From This Side of the Pond: 8 - Pennsylvania

I've written about this project before. But from now, the essays which are written will be posted here and, as soon as I have a suitable space worked out, I'll be recording the essays.

Anyone who has any input on the essays, either corrections or additional information, add a note and I'll look to include it.

Please, enjoy.

The simple things to write about Pennsylvania are from before it was a State of the Union, from when William Penn received his charter for forty-five thousand square miles of land in the new world from King Charles the Second and, in October sixteen-eighty-two, arrived in the territory which to this day bears his name and the hopes for a woodland idyl where the peaceful and pacifist ways influenced by his Quaker faith would prevail.

But in the three-hundred-and-forty years since its creation Pennsylvania has created stories which expand well beyond the dreams of its founder.

It would be as easy to write about the role the Keystone State had in the strive for independence. Or the manifold tales to be told of Benjamin Franklin who may not be a son of the state but is most assuredly a man of it, having fled there at age seventeen, and established himself as a printer, writer, thinker, scientist, politician, indeed a true polymath.

Harder to write about is the soul of a state which has been a wellspring of religious tolerance since its founding, a place accidentally divided by the Alleghenies into a western side which retains the mostly pastoral nature which was a founding principal of the state, and an eastern side which became an industrial powerhouse fuelled by the abundance of coal.

The coal of eastern Pennsylvania is anthracite. To look at it has an almost metallic sheen and, when you pick it up, it is heavy and fails to leave a filthy black residue on your hand. The reason for this is a high carbon content coupled with low moisture and few elements prone to turning to vapour. This leaves a dense, hard, coal, which burns fiercely and economically as less of it is lost to smoke or fumes.

It didn’t hurt that iron deposits were also plentiful.

Iron and Steel from Pennsylvania manufacturing plants laid the foundations of the America which was to rise. Instead of importing rail tracks from European manufacturers, they were made at home, in Pennsylvania. Steel from the state sits at the heart of the Chrysler and Empire State Building, it’s in the Golden Gate Bridge amongst other spans around the nation.

Not only did Pennsylvania steel build the United States, it protected it. As the United States Navy moved from sail to steam, from wooden hulled ships to steel ones, the metal which made those hulls, which was formed into turrets and barrels to grace those decks, came from Pennsylvania.

You would expect such activity, productivity, from a confined area to produce wealth. It did. Andrew Carnegie, a Scot by birth, made money through hard work, but wealth from steel. When he sold his steel business in nineteen-oh-one he received a quarter-of-a-billion dollars - over seven-and-a-half billion in twenty-twenty-two dollars. While this is still unimaginable wealth to the average person, it is about the amount that Mackenzie Scott gave away between twenty-nineteen and twenty-twenty-two; her ex-husband, Jeff Bezos, ‘earns’ a quarter-of-a-billion dollars in about thirty hours.

The wealth of the few did not flow down to the people who put in the hours at the coal face, before the furnace, or pounding steel. It’s no surprise, therefore, that unions became a part of the industrial system. Initially the power remained with business owners and strike-breakers, and non-union - even non-US workers - were employed to destroy the power, will, and strength of those seeking a more equitable division of wealth and work.

But from the start of the twentieth century there was some ground made and miners and steelworkers could afford more. In Pittsburgh, and soon throughout the region, one of those things was a potty. Of course indoor plumbing was readily available, unlike old miners’ cottages in the Welsh valleys. But a Pittsburgh Potty was a second potty, placed in the basement, and right out in the middle of the room with no walls or screens around it.

With the topography of the region allowing most homes to have not only a basement, but a basement which could be accessed directly from outside, this arrangement allowed a miner or mill worker to arrive home, divest themselves of their work wear and any, let’s call it ‘baggage’, from the day, before heading up to bathe and join the family. A secondary benefit made this the lowest point in the house so that any problems with sewage pipes backing up would affect only this part of the property.

Why it had to be in the middle of the room, why no one thought to add a shower or tub as a matter of course, are questions we are unlikely to get answers too.

Today the Pittsburgh Potty remains in many homes, it is a feature still added to new ones built - to the confusion of some buyers who fail to do their homework. But the jobs which made them so useful have mostly gone. The decline of coal and steel, as well as other manufacturing industries in the second half of the twentieth century saw large parts of Pennsylvania lose more than fifty percent of manufacturing jobs, making it a large part of the rust belt which saw once busy factories fall silent and into decay, while living standards fell below the national average, and stayed there.

Things have started to improve. The average salary in the state exceeds that in the US as a whole, possibly a sign of the state being home to eight Fortune Five Hundred companies including world leaders like Heinz and Hershey’s.

And talking of food, and snacks, it’s no surprise that Pennsylvania has an abundance to consider. Having been settled early, and with succession of immigrants bringing their regional specialities along, and adapting for local availability and tastes, there is something for everyone.

The Philly cheesesteak may have spread out around the world, but they say if you haven’t had one in Philly you haven’t tasted them right - who is they ‘they’? That would be Philadelphians, naturally. Other things are more local, like Primanti Brothers. Sure, you can find them in West Virginia, Michigan, Maryland, and Ohio, but they are a West Pennsylvania staple going back to nineteen-thirty-three and for fans of healthy eating probably somewhere to be avoided. Fans of their ‘almost famous’ sandwiches will wax lyrical about the Italian bread, choice of meats, melted provolone, tomato, and house-made slaw. Oh, and the fries, not as a side you see, but right there in the sandwich. Legend has it that one cold winter someone arrived with a load of potatoes and was worried they might be frozen.

Well, John DiPriter - nephew of the founder Joe Primanti - chopped some up and threw them on the grill. Some customers wanted to try them and the ‘almost famous’ was born. Maybe it was the way a truck driver could grip this meal in one hand and steer with the other which helped it thrive. Whatever, Primanti Brothers are a staple of the state.

We mentioned snack, though, and it’s hard to look at something like an ‘almost famous’ and think of a light bite to tide you through. For a snack we maybe think of a slice of pizza, or a candy bar, maybe something softer and smaller still. Let’s look at the first there.

Who doesn’t love a slice of pizza to stave off hunger pangs? And the Altoona Hotel was happy to provide that for folks frequenting their restaurant. The pizza starts with a Sicilian base - that’s soft focaccia bread - to which a sweet tomato sauce is added. From there you pile on salami and green bell peppers. So far, so normal-ish, but here comes the curve ball. The original recipe uses sliced Velveeta, though most places now use American cheese - like you’d have on your burger. One last thing, before serving, no triangles here - this pizza gets cut into squares.

You might have noticed we refer to the Altoona Hotel in the past tense, sadly it burnt down in twenty-thirteen. But there’s still places which serve up the Altoona-style pizza.

But maybe pizza is too big a thing to eat before your next meal, you just need something small. What about a club sandwich? Costas Foods produce a couple of variations on their creamy peanut butter sandwiched between two crackers and smothered in chocolate. You can probably buy them for a buck a piece, but if you buy a box from the company direct it’s just over seventy cents each.

Still, sometimes it’s just a really tiny and light candy you crave. A seasonal favourite which is enjoyable all year round is made in Bethlehem by Just Born - Peeps are light, fluffy, and indestructible - if popular rumour is true.

Of course, a Hershey’s Kiss may also do the trick.

Earlier we mentioned successive waves of immigrants, though some European visitors may be confused when they hear of the Pennsylvania Dutch but can see little evidence of any identifiable Netherlands influence. The Dutch is a corruption of ‘Deitsch’ or German. You can find plenty of pilsner and pretzels in the state - and there has been a German Society of Pennsylvania since seventeen-sixty-four, that’s thirteen years before the state was admitted to the Union, twelve years before there was a Union to join.

The level of German settlement can be seen by the way that the constitution was printed in German so the third of the state who spoke the language as their primary one would be able to easily comprehend the suggestions for the new foundation of the new nation. While the use of German as a main language suffered setbacks in the wake of two world wars, and the prevalence of English, there is still identifiable influences in the way some natives of the state will construct a sentence.

Initially the south-east of the state saw most German settlers, but they soon spread throughout, bringing a traditional house construction style which gives a solid brick or stone outer, high-pitched roofs with a chimney at each gable end and two main stories with a third smaller one up in the roof space. These substantial dwellings, with attendant barns and outbuildings can be seen throughout the state.

Construction elsewhere is the normal varied mish-mash of what is practical, affordable, or necessary with, as discussed, some unique quirks derived from cultural and employment situations. But there are some more special buildings in the state. Of note are a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright designs. There’s the exquisite Falling Water, a house built as a weekend retreat for a department store owner, and Kentuck Knob another beautiful home designed to exist in the environment, as part of it, instead of on it.

Spending time in Pennsylvania is to spend time at the heart of what America wanted to be, and has been, with a glimpse of futures good and bad. From pastoral idyl, through industrial powerhouse, post-industrial slump, and now an economy focused in large parts on service and retail. There is wealth in the state, some of it old, some new, but there is also poverty and despair in areas which still feel forgotten as manufacturing jobs left for cheaper locations.

It is a state which has strange traditions (consider the annual consultation of Punxsutawney Phil on when winter will end), has provided two presidents (James Buchanan, the fifteenth president, and Joe Biden, the forty-sixth), where heritage is varied with nearly thirty percent coming from German ancestry, twenty percent of Irish heritage, and ten percent being of African descent.

And it’s a state which has proven that the American dream of achievement is possible. Actors James Stewart and Bradley Cooper come from here; the third man to walk on the moon - Peter Conrad - and the first African American in space - Guion Bluford, are natives; Musicians Pink and Christina Aguilera and composer Henry Mancini are all Keystoners. The list of sportspeople is an essay in itself.

Pennsylvania was a state founded on ideals, and they continue to provide a bedrock on which it builds and rebuilds itself. Lincoln said of the nation as a whole at Gettysburg that there is a testing of whether a nation conceived in liberty, and on the notion of all men being created equal, can long endure. Maybe, if Pennsylvania can, then so goes the US.

words by stuartcturnbull. Picture licenced from Kirsten Alana and worked in Canva

Essays in this series already available:
1 - Inspiration
2 - On Free Speech
3 - A Memory of Travel
4 - Delaware
5 - Bigfoot
6 - The Mammoth-Flint Cave System
7 - The Isle of Eight Flags