HOME OF THE BEARS
For you regular readers
of this blog you may think that all our highfalutin travels around the globe means
we don’t like to be home. I gotta tell you it is a big world out there and
someone has to see it, but we can’t ALWAYS be on the road. So, it’s nice
to be in a place that offers a lot when we cannot travel.
Team VFH currently
resides in Collegeville, Pennsylvania and I don’t think we are moving anywhere
else. Which is fine by me.
Collegeville is about
10 miles west of Valley Forge and under 30 miles from Philadelphia.
Once home to several such
educational institutions Collegeville now has just one, Ursinus. It is a small
liberal arts college where the author, J.D. Salinger attended classes for one
semester in 1938. (His old dormitory room has a commemorative plaque on the wall.)
URSINUS + COLLEGEVILLE
= COMMUNITY
The school is
literally just a block from our middle-class garret and the college calls the
citizens of our little community “neighbors” and welcome all to stroll the
grounds and to attend various events and exhibitions. The grounds are dotted
with sculptures and long stretches of green fields where our dog likes to chase
her tail.
There’s a coffee shop
open to the public and on sunny warm days you can sit on the porch to enjoy
this elixir of the gods. And, across the street from us is a ball field whose dugouts have plaques stating Ursinus' contribution to building them for the community.
Recently we started
attending a bi-weekly international film festival, which is free and part of the school's film study curriculum. Although they are all obscure films you would never see at the local bijou, we are film
buffs and will gravitate to anything “FREE” like bums pouncing on a ham sandwich. Sometimes we stay for the after-film discussion, but we are always
welcomed by the administrator who thanks members of the community in attending
the viewing.
We recently saw In This
Corner of the World, a Japanese animated film about the days leading up to the
Hiroshima atomic blast.
PERKS OF A COLLEGE
TOWN
Such activities and resources
are not just found at Ursinus, but colleges and universities throughout the
country. When I lived in the picturesque river town of Lambertville, New Jersey
we would often drive to Princeton University to go to the museum there, or to
attend concerts.
I currently receive my
dental care at Rutgers Dental School, at a reasonable price compared to a normal
dental practice. Although I like to joke that going to the dental school is like
leaving my body to science….and experiencing it at the same time… the care is
top notch and always under the close scrutiny of faculty members.
Indeed, the healthcare
facilities of colleges and universities that offer medical programs often offer
their patients cutting edge technology and access to an assortment of
specialists.
TROUBLES END IN COLLEGEVILLE
Although this last bit
about a brew pub in Collegeville isn’t directly attributable to Ursinus College,
having such a place within a short walking distance from the house is another
plus. About 6 miles from us is Phoenixville, where they shot most of the
original The Blob (Steve McQueen’s first film). It is a beer mecca rivaling
Asheville, North Carolina with the number of breweries, brew pubs and
distilleries located in the town. A pub crawl in Phoenixville often involves a
designated driver or a taxi, but with Troubles End, just down the street from
us, we are able to walk easily, even when inebriated.
They offer an array of
their own beers, many guest taps and a surprisingly excellent chef offering pub
grub and entrees like Chilean Sea Bass. They have live music many nights and Sunday
brunch. There’s never a cover charge. The staff is courteous and attentive and it is one of our favorite places to go.
We’re regulars there as
well as at the fantastic dive bar across the street, My Friend’s Tavern. We
like to go to Troubles End most Saturday nights and tonight (Feb 19) we’re going to see a 6-piece
reggae band called Ear Me Now.
Thanks for reading!
Enjoy your corner of
the world as we do ours in Collegeville.
Love Janet and greg
© 2022 by Greg Dunaj
Ear Me Now
