Reasons to love upstate Pennsylvania

• Farms and wooded hills.
• Yuengling beer.
• Punxsutawney Phil.
• Towns with names like Punxsutawney.
• Ethnic small towns with lots of (nearly) 100-year-old Eastern European Roman Catholic, Polish National Catholic, Byzantine Catholic (‘Greek Catholic’ as they’re called there and indeed in the Old World), Orthodox and Slovak Lutheran churches.
• Eastern European food and music festivals (some fine Western folk music too).

So smile and say ‘Smačne!’ (вкусно, tasty), I’ll have some голубцы (stuffed cabbage) please and if you want to polka, гопак or čardáš that’s fine with me.



Solemn First Communion 20 years ago in the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church


St Clair from the air



Eternal memory.