Hello and All That Stuff

I have a confession to make. It’s shocking, I know, but I live on the West Shore and I do, from time to time, cross the river. For the time being, I live in little postcard-esque Boiling Springs, but I work in downtown Harrisburg. I also occasionally cross a bridge to go out to eat, to see a band I like or have a few drinks. Crazy, right?

I grew up in this area and even though I feel as though I had a pretty expansive childhood, I rarely crossed the river. I’m willing to bet that I am not alone in this regard. In my case, the fact that my parents were forever lugging my brother and I to our various sporting events probably had a lot to do with my limited sphere of influence.

Still, from a very young age, I remember feeling as though crossing the river was a significant thing. Generally, if I was crossing the Susquehanna I was either on my way to West Chester to see my relatives, headed to the Farm Show Complex for a Harrisburg Heat game (the wound still hasn’t healed) or looking forward to some birthday chicken fingers at the T.G.I. Friday’s in Union Deposit.

As I got older, I ventured to the East Shore a little bit more — one of my summer jobs was in Hershey and another was working in a warehouse on Cameron Street — but I began to notice that not everybody was willing to make the trek back and forth. People in my suburban neck of the woods seemed to feel that the East Shore was only good for Hersheypark and um… Hersheypark, and the friends I made who lived on the East side either seemed to think that when I crossed the river I was stepping out of Pennsyltucky or Snoburbia.

Frankly, it’s silly, and now that I have moved back here full time after a few years bouncing around, that’s clearer to me than it ever was. Unlike some of my former classmates, I wanted to come back to Central Pennsylvania. There are places worth going to and things worth doing from Lancaster to York to Harrisburg to Carlisle to Shippensburg and that’s what Spotobe is about. That’s also what this blog is — well, will be — about.

I am a fairly snarky, hopefully insightful Penn State grad who is rediscovering Central Pennsylvania as an adult and as the editor of Spotobe. In this space I’ll point out some particularly interesting things that find their way onto the site, hopefully provide access to some local people who are involved in cool stuff and chronicle my experiences out and about.