YEAR THREE: Blair County, Pennsylvania

I'm way behind on my monthly visits to a county within three hundred miles of Morgantown. Last week, after we had been in our new house less than a week, I took off to spend twenty-four hours in Blair County, Pennsylvania. The county seat is Hollidaysburg; the largest city is Altoona.

According to the US Census, the county has been losing population since the 1980 census. I have two friends in Morgantown who are from Altoona; the parents of my younger friend still live in Blair County. Altoona was a steel mill town, and a center for the railroads, according to my friend Lee. It was prosperous, and his family did well in the steel business. That is mostly gone now. My friends speak highly of Altoona, but I sense they are nostalgic for a town that no longer exists.

Much of downtown has been redeveloped with a medical center, a chain drug store, state and local offices. The railroad still runs through the middle of town. There are warehouses and now a museum along the rail lines. Most of the commercial business is along Pleasant Valley Road, which parallels I-99, the main north-south road just east of the city. It's a typical commercial strip, undistinguished. There is a mall southwest of downtown. It has a Macy's, which we don't have in Morgantown, but the mall was less bustling than ours here in Morgantown. There is also a "town centre" development like the one in Morgantown. I skipped it.

Two active synagogues are in Altoona. The one downtown is listed on some sites as Conservative, but is apparently not affiliated.The other, across from a park in the wealthy part of town, is Reform.
Although Penn State is just 45 miles north of Altoona, there is a Penn State campus in Altoona.

Hollidaysburg is the county seat of Blair County. It's a well-preserved old town at the foot of a mountain, less gritty, but only seven miles south of Altoona. I had lunch there at a café a few blocks from the County Courthouse. Everyone there seemed to know each other. Lots of well-dressed women, tall men with silver hair and good suits. A man came in wearing a t-shirt that said "Tattoed Dad." He had tattoos on both arms. Two little half African-American boys were with him. One of the kids said "Daddy, why is everybody here White?" I was wondering that, too. The food was mediocre, the service was lousy. Maybe it was better if the waitperson knew your name.

I visited Canoe Creek State Park, east of Holllidaysburg. There's an artificial lake, mountains, camping. It was starting to rain, so I didn't stay long.

Altoona seems a smaller and more intimate Pittsburgh, which is one hundred miles to the west. Pittsburgh is gentrifying, Altoona is not.

I enjoyed being in Blair County. I found what I was looking for: synagogues, a mall, a University campus, historic sites, a beautiful park.

I'm hoping to catch up at some point, maybe later this summer. I would have to visit five counties by Labor Day.