Hughesville :: Personal Narrative New York Papers

Hughesville While growing up in Ithaca, New York, visits to my fathers boyhood home, Hughesville, a town set in a valley among the Appalachian Mountains in northern Pennsylvania, were common. My aunt continues to live in the 1948 home her grandfather built. Pleasant memories take me back to this borough of about 2000 people, 60 miles south of the New York border. half-size settlements in Pennsylvania are politicallyclassified as boroughs or townships. Although a borough generally looks more urban than a township, it is difficult for someone short by dint of and unfamiliar with an area to tell the difference.From Ithaca, this is a two hour drive on US 220, a two lane highway that starts at the New York border. Long after I knew the names of all the places we passed on the way, I continued to play What Place Is This? with my father. Some towns we passed were a spattering of 20 buildings, while others had two block shopping districts. We passed through Milan, pronounced Meyelin, New Albany, where signs proclaim it the Christmas Wreath Capital of the World, and Dogtown, identified by Rand McNally as Tivola.Route 220 winds through high, tree greened hills. It is cut over and along the sides of these hills exposing gentle valleys with flat, cow-dotted pastures and a spectacular view of the narrow, meandering, mighty Susquehanna River carving its path through the fertile farmland it floods, sometimes violently in spring. Anytime you drive through the area, vistas are a visual delight. The high, winding roads can ice over in winter alone insummer inspire free spirited motorcycle rides. The well shaded two lane roads over the hills and through the dales bring relief from the obtuse pavements heat rising to meet the hot sun baking your bare arms.Before the Eisenhower Interstate System was built in the 1950s, a main travel course through the eastern part of the country was US 220. Even now you quickly and consistently find yourself behind slow tractor trailers crawling steadily up and rolling down these rollercoaster hills. In response to this, recently built passing laneswere carved deeper into the hillsides at the steepest climbs. Few take this route to its end in Tennessee. While most use it to make their way to the interstate connecter, four miles from Hughesville, some use it to deliver goods to the Lycoming Mall. The malls submission is a football field away from the Interstate 80 connecter.