Background

I spent 20 years trying to get out of this place
I was looking for something I couldn't replace
I was running away from the only thing I've ever known
Like a blind dog without a bone

Bon Jovi’s “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” sums up the idea for many of us ex-Bedfordians. From early on, we all decided that there had to be something outside the borders of Bedford County. Like most of my classmates, we couldn’t wait to graduate and get out of town.

Those of us who “escaped” usually felt bad for the ones we left behind. It felt like we were getting out of jail but our buddies hadn’t received the same pardon. Sure, we could go back and visit but it was still like returning out of pity. That’s the way it looked initially.

In my case, the seeds of my envy of those “left behind” started when I was in college. While attending Altoona Campus of Penn State (along with 9 or 10 other members of my graduating class), we found Altoona just as boring for the under-21 crowd as we remembered Bedford. So what did we do to entertain ourselves and our new friends? We took road trips…to Bedford.

Yes, car loads of college kids would drive down to Bedford from “the big city” to find entertainment. Whether it was to visit our old teachers during the day or to surreptitiously pop into the Friday night dances at the Roll Arena, we found Bedford more interesting than the much larger city of Altoona.

So after graduation from college, I moved…back home with Mom and Dad. I took a few jobs including selling cars and painting parts for Hedstrom. But I still clamored to get out of town. The final escape would arrive about a year after leaving Penn State. My connections to my hometown were never completely severed. Even with the death of my father. Even with my sister and my mother each moving out of town. Somehow, Bedford has always been “home” for me.

And many of my childhood friends feel similarly. I have classmates who went to great universities and lived in big cities. Most of them have made new homes elsewhere but a substantial number of them have returned. The trappings of 24-hour cities and corporate coffeehouses on every corner appeal to many but many more see the benefits of knowing your neighbor…and your neighbor knowing you.

A famous book was titled “It Takes a Village” and Bedford could have been the model for that village. My parents were the strongest influences on me growing up, but there were dozens of other residents of Bedford who did their part, big and small, to help raise me.

Bedford is small town Pennsylvania. It is small town America. For good and bad. I hope to relay many of my personal stories as well as the stories of others who grew up or raised their family in and around Bedford County. In these stories, we can all see parts of ourselves. The memories may be important, but it’s what we’ve learned and how we’ve passed the lessons on to others that became invaluable.