Small Town America

After more than 4 months on the road, following our planned itinerary, we figured it would be prudent to schedule some downtime to just relax and take it easy before arriving in St. Louis. Now some of you may laugh about needing downtime as I’m sure that’s what you think our life is each and every day. Keep in mind that we travel down the road at least once a week, and even short 100 mile treks end up taking the bulk of the day as we pack up from where we are staying and set up camp at the next location. Throw in a few days a week of sightseeing and day trips, and it’s really not that often when we just hang out with nothing on the schedule. Much like when we worked, we tend to hang out at home on weekends and let the less fortunate tourists flock to the various sights when crowds are high.

One thing about our travels is that it seems while on the road we always stumble across something unexpected, unique, and oftentimes inspiring. It’s generally just a minor discovery that brings back memories of a less hectic time. A time that was simpler. That’s not to say that it was less stressful, easier, or better, but a time when perhaps people had the opportunity to get to know each other a little bit better. A time when a sense of community bonded friends, neighbors, and a whole town. A time without TV, the internet, or video games. A time when the main source of entertainment was actually talking to, laughing with, and helping a neighbor in need. A time when there actually seemed to be more time.

Every so often one of these unexpected discoveries truly seems to be special. We found a special place in Mercer, PA, on Friday night. With no WiFi at our campground and our Verizon aircard working very slowly, we decided to drive the two miles into town to grab a bite to eat and see if we could find a stronger signal. Mercer is a small town in western PA with a number of state roads converging on its location. As we drove up the hill on one of those roads, the first thing we saw was the county courthouse and later found out that it was built in 1911 on the highest point in Mercer County. It was an imposing structure topped by a dome housing a large clock. Seeing a clock on such a structure is not that unusual, but seeing one that keeps accurate time and shouts out the top of the hour with its beautiful chimes is unusual.

The courthouse is the focal point of Mercer and its town square. It creates a park like atmosphere with towering trees to provide shade and park benches to provide rest. Out front is a statue honoring the Civil War dead and another honoring those who died in Vietnam. There are parking spaces perpendicular to the courthouse on two sides of the building and instead of parking meters are horse hitches with “2 hour parking” written on the poles. Someone comes around on a regular basis writing down the license plate numbers of those parked and the time, and if a car is there more than 2 hours, he writes up a ticket and puts it on the windshield. I actually witnessed him doing this when he stopped to write down our license plate number! The square itself has the usual businesses and shops that you would expect to see, a bank, a couple of restaurants, and some antique shops were all located in brick buildings probably built in the late 1800s or early 20th century. A church and old Victorian homes were all within walking distance. Like most smaller towns that have been hurt by bigger and supposedly “better things down the road”, the square also contained a number of vacant buildings. An old time Mercantile store with an original 1880s tin ceiling and marble soda fountain counter was on one of the corners. We ventured inside one day and though a small shop, it was crammed with all kinds of this ‘n that, even penny candy actually sold for a penny!





While there we discovered that every Fri. night for 8 weeks starting June 20 there’s a free Community Band Concert Series. This is the 31st year of the concerts, and each week features a different band and warm-up act. It’s held right on the grounds of the County Courthouse on the town square starting at 6pm. It was about 4:30 and some senior citizens were already arriving with their lawn chairs. The lady I spoke with said they always get there early to get a good spot, get a bite to eat from one of the nearby restaurants, and socialize while they wait. She said the one side street is closed off so people can even set their chairs up in the street, and every week a different group hosts an ice cream social fundraiser with all sorts of yummy desserts. Sounded just like one of those small town events we like to explore.

About 6:15 we threw our lawn chairs into the car and drove up the road figuring we’d stay for about an hour. The warm-up act was by “accordion virtuoso” Johnny Oakes. He had a rhythm box accompanying him and was actually quite good playing a wide variety of songs as the crowd gathered. After finding a good spot, we walked around, picked up a raffle ticket given free to anyone in attendance from out-of-state, and checked out the homemade desserts hosted by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church. Russ picked up one of the best looking pieces of apple pie I’ve ever seen and topped it with a scoop of ice cream while I got a piece of flaky cherry pie. We made our way back to our seats enjoying the music, the people, and the pleasant evening air (it had cooled down quite a bit). At 7pm the Youngstown Area Community Concert Band took the stage under the direction of Joseph Pelligrini. This is their 16th year performing at the Mercer Concert Series, and their program tonight was called “Pure Americana”, a selection of patriotic music, a John Williams medley, and a medley called Disney at the Movies. They also performed a selection called Flight of Valor that was written by James Swearingen in honor of those who lost their lives on United Flight 93 about 150 miles from here on 9/11. It was beautiful and quite moving. We ended up staying until the very end, about 8:30, and thoroughly enjoyed a very pleasant evening.

Since we’ve been on the road, we’ve seen many amazing things. We both agree that this Friday evening in Mercer, mingling with 200 new friends, was one of the best.

For such a small town (population about 2,500), there sure seems to be a lot going on. We found out that on Sat. there was a car show/pig roast, a local bar/restaurant was having their grand opening, and the campground was having a live band that evening! About mid-afternoon we drove over to the Pit Stop’s grand opening, but we may have been a little too early as there was hardly anyone there, so we drove down the road to the pig roast. There was quite an impressive array of old cars all shiny and lookin’ cherry! The Great Pretenders were singing and playing music from the 50s, and the pig was roasting on the pit. Alas again we were too early as the pig wouldn’t be ready for a couple more hours, and though they had some other food for sale, we decided to head back to the RV. But on our way we decided to stop for a beer at the Mustang Bar, basically a hole-in-the-wall dive that is directly across the street from the campground. When we arrived, a couple bikers were playing pool and a couple construction workers just off the job were enjoying a couple brewskys before heading home. We had heard this place could be quite rowdy on Fri. and Sat. nights but no problems while we were there. Seems like kind of an odd place to be across the street from such a nice resort. This campground is shareholder owned gated community with only a limited number of sites for non-members, and they seem to take pride in making it a nice place. We didn’t make it up to the clubhouse that night to see the band as I wasn’t feeling too well, but all-in-all it had been an enjoyable day.

Our next stop down the road is Williamsfield, OH, just a few miles west of the PA border for another week of R&R.