Pennsylvania - Help needed

[Dawn S.]

Completely off topic I know, but could anyone help with DD's homework?

Research the nick-name of Pennsylvania, the population, attractions, culture and landmarks.

I was wondering/hoping if you lot across the pond could turn up something more interesting than what is in wiki-pedia. Thanks for any assistance.

[Judith A.]

Try netstate.com. Select Pennsylvania. It looks pretty good. I have trouble copying links with this laptop, or I would link it for you.

My mother's family emigrated to Pennsylvania from England over religious problems. Not sure which religion, but it was not the officially sanctioned state religion at the time, and they had to meet in their homes. They had to flee.
They came to Pittsburgh when there were 12 houses there. He worked on the dock at the point where the the Allegheny river converged with the Monongahela to form the Ohio. She brought his lunch to him every day.
I lived next to the Monongehela river as a child.

Judith

[Lois B.]

Pennsylvania is known as the Keystone State, because of its central geographic position in relation to the 13 original colonies. It is the state where declaration of independence was was signed and the home of the first continental congress. Our constitution was written here. Pensylvainia means Penn's Woods named after William Penn. I believe he was granted this large tract of land from the King of England. Pennsylvania is home to "the sweetest place on earth", Hershey, PA. It's where the original Hershey Bars were manufactured and remains home to Hershey corporate headquarters. Our state tree is the hemlock, flower; mountain laurel, bird; rough grouse. In the past coal minning was a big industry, as was steel. We still produce all kinds of agricultural products including; dairy, poultry, beef, corn, apples, peaches, pears, & berries. We still have many forrests and continue to produce lumber. You know, when she cites the source of this information my name won't hold a great deal of academic credibility. Good luck to Izzy. She should cite me as a quilter and resident just remembering what I learned in elementary school.

[Lois B.]

Thanks for your assistance, Judith & Lois. Much appreciated.

[Lorna B.]

Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell. The capital is Harrisburg. I remember how beautiful the inside of the capital building is!
https://sp.yimg.com/ib/th?id=JN.zJuI7SEqxlLrB%2fVd65jvSA&pid=15.1&P=0 Don't know if link will work.

Gettysburg is a very cool place to visit and tour. My girls and I loved it.

[Lorna B.]

Great lessons in Geography/History. Very timely too, as my DH and I are just mulling over where to go on a road trip, and tonight at supper, we both mentioned that we'd not been to Penn. The only thing I know is that Lois lives there, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and it's home to Lancaster county, and the Amish 'quilt country'. Sounds a bit industrial for a road trip, or is it pretty too, like I thought?

[Geneva C.]

Philadelphia is home to the best cheese steak sandwiches anywhere. Very greasy, cheesy and bad for you, but oh so good. The liberty bell is a short walk from the cheese steak place. That way you can walk off a little of the grease!

Good luck Izzy.

Geneva

[Kathryn S.]

My grandmother was from Pennsylvania- they were called Pennsylvania Dutch which I found out meant German!. I never went there, but I remember eating typical Pennsylvania dutch food as a kid- Hot German Potato salad, cucumbers in vinegar, and of course succotash made with fresh corn and what they called "shelly beans", which are fresh beans, not lima beans. My mother still does not consider succotash could possibly be made with lima beans! And the home made doughnuts fried in oil on the back of the stove. Yum- never ate such good doughnuts since then. Kathy

[Lois B.]

Pittsburg was industrial, but alot of the industry left. Philadelphia is industrial, but all that space in-between is farmland and forrest. The Susquehanna Valley is beautiful.

[Lorna B.]

Pittsburg was industrial, but alot of the industry left. Philadelphia is industrial, but all that space in-between is farmland and forrest. The Susquehanna Valley is beautiful.

Lois, I agree that the Susquehanna Valley is beautiful! Whilst living in North Carolina we made quite a few drives to upstate New York to visit family and drove through that area. Loved it! I feel Pennsylvania has a lot to see and offer and definitely recommend a trip.

Listen to us carry on...when was Izzy's report due?

Lorna

[Lois B.]

Lorna, When you'd take that trip you had to go through my town, Selinsgrove. Main route N & S RT 11 & 15 goes right through. The river valley has not suffered from much of the industrial or maritime development that often occurs along the banks of most rivers it's size. It is unnavicable. The bottom is bedrock and cannot be drudged. Robert Lewis Stevenson has described the river as being "a mile wide and a foot deep". It is beautiful. This is my grandson, Zachary enjoying its beauty. Incidently, that is not the opposite river bank he is looking at, it's a large island with much more river on the other side.

[wendy w.]

Beautiful place Lois. Well now I've learned a lot as well about the history of the area. I went on a patchwork holiday once and we started off in Philadelphia. The art is amazing, so much of it.

[wendy w.]

Home work is now handed in. You know the usual time scale of these things, lets me know about the homework 24hrs before it is needed - IF I'm lucky! She rolled her eyes once I got started on about the Amish & quilting :P She tried to get away with saying there was too much in the culture section to mention, so she wouldn't mention any of it. Put my foot down at that and wouldn't help print it out until she had added a couple of things to that bit, more rolling of eyes and 'Mum, go away, now!' :lol:

Thanks again for all the information, it has been fascinating. Lois could you go canoeing on that river? it looks beautiful.

[Nancy R.]

How beautiful, Lois! And what a cute grand, too!

[Lois B.]

Yes, Rosemary, you can go canoeing. it is wonderful. There are few dams. You could canoe all the way from Selinsgrove to Harrisburg and a bit further without encountering a dam. That's about 50miles. It's deep enough to canoe all summer long in most places. Even in the area of the photo there are times in the summer you could walk across without getting your bum wet. There is no large boat traffic and few high speed pleasure boats because many areas are just not deep enough.