It is neither well known or a much loved tourist destination, rather it is a small town; one that most people would have to look up on a map to find out exactly where it is. New Salem, Pennsylvania is my hometown and like so many other small towns that make up rural America, it is a quaint town, where everyone knows each other and gossip spreads like wildfire. Residents of New Salem, Pennsylvania have small town ideals, conservative values and know a thing or two about rural living. We epitomize what it means to be blue collar Americans and this is why I cherish my hometown and the memories of growing up there.
I lived in New Salem for my entire childhood, from kindergarten through college. The things that I have come to appreciate about small town living, I hated back then. Kids in New Salem didn't normally cause a lot of trouble because there was always a parent ready to call your mother. Instead we indulged in innocent fun until we were old enough to drive and cause trouble outside of the town limits. The hot and humid days of summer are still so vivid in my mind. We grew up in a time when our mothers could send us outside after breakfast and aside from us coming in for a quick bite at lunch, wouldn't have to worry about us until dusk. Mothers didn't have to be afraid of their children being picked up by strangers or being hit by a car.
The games we loved such as Kick the Can and Marbles have been replaced by video games and computers. I don't fault kids for liking such things, as we would have been just as engrossed in the latest high tech thrills, but kids today don't have the same love for the outdoors as we did. At twilight each night when fireflies began their light dances, my brother and I would head home, often after my mother yelled our names five or six times. We heard her but just chose to ignore her in order to play an extra few minutes outdoors. We'd eventually trudge home, thoroughly exhausted, collapsing in bed after a much needed bath. We'd lie in bed legs aching, from running in the fresh air and sunshine since breakfast.
While high school football is all the rage today, especially in the south, when I was growing up in the northeast, Little League was what drew our entire community together. We supported our Little Leaguers and I am proud to say that my brother was the star pitcher of his team. Every little boy and most of us girls played Little League. Weekends my dad used to load up all the neighborhood kids in his Country Squire station wagon and take us to the baseball diamond so we could practice and pretend to play like the pros. I was Johnny Bench; my brother George Brett. We played from early evening until the last of the sun dipped below the horizon leaving only our firefly friends to provide us with enough light to hit that last homerun.
When the days grew shorter and the evenings developed a chill it was time to start school. My brother and I both attended New Salem Elementary. At the time it was probably the smallest elementary school for miles around. We had one classroom for each grades K through 5. We were with the same classroom of kids from kindergarten through fifth grade so we got to know those kids very well. We still keep in touch with many of them today.
Looking back on my childhood when I think of growing up in this little town I cherish those memories even if we were a little naive. I think kids back then were so much more innocent than kids of today. We knew little of real life dangers, technology or much else outside the world of New Salem. Our town epitomized Americana and it still does. My husband, (who grew up in a small town not far from New Salem) and I have had our share of worldly experiences. We both have travelled and had the opportunity to live away from our small towns. However; a few years ago when my husband and I were looking for a house in an area to settle down to raise our sons where else came to mind but New Salem? It must have been God's will that he wanted to see me reside here again.
So here I am back in New Salem, Pennsylvania, living down a gravel country lane right off the paved road, overlooking my best friend's parents' goat farm. I spent so many summers running through the meadow where my house now stands. I think my best friend draws comfort in knowing that I am here in case his aging parents have an emergency. My sons will attend New Salem Elementary in the fall. I hope that they will get the chance to make lifelong friends like I did and they get to experience all the wonders of small town living, and make memories like the ones that I still cherish today.