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When I was assigned the Sense of Place Project to explore my community and explain my sense of place, I got rather excited. Being winter here in cold, snowy, icy western, PA I had been aching to get outside for an excursion longer than walking to my car. I had been planning to do a hike around my town for several days, but sadly kept coming up with excuses of why to put it off. It was too cold. It was too windy. It wasn't sunny enough that day. I had a lot of other things to do. It seemed I could not find the final drive to get my hat, boots, and gloves on, and get out and explore. The idea was much more appealing from the warmth of my couch. Then I read the rubric for the assignment, and the boots finally got laced.
I want to share a bit about how I was able to gather the information needed to complete this assignment, because I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, and in itself, made the project much more enjoyable. As I was driving with my dad one day, I was telling him all about the project and how I planned to explore our town on foot the following day. He suggested that I make a stop down at the borough building and speak to the secretary there. My dad and her had been friends for years, and he was sure she could provide me with plenty of information about our towns history, ecology, geography, ethnicity, architecture, and more. I thought this was an excellent suggestion because though I realized that I could obtain the same information from any number of web searches, the idea of obtaining the information from a human source seemed much more enjoyable. Though she was not able to provide me with the plethora of resources I had hoped, she pointed me in the direction of someone who could, the President of the Historical Society. When we were finally able to get in touch with one another, I knew instantly that I was getting out of this assignment exactly what was intended.
In the first phone conversation with the President of the Historical Society where the goal of the contact was to set up an appointment to speak in person, I had already filed 3 pages of a nearby notebook with research from her fast paced gush of information relative to the project. Perhaps the most exciting thing she provided me with was the story of how she obtained her current position. While completing her undergrad, she was assigned a similar project. Her project was on her communities history, present, and projected future. She was to gather the necessary information by interviewing someone who had lived in the area a majority of their lives (the older the better), and hearing their story on the past and also the present. Then she was to speculate from the interview how she felt her community would continue to change in the future.
Her interview of an elderly couple intrigued her so much that she instantly felt that the stories of these people must not be lost over time. She continued doing in person interviews of community "elders", and recorded them onto audio tapes which she now keeps in her ever-growing "audio library". She told me that she knew from then on that this was something she enjoyed, valued, and wanted to do for the rest of her life, and so now after 25 years of living, working, and being in my community, she started and leads the Historical Society. How fascinating it was that her entire career was sparked from one undergraduate level assignment that so paralleled the one I was now completing.
After setting up an appointment to meet in person at the town museum, I go out on that hike. I spent an entire afternoon hiking trails and sidewalks, taking pictures, and exploring parks, cemeteries, schools, businesses, and etc around my town. I live in West Middlesex, PA which is a small town (population of 847) along the Shenango River in western Pennsylvania. It became a borough in 1864 and we just had our Sesquicentennial (150th) celebration this past August. Prior to European settlers, several Indian tribes such as the Delaware, Seneca, and Wyandotte lived and traveled along the Shenango river and placed villages near West Middlesex. The town took form through grist mills and iron furnaces in the 1800's, and though it has changed drastically since then, businesses in West Middlesex are still a large part of the towns identity. Today it is well known for it's sports teams who have captured several state titles, and its interchange for Interstate 80 that connects New York City to San Francisco. It has always been a center for transportation, and in my next section entitled. "SURPRISE" I will share more with you about the project, my discoveries, and my sense of place in West Middlesex.
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