Everywhere has their own "things". Things they say, food they eat, and where they hang out. If you grew up in the Wyoming Valley you know all these things way too well.
Middlesworth chips: WHEN YOU LEAVE THE VALLEY THEY SUDDENLY DISAPPEAR
- The “Heyna-Henna” debate: Everyone knows an adult that ends everything in “henna?” or “heyna?” Because either way you say it, it still means “don't you agree?” (If you haven’t already look up “heynabonics” on youtube its hilarious.)
- Sweet Treat: Mhmm...
- “Juke”: No, not the cell phone, not a dance move, not a car. If you grew up in the valley if you heard someone call someone a “Juke” were saying that they were Trashy, scummy, a scumbag. No one knows how or when this came about, but we all still use it.
- Curly Crème: Comes in second to Angelo’s, no doubt.
- Church Picnics: They start up during the summer and consist of all the high school kids from around the area meeting up together in cliques, and giving each other dirty looks because that one girl was talking to her ex-boyfriend, all the adults getting hammered and listening to 40 pound head, and all the elderly playing bingo (or making the pierogis/ potato pancakes) *Also known as Bazaars*
- Not having anything to do but eat, or hit the mall/movies: If there is a cheap relatively fun, non-expensive thing to do in this valley that doesn’t involve eating, let a girl know!
- Knowing is was life changing when we finally got that Chipotle and Five Guys: Finally not having to drive over an hour to get five guys was amazing.
- You can pass a lowered pimped out Subaru Evo and a lifted truck with enormous smoke stacks within 15 seconds.
- The winter, AKA High School Basketball: That’s it. That’s all anyone cares about from November to February.
- The Woodlands: If you’ve never experienced the woodlands underage night, consider yourself lucky/deprived. Although it’s not the greatest thing in the world, but the experience is interesting to say the least, even if youre just a people watcher.
- Title fight: straight outta kingston
- Flee Market by day, Drive in’s by night: The Drive Ins is the only semi- fun, least expensive things to do around here (but it still involves eating)
- First day of hunting seasons are Holidays: We get days off from school to go deer hunting. I swear I’m not lying.
- Powder Hole, Falls, Seven Tubbs: If you say you never disobeyed your parents and spent a day swimming at any one of these places, you’re lying.
- Mark Ciavarella: Don’t even get me started
- P.O.W.B: People Of Wilkes BarreYOU KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT!
- SO MUCH CONSTRUCTION: It’s everywhere, you can’t escape it. If you need to be somewhere at a specific time you better leave at least an hour early. There is no fast way to get anywhere around here.
- Little League: Always the highlight of our summers. Almost as intense as our parents made it seem.
- Hanging out in random parking lots: Whether it’s a school parking lot, or a grocery store parking lot, or even just a random parking lot in the middle of nowhere, that’s probably where you spent a lot of time in high school.
- Rickets Glenn/ council cup: You know who took a trip to these places by checking their snapchat for the pictures of the waterfalls, or the power plant.
- Dippy Eggs: They are not “over easy”. I will fight you on this.
- The Polish food: Homemade Pierogis (What’s Mrs. T??), potato pancakes, halushki, gowomka, Pagach, Kielbasa (which has its own festival, btw), kiszka, klopsi, and so, SO much more courtesy of our Polish Grammas.
- Bloomsburg Fair: Everyone gets so excited for it but you don’t realize there’s really not much to do but eat, or spend money (sensing the pattern here?) unless you are of legal age, then it’s the greatest excuse for all the adults to get wasted and watch monster trucks crash into each other.
- Adjusting the pronunciation of many words: We say “crick” for creek, “battries” for batteries, and “filum” for film, “Ak-a-me” for Acme, hot dog is “hawddawg”, “Did you eat yet?” Is “Jeat chet?” three is “tree”, and Nanticoke is “Nannycoke”. Plus, dropping random g’s, t’s, and h’s.
- Trick or treating in bars and Pizza shops: We’ve all been there, it’s where the best candy comes from.
- Not leaving the house a week after a snowstorm because the roads STILL aren’t cleared: I refuse to think that other places are just as apathetic as our city is about road maintenance
- Railriders: The closest thing to seeing the ACTUAL Yankees!!
- Most Names end in a vowel, or don’t have a vowel in them: Darn our Polish and Pennsylvania Dutch backgrounds.
- “The Cube”: L.C.C.C. AKA: Luzerne County Community College
- ANGELO’S: Duhhh??
I'm definitely guilty of being a valley-ite. You know what they say? You can take the girl out of the valley, but you can't take the valley out of the girl!
