Alexandria, Pennsylvania is the small town where my dad grew up prior to World War 2. We visited there two years ago. Since that time Dad's only surviving brother, Austin, whom the family called "June" (short for Junior) died. But Dad's youngest sister, Shirley, and her husband, Allen Porter, have returned to Alexandria in their retirement. They are living next door to their son, Denny, and his wife, Elaine.
 Shirley, Denny, Allen and Elaine |
We pulled the See Ya into Shirley and Allen's front yard, plugged in, and spent four pleasant days in Alexandria. A special treat on this trip was the presence of June's daughter, Vicki. Vicki and I saw each other once or twice a year while we were growing up, but I hadn't seen her since we graduated from Penn State together in 1964. It was great to catch up with her history and to see her mom, Fannie, again. Unfortunately, I was too busy reminiscing to take any pictures. I guess we'll need to drop by and see her and her husband in Colorado the next time we roll through that state!
We had a scary experience during our stay here. On Sunday night we all went to dinner at the Route 22 Diner. We, as we often do, left Arnie in the See Ya. We returned after dark to a strange and then worrisome scene. As we entered the See Ya Sue immediately noticed that the top of the screen door had been torn. At first we thought that Arnie was hiding because of the torn screen, but it soon became apparent that he wasn't in the See Ya.
About the same time, Shirley and Allen found that front screen door to their home and the screen door to their porch were both damaged. We figured out that I had left the driver's side window open and Arnie had ripped the screen and, despite the fact that the driver's chair had been turned around and offered no platform, jumped from the window to the ground.
He had apparently then ripped with his teeth the metal protective screen on the front door of the house, torn the porch screen door, jumped in and then out of the porch and disappeared.
Certain that he must assuredly have injured himself, we began to frantically search for him and call his name. I took our flashlight and searched the surrounding woods fully expecting to find him wounded or worse. Fortunately, after about fifteen minutes of looking and yelling, he came running out of the dark to Sue and proved to be, with the exception of silver residue on his teeth, uninjured.
We don't know what spooked Arnie but we were very happy to have him back. He has promised to do dishes for a month to make up for the $300 required to repair all of the damage he did!
It was great to see the Porters and Vicki and Fannie and to spend time in this scenic small town in central PA!
