Kevan
08-14-2005, 08:32 PM
No more than 4-5 hours drive from Manhattan is a world that's purposefully stayed "slowed-down". My wife and I drove our son virtually due west into Pennsylvania Dutch Country, past the Susquehanna River, and just beyond the small city of Lewisburg, taking him to a skateboard camp called Camp Woodward. That in itself was fun, but the social studies that took place during our short visit there was fascinating.
We drove out Saturday afternoon to get out there, spent the night, and then took him to camp this morning. When we initially got to Lewisburg last evening we had extra time so we decided to drive out to the camp for a quick look see, but the distance to it was more than we thought and we still needed to arrange for our hotel stay so we turned back towards town as dusk gave way to nighttime. Many of the houses on either side of the road were dark, which wasn't surprising due to the populace, but the common use of battery powered window candles were. In my world this would be a bizarre display of Christmas decorations shown off in August, but not so here. We saw the horse-drawn carriage, but more interesting was the use of bicycles. We were driving on route 45, a relatively busy road, but with a reasonable wide shoulder and there occasionally up ahead in the dark were flickering bicycle taillights giving us warning. As we passed I couldn't help but notice there were no headlights on these bikes, suggesting their belief in no modern assistance, yet recognizing that their safety warranted the rear lights. Amazing, simply amazing... that so close to NYC, people are living lives like this.
This morning we got out and underway.. heading now to the camp for Tucker's drop-off. Heading back out along route 45, I saw mostly young men, dressed in their Sunday finest, riding their bikes in casual peletons, but without lycra and instead wearing pressed white shirts, black suspenders, black dress slacks and wearing small black caps which I believe are called piker hats, worn by the Mennonites. The bikes are virtually all utilitarian, hybrids being the norm, not a Serotta or Calfee was seen in the bunch.
So while I didn't get a chance to ride today, I did get to see bikes being used by young men heading home from church in a world so different from my own. I offer the website shown below to give you some idea as to how these men were dressed.
It’s perhaps the use of his bike in this manner that gave Floyd Landis his start.
http://plainlydressed.bravepages.com/mensclothinghatsfile.html
We drove out Saturday afternoon to get out there, spent the night, and then took him to camp this morning. When we initially got to Lewisburg last evening we had extra time so we decided to drive out to the camp for a quick look see, but the distance to it was more than we thought and we still needed to arrange for our hotel stay so we turned back towards town as dusk gave way to nighttime. Many of the houses on either side of the road were dark, which wasn't surprising due to the populace, but the common use of battery powered window candles were. In my world this would be a bizarre display of Christmas decorations shown off in August, but not so here. We saw the horse-drawn carriage, but more interesting was the use of bicycles. We were driving on route 45, a relatively busy road, but with a reasonable wide shoulder and there occasionally up ahead in the dark were flickering bicycle taillights giving us warning. As we passed I couldn't help but notice there were no headlights on these bikes, suggesting their belief in no modern assistance, yet recognizing that their safety warranted the rear lights. Amazing, simply amazing... that so close to NYC, people are living lives like this.
This morning we got out and underway.. heading now to the camp for Tucker's drop-off. Heading back out along route 45, I saw mostly young men, dressed in their Sunday finest, riding their bikes in casual peletons, but without lycra and instead wearing pressed white shirts, black suspenders, black dress slacks and wearing small black caps which I believe are called piker hats, worn by the Mennonites. The bikes are virtually all utilitarian, hybrids being the norm, not a Serotta or Calfee was seen in the bunch.
So while I didn't get a chance to ride today, I did get to see bikes being used by young men heading home from church in a world so different from my own. I offer the website shown below to give you some idea as to how these men were dressed.
It’s perhaps the use of his bike in this manner that gave Floyd Landis his start.
http://plainlydressed.bravepages.com/mensclothinghatsfile.html