University, lived in Chapel Hill, NC for 5 years (UNC) and now live in Champaign (Illinois).

Champaign is probably the worst college town I've ever lived in and from what I've researched on the internet, State College seems to be a huge step up from Champaign - it seems to have a lot of character and isn't located in the middle of a corn field.

Here in Illinois, it seems that the state government focuses all of their time and effort on Chicago. Is that the same in PA - do people in the middle feel that they get the shaft because of Pittsburgh and Philly?

Really? I've liked Champaign-Urbana the few times I've been there.

Oh yes...the "Alabama" part of Pennsylvania hates Pittsburgh and hates Philly even more. When it comes to statewide politics, the Philadelphia suburbs truly control everything...they are primarily Republican, but are willing to vote Democratic. Former Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell (who is also formerly the head of the Democratic National Committee) recently started his second term as PA governor, thanks to those suburbs.

Being from the middle of the state (Harrisburg/Mechanicsburg) I can tell you that at times, it does seem this way - people who live in the central part of the state pay taxes to subsidize things that have no influence on the area of the state they live in. (i.e. extremely low fares for public transportation in the metro areas, while there is little to no public transportation in the central area of the state).

All in all, it's a nice place to live. If you enjoy the 'excitement' of a college town, you'll like State College - hope you like Blue and White :)

Kellie

Of course I like Blue and White - Carolina Blue and White :)!

Thank God Penn State is a Big 10 school. :)

I don't think I've ever told this story to either board...

Back in 1991, I was a freshman in high school, and used to take public transportation to get to school. We lived near a magnet high school, and on some days, the kids on the buses going to the school would make fun of me and call me names while I waited at the bus stop. Most days, I just ignored it. But one day, I decide to flip off one of the buses as the kids started their shit.

About 5 minutes later, 4 of them showed up at the corner where I was standing. After talking some shit for a minute or so, I was told I better say I'm sorry...so I did.

After that, one of the kids wanted my jacket...it was a Penn State jacket. Kinda like one of those Starter jackets that were really popular back in the late 80s/early 90s, but I think mine was made by Champion. At this point, I thought they were just fucking with me, so I coolly said, "I'm not giving you my jacket."

Next thing I knew, I felt a fist hit me in the neck...apparently, they missed my jaw. Then I felt a fist to my nose. I immediately dropped to the ground on my stomach, hoping to avoid any more injury. They then took off.

Fortunately, I only suffered a mildly broken nose that required no surgery. No one saw what happened, and the kids were never caught. That was the last fight I was in...though it really wasn't a fair one, obviously. :)

Anyway, that's my story that relates to Penn State...carry on...

The few times I've hung out at Penn State I had a good time. That is a nice part of PA. The school is big enough to have something for everyone, so I bet you find your niche. I'm in a more rural part of the state. We have a "you leave us alone and we'll leave you alone" attitude toward state gov. Read the interactions between wolf and spexxvet to get an idea of the political atmosphere.

Welcome! You've got a friend in Pennsylvania!:D

melidasaur, are you sure it's happy Valley (State College) and not one of the other campuses? :confused:

Yes, he went there - and I know that it is in State College - but I am familiar with the fact that there is more than one campus.

So what is the deal with the quirky liquour laws? Also, where do I find the Amish?

The Amish are in Lancaster and York Counties, for the most part.

The quirky liquor laws are one of the few top-down elements in our state government. And, of course, we're not actually a state. We're a Commonwealth. We're special.

ooooh a Commonwealth - cool :).

Pennsylvania should be like Transylvania and be home to more vampires.

The gov't is already fairly good at sucking the life out of the citizens...don't give them ideas, or competition.

Commonwealth means they feel your wealth is common with them. :rolleyes:

why the hell would you want to find the amish? i live minutes from them. cocks.

Just don't try to figure out what items are sales taxable and what aren't. Your head will explode.

Welcome to the Keystone State, home of QVC Studio Park.

Don't forget the Franklin Mint Museum!

Now you've got me jonesin' for a Civil War Chess Set!

Pssst..it's gone. :rolleyes:

It is? I admit I haven't actually visited in over a dozen years, but I've driven past it in the last month. The building was still there at least.

I got a proposal in the mail, from a developer that bought the entire complex. They had this whole concept of making it Middletown's "Main Street", with shopping, entertainment and condos. They were trying to sway the public before going to the township planning board.

Damn fools spent a fortune to lay out and mail all their brochures, when everybody knows the Middletown government doesn't give a damn about what the public wants. They'll do what's best for their political supporters, relatives and themselves.:rolleyes:

Come to think of it, I may be wrong. The museum didn't show on the proposal, but it could be open, at least until the plans for the place start to jell.

So they're trying to screw up Middletown the same way they screwed up Exton?

They seem to be 7 miles away from where they are should be (they show an address in Aston), but The Franklin Mint is still in business. Fallen from the stunning glory of the Civil War Chess Set TV ad days, but in business.

I still regret not getting their version of Monopoly that I couldn't afford when I was in college.

I like Exton's main street, it's cute and has some good stores. I was just commenting yesterday though (as I watched them shovel the sidwalks on 100) that NO ONE walks to or around main street.

My 2nd ex-wife's, brother's ex-wife, was married to a guy that spent much of his time in SE Asia arranging to have things made for the mint. When they gave up all pretense it wasn't all made over there, and people discovered collectibles ain't, the mint packed it in around here. Why keep an expensive facility going. They also were in trouble with the Southwest Delaware County Municipal Authority for dumping too much silver in the sewer.

Didn't the owner start QVC?

I have one! Nanny-nanny-boo-boo. Wanna make me an offer?

Yeah, he did. He sold Franklin to a big communications company that was too dumb to see the market had peaked. When they finally caught on, they sold it to a guy and his wife for something like $150 million....then it tanked.:haha: