Thursday, August 5, 2010

Dreary Erie a Mistake by the Lake??

If you know Erie, PA, then you know the phrase. But that doesn't mean the saying rings true. I myself have said it before, but there's a lot more to my thoughts on Erie than summing it up as a rainy little town on a great big lake.



To me, Erie is

a long car ride to get to, for which I'd always bring several books to occupy myself, as if the trip would take several days and not 8 hours
the long-awaited arrival, at which time my brother and I were reunited with our cousins and would immediately race to their basement where an unending loop of bumper bikes/ would ensue for hours
trips to the lake for swimming and jetskiing and fireworks and bonfires
seeing the church my great great great grandmother helped found.... and the building my grandmother used to work in..... and the little house where my great grandparents lived, now in the not-so-nice section of town
WALDAMEER - it may not be the biggest amusement park, but it kept us happy for a loooong time
ice cream sundae's at Dairy Queen - I'm not sure why I associate Erie with Dairy Queen but I do
elaborate plans to sneak out of our bedrooms in the middle of the night past "the grown ups" to go downstairs for a snack - and usually failing
sea glass!
drive-by's past "the castle" where my great grandmother once lived - and which, at least now, bears no resemblance to a castle

Erie is all of these things to me. But how could a mistake be so beautiful?



2 comments:

  1. Erie is an ugly, tawdry, sorry excuse for anything resembling a city anywhere. All of its "attractions" are strung out and scattered around areas outside the city limits; one has to have a car to go anywhere in Erie, the public transportation system is mediocre at best, just like the city it "serves". One is well advised to stay away from this homophobic, retarded, has-been stick in the mud calling itself a city.

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  2. DREARY ERIE, THE MISTAKE ON THE LAKE--contrary to what one might try to have us believe on this page, truer words were never spoken; Erie is just that and nothing more, a dreadful, parochial place. Yes, Erie INTERNATIONAL Airport, and don't you forget it--one flight per week to Toronto, Ontario proves it. And it's not just Hamot Hospital it's HAMOT MEDICAL CENTER someday perhaps to be Hamot Medical MEGA-CENTER. Millcreek Mall, the "mecca" of Erie County, shaped like a gun and where the mindless drabs go to "hang out"--what a pathetic display of purposelessness.

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