Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into Pennsylvania Read online

  •The Scrantones (a local band that claims it was voted the “best bar band in Lackawanna County three years running”) performs the show’s theme song.

  Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

  Fred McFeely Rogers (aka, Mister Rogers) was born in Latrobe in 1928. Forty years later, he was the host of one of the most popular children’s programs in history: Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. The show began in 1968 in Pittsburgh and was first broadcast locally; in 1970, PBS picked it up for national distribution. Even as Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was beamed into homes all over the United States, it continued to be filmed at WQED studios in Pittsburgh and stayed there for its entire 33-year run. (Reruns still air today.)

  Neighborhood Nuggets

  •One of the show’s best-known segments is “The Land of Make Believe,” which was populated with puppets and could be accessed only by a magical trolley. The trolley was based on one in Pittsburgh that Rogers had loved riding while he was growing up.

  •Pittsburgh’s industrialism is reflected on the show: Mister Rogers often visited local factories for his “How People Make Things” segment.

  •The Pittsburgh Children’s Museum hosts a permanent exhibit modeled after the show, complete with a replica of Mister Rogers’ house and a life-size, working trolley. In June 2007, the museum also included an exhibit based on the show’s “How People Make Things” segment.

  •The Idlewild theme park in Ligonier (Pennsylvania’s oldest amusement park) features a Mister Rogers attraction: kids can ride the trolley, meet delivery man Mr. McFeely, and cavort with the characters from the Land of Make Believe.

  Did You Know?

  The Horseshoe Curve, a famous curved section of track owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad (and now a tourist attraction and National Historic Landmark), was once targeted by the Nazis. “The Curve,” a section of track that makes a 220-degree U-turn, was used by trains traveling east over the Allegheny Ridge toward Pittsburgh. Because it was the industrial link to the western United States, Horseshoe Curve was one of the intended targets of Nazi saboteurs during World War II. In 1942, eight men infiltrated the United States, but they were never able to gain access to the Curve or destroy it. All eight were eventually caught: two got life sentences because they cooperated with the U.S. government, and the other six were executed.

  Pennsylvania-isms, Part II

  As any Keystone State local knows, there’s a difference between what Pennsylvanians say. . . and what they mean.

  How Others Say It: You (plural)

  How They Say It in Western PA: Yins, you’uns, youns, or yunzez

  How They Say It in Eastern PA: Youse, yuz, or youze

  Example: “I got a new plasma. Youns coming over to watch the Steel Curtain?”

  How Others Say It: Rubber band

  How Pennsylvanians Say It: Gumband

  Example: “That bag’s leaking wooder! Put a gumband on it!”

  How Others Say It: Bedroom slippers

  How Pennsylvanians Say It: Poochies or beddies

  Example: “Don’t forget to take off your beddies before you go out for groceries.”

  How Others Say It: Bologna sandwich

  How Pennsylvanians Say It: Jumbo

  Example: “Bring some jumbos wit you dounnashore.”

  How Others Say It: A nosy person

  How Pennsylvanians Say It: Nebby or neb-nose

  Example: “Her mom’s such a nebby, always snooping into your business.”

  How Others Say It: Diagonally across the street

  How Pennsylvanians Say It: Cattywumpus

  Example: “The nebby who lives cattywumpus is always watching me out her winda.”

  How Others Say It: Ground squirrel or chipmunk

  How Pennsylvanians Say It: Grinnie

  Example: “That grinnie’s running off wit my hoagie!”

  How Others Say It: Have you got any?

  How Pennsylvanians Say It: Gotnee?

  Example: “Gotnee pop for watching da Pens?”

  How Others Say It: Is it going to rain?

  How Pennsylvanians Say It: Make down? or Make wet?

  Example: “Looks like it’s gonna make wet.”

  How Others Say It: Umbrella

  How Pennsylvanians Say It: Bumbershoot

  Example: “Well, if it’s gonna make wet, I better bring my bumbershoot.”

  How Others Say It: “Did you eat yet?” “No, did you?” “Not yet.”

  How Pennsylvanians Say It: “Jeetchet?” “Nojoo?” “Notchet.”

  For more Pennsylvania-isms, turn to page 17.

  The City of Brotherly Love

  Some stats and little-known facts about Pennsylvania’s largest city.

  Town: Philadelphia

  Location: Philadelphia County

  Founding: 1682

  Population (2008): 1,448,394

  Size: 135 square miles

  County seat? Yes

  What’s in a name?

  William Penn named Philadelphia himself. It comes from two Greek words: philos, meaning “love,” and adelphos, or “brother”—the City of Brotherly Love.

  Claims to Fame:

  •Philadelphia County includes just the city of Philadelphia.

  •Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives the country the right to “coin money,” so in 1792, the newly independent United States of America created the country’s first mint in Philadelphia. Its first production: 11,178 copper coins that went into circulation the next year.

  •The city’s Fairmount Park began as a private garden, but in 1843, Philadelphia’s City Council bought the space, which was located on a hill above the Schuylkill River. Over the years, the park grew to be the largest landscaped park in the United States. Today, it’s an entire complex that includes 63 individual parks and more than 9,000 acres.

  •Philadelphia’s abolitionist movement began in 1833 when some of the city’s most prominent activists organized the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society. During its 37-year history, the group worked to end racial and gender discrimination and was one of the first to allow women and minorities to join—ultimately, 42 women became members, nine of them black. The Anti-Slavery Society raised money for abolition, funded integrated schools, and helped escaped slaves to flee the South. The group disbanded in 1870, considering its objective—ending slavery in the United States—“accomplished” after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865.

  •Philadelphia is made up of about 12 different neighborhoods. (We say “about” because locals disagree on where exactly the boundaries are.) Some of the best known are South Philly (of Rocky and cheesesteak fame), the City Center (where most people visit and work), Chestnut Hill (filled with many historic homes and buildings), and West Philadelphia (home to Drexel University, UPenn, and other colleges).

  Did You Know?

  Philadelphia boasts about 2,000 wall murals—more than any other city in the United States.

  From Paterno’s Playbook

  Some wise words from Penn State’s most renowned football coach, Joe Paterno.

  “The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.”

  “Publicity is like poison; it doesn’t hurt unless you swallow it.”

  “Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won’t taste good.”

  “Besides pride, loyalty, discipline, heart, and mind, confidence is the key to all the locks.”

  “Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence or worth is a tragedy.”

  “When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.”

  “You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That’s the mark of a true professional.”

  “Act like you expect to get into the end zone.”

  “You need to play with supreme confidence, or else you’ll lose again, and then losing becomes a habit.”

  “Success is never final. Failure is neve
r fatal.”

  Environmental Crusader

  A lover of the natural world, a published writer at the age of 10, and an ardent opponent of pollution and pesticide use, Pennsylvania-born Rachel Carson became one of the world’s first and most influential conservationists.

  In 1900, Robert and Maria Carson bought a 64-acre farm in Springdale, Pennsylvania, about 14 miles from Pittsburgh. The property included a small clapboard farmhouse—lilacs and honeysuckle grew near its front porch—two outhouses, a barn, a springhouse (for fresh water), and a chicken coop. A pear and apple orchard grew on a hill behind the house. Maria kept a large vegetable garden, and Robert tended a rose garden.

  Rachel, the youngest of the Carsons’ three children, was born on May 27, 1907. From the time she was a toddler, she explored the woods near the farm. Her mother was college-educated and well-read in botany and natural history. She introduced her daughter to the animals, insects, and plants that thrived on their property and instilled in her children the belief that nature should be respected and disturbed as little as possible.

  In Print

  Rachel’s brother and sister were almost 10 years older, so she relied on her dogs for playmates. When she started school, she developed a talent for writing, and animals became central characters in her stories. She also looked to her family for inspiration. At just 10 years old, Rachel published her first story: “Battle in the Clouds” was about U.S. pilots in World War I and was inspired by her brother’s experiences. The piece appeared in a popular children’s literary magazine of the day: St. Nicholas, which focused on work created by children. (F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and e. e. cummings all had stories published in St. Nicholas as kids.)

  It was the first of several stories young Rachel wrote that made it into print. In 1922, St. Nicholas published another piece of hers: “My Favorite Recreation,” describing a day spent with her dog. In the story, the pair walks through the Pennsylvania hills, where Rachel takes photographs of birds and their nests. It was her first published nature story and was a forerunner to her later best-selling books.

  Shaping a Naturalist’s Life

  According to Carson biographer Linda Lear, neighbors remembered young Rachel as exceptionally bright and curious about her environment. One oft-repeated story told of her finding a large fossilized shell in a rocky hillside on her family’s farm. She read voraciously to find out about the animal that had lived inside it and to discover why a seashell would end up among the rocks near the Allegheny River. She was fascinated to learn that an ocean had once covered the area.

  Years later, Carson’s interest in evolution and marine science led her to write several books about the ocean. One in particular—The Sea Around Us—brought her nationwide attention in 1952 when it won the National Book Award.

  Life Off the Farm

  Rachel Carson lived in Springdale for 18 years. During that time, the town grew ever more industrialized, and Carson developed a strong dislike for the noise and pollution that came with progress.

  In 1925, she left home to attend the Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University) in Pittsburgh. But city life was an adjustment. In those days, Pittsburgh’s factories so polluted the area that people often were covered in smoky soot. Living there, Carson appreciated even more the benefits of her rural childhood and became increasingly aware of how fragile the natural world was.

  Silent Spring

  After four years in Pittsburgh, Carson left Pennsylvania for graduate school at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, where she studied zoology. Over the next three decades, she worked as a professor, scientist, and researcher, always studying the impact of humans on the natural world. It wasn’t until 1962, however, that she published the book that made her famous.

  Carson was inspired to write Silent Spring after receiving a letter from friends in Massachusetts who were struggling with the effects of aerial pesticide spraying on their rural property.

  As Carson investigated the use of pesticides in farming, she discovered that they were polluting rivers and threatening wildlife, including the endangered bald eagle. In Silent Spring, Carson argued that pesticides could poison the environment, and she called for them to be regulated, particularly DDT, which had come into widespread use on U.S. farms after World War II.

  Rachel Carson wasn’t the first scientist to notice the harmful effects of DDT and other pesticides, but she was the first to write about them in a way that inspired people to do something about it. In Silent Spring, she wrote about a “strange stillness” that fell over an American town after farmers used pesticides:

  The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of scores of bird voices, there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.

  Controversy and Conservation

  The chemical and pesticide industry immediately tried to suppress and discredit Silent Spring. But by then, Carson was respected enough as a scientist that all attempts to cover up her findings failed. Instead, the book sparked nationwide interest in pesticide use and prompted President John F. Kennedy to set up a commission to study its consequences.

  Rachel Carson died of cancer in 1964, but her book encouraged the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the growth of a movement in the United States that worked both to preserve wildlife and habitats, and to change politicians’ attitudes about the environment. Her efforts were also, in large part, responsible for DDT finally being banned in the United States in 1972.

  Did You Know?

  Schuylkill is a Dutch word that means “hidden river.” Henry Hudson named Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill River in the 1600s when—during an expedition up the Delaware—he passed right by the river’s mouth without noticing it. (It was hidden by reeds.)

  Seven Things You Should Know About Quakers

  If it weren’t for the Quakers, there would be no Pennsylvania. Read on to get to know the religious group that founded the commonwealth.

  What’s in a Name?

  “Quaker” is not the official term for the sect: its formal name is The Society of Friends (from John 15:14, in which Jesus says, “You are my friends if you do what I command you”).

  The origin of the nickname “Quaker” is ambiguous: Some people say it comes from the fact that church members have been known to tremble (or quake) when contemplating God. Others say it comes from a remark by George Fox, the group’s founder, who in 1650 told a judge to tremble before the name of God.

  The Details . . .

  Quakers believe that individuals can have personal relationships with God without priests or ministers. Many Quakers consider the Bible to be an inspirational work, but they don’t believe any book is specifically the “word of God.” Quakers are generally pacifists, and most are Christian, though some subscribe to other religions or to no specific religion at all.

  It’s Not Easy Being a Quaker

  Quakers are often associated with Pennsylvania—mostly because William Penn, the state’s founder, was a member of the Society of Friends. But the sect was actually founded in the mid-1600s in England, where just being a Quaker was illegal. Early life in the American colonies was no better: Quakers were put to death in Boston in 1659 and 1661. But eventually Quakers became part of colonial life, most notably in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, before Penn founded his colony in 1682.

  Sign on the Dotted Line

  Quakers formed the colony of Pennsylvania, but they were also present at the creation of the United States of America. Pennsylvania Quaker George Clymer signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States; fellow Pennsylvanian and Quaker Thomas Mifflin followed suit. Clymer was also a representative to the first U.S. Congress.

  Standing Up for Slaves

  Early Quakers didn’t see any problem with slavery, and many of them (William Penn included) owned slaves. But by the early
1700s, as indentured servants made up more of the population immigrating to Pennsylvania, the attitude toward slavery began to change. It was cheaper for farmers to use indentured servants, but the thinking among Northern whites was also shifting from pro-slavery to abolition. Young Quakers in particular had begun to see slavery as contradictory to their religion’s belief that every person contained the “light of God.” As a result, American Quakers were at the forefront of the struggle to end slavery, and between about 1750 and 1800, nearly all Quakers in America voluntarily freed their slaves.

  Education Matters

  Quakers founded many prestigious Pennsylvania colleges, including Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford.

  The Fighting Quaker

  Although Quakers are usually pacifists, there have been some Friends soldiers in history, most notably Marine Major General Smedley Butler of West Chester, who was nicknamed “the Fighting Quaker.” Butler is the last person to have won two medals of honor for separate actions: the first in 1914 during the occupation of Veracruz, and the second in 1915 while fighting in Haiti. Later in life, though, he decried the use of the military for what he considered to be “corporate ends.”