Northeast

I’ve been struggling with my impending move to northeastern Pennsylvania. I don’t much like the Philadelphia/South Jersey axis that I live in now but can’t generate much enthusiasm for the northeastern corridor and I can’t figure out why. There are a hell of a lot less people. Traffic isn’t nearly as bad. There are nice towns and good restaurants, plenty of stores and cheaper prices. Taxes are lower, insurance is cheaper, rents are reasonable. All in all there isn’t much reason to dislike living up that way compared to, say, Gettysburg. Where I was relatively happy and content.

Then I realized – nothing happened up there. Allentown and the Lehigh Valley have no direct ties to any of the historical events that I groove on. There’s no Civil War battlefield, no Revolutionary War connection, no historical event of any significance. Just a whole lot of flat-ass normal people living their normal lives in normal times. I’ve never lived anywhere momentous things didn’t happen. Everywhere I lived had an energy in the air. But up there, there’s nothing. No entrepreneurial spirit. No drive. No sense that great things are or were in the offing. Just a plodding determination to keep on living where you live and doing what you’ve always done.

In short, it’s boring. Oh well.

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