My ancestral home sat neatly on Elderwood Drive. It was precisely one mile from the downtown Dairy Dell and the sights, sounds, and smells of the Cambria County Fairgrounds annually crept through the upstairs bathroom window. The U-shaped street (which made a P when you threw in Hillcrest) seemed to go on forever on foot or on my Schwinn. Once I hit 16 and upgraded to the driver’s seat of the ’78 Civic, that same stretch seemed small and limiting. But it was perfect for my firstborn’s first steps while visiting Gram and Pap decades later. Timed perfectly with Pap’s recovery from surgery, that doubly wobbly voyage around the block saw the two lockstep in time.
June 13, 2020
Alan Baylock 