YEAR THREE: Berks County

At the CCAR convention in Philadelphia last month, I met the rabbi from Reading, Pennsylvania, the city in Berks County. I had read that Reading was the poorest city in America. He said "We've moved up to second or third poorest." He told me his synagogue, Oheb Shalom, is located outside of Reading's city limits.

I got into this with him because Reading was the next place I planned to visit on my monthly trips away from Morgantown, and Berks County is the largest in population I plan to visit in Year Three.

I felt guilty about leaving Joe. We close on our new house May 11, and we are trying to get all our stuff packed. His administrative assistant at temple has been out sick for a few weeks now, making his work life more difficult. Still, I left him alone for three days partly because of my own obsessiveness about this travel project, and partly to take a break from my own stress about moving.

We've had some good weather, unfortunately not for this trip. There were a few drops of rain as I left, but before I had even gotten out of Morgantown there was a storm of driving rain, hail, and sleet. That continued across the mountains into Maryland where it was only windy and rainy.The weather has remained cool for late April. Today's high in Reading was only about 47, overcast and windy. The trees are all in bloom, just a few days behind Morgantown.

Downtown Reading isn't much of a walk-around place. There is some attempt to restore older storefronts, and I notice just a hint of gentrification downtown, old houses with cleaned-up brick, new shutters and planters outside. The hipsters live across the railroad tracks and the Schuylkill River in West Reading. Beyond that is Wyomissing, half old-money big stone houses and half suburban. Oheb Shalom is in the suburban part of Wyomissing, as well as Berkshire Mall, the better of the two indoor malls I found. There is a lovely park along a stream with an ominous sign warning that the park is for "residents and guests only." I suppose I could have been arrested for taking a picture. I had mall food court fast Chinese for dinner Wednesday. They had baked fish, asparagus and fried plantains, so I took advantage of those options.

I thought I would have time to find thirty historic sites from the National Register. Normally, I only look for ten. Of the first thirty on the list, five were in Reading. I looked for those before sunset Wednesday. I found one, partly because I didn't know where I was going, partly because construction blocked some streets, and partly because sunset is twenty minutes earlier at 76 West longitude than at 80. I did find an old school building in a residential and industrial neighborhood before going back to my hotel.

Thursday, I planned to find ten places in the morning, another ten in the afternoon, and the last nine in the evening. That was too ambitious. The morning went well enough. Lunch at an all-you can-eat pizza place slowed down my afternoon, and I couldn't get phone service for directions. Altogether, I found fourteen places on the National Register, and got pictures of eleven of them. It's interesting being in a county where European settlement took place before the American revolution. There are lots of semi-forgotten places out in the countryside going back to our earliest era in this country.

Berks County is only an hour drive from Philadelphia if the traffic is moving. I noted new houses in that direction for under $300,000. Probably a good deal compared to being closer in. Reading looks like Philadelphia, with blocks of row houses. It reminds me more of Baltimore, at least the way it was when I was growing up. Many of the row houses are tiny, like in East Baltimore, and there are small stores on many corners. To the north and southeast, there are larger row houses, like those near Druid Hill Park in Baltimore or in West Philadelphia, but not nearly as grand. Southeast of downtown is a mountain of sorts with a grand park. I might have explored more had the weather been better. At the foot of the park on the main road are two synagogues - one is the former home of Oheb Shalom; the other is a Conservative synagogue, Kesher Zion, in a classical brick-and-columns building with "Happy Are They Who Dwell In Your House" written on the lintel. That synagogue is still in operation. Reading has a Chabad, just north of town, in an urban neighborhood close to where I stayed.

The city population is largely Puerto Rican. At the mall, I saw them and Mexicans (different look and different accent in Spanish), Asians, well-dressed and also less elegant Caucasians and African-Americans. I didn't see any real tension. I also didn't speak to too many people on this trip. I'm not an extrovert.

I had suggestions from friends on Facebook about outlet stores, a theater, an artist exhibition space, and Daniel Boone's original homestead. Only the Boone homestead was on my list. It was one of the ones I didn't get to. I was feeling schvach ( Joe and I are taking an intro Yiddish class at OLLI) when I got back to the motel to rest at 4:30. I didn't think I could eat anything, but managed to get out to the Chinese buffet across the street from the pizza place where I had lunch. I ate only healthy stuff, except for the desserts. A little tea and sugar fixed me right up.

I'm considering different routes for the trip home tomorrow. I promised to be back for Shabbat. The Pennsylvania Turnpike is the fastest way, but it costs $15 in tolls and the food options are not great. We'll see.

Here are some pics: