Bethlehem Redux

It was very interesting, and a bit surreal, to spend four days in Bethlehem. Although I have been to the Lehigh Valley to visit the Goss family every year, it has been many, many years since I've spent any time in Bethlehem, and it was especially interesting to think that I am reconnecting with this city and will be spending time there regularly. Everywhere I looked there were reminders of a past life: where I was born for starters, where I went to junior high school, where mom and dad were married, where Grandad lived on Market Street (though I can't pick the house with confidence), where I went to college, where Nancy and I lived as grad students. A lot has obviously changed in 30 years, but a lot has not. There was the Penny Bridge, the Nitsky Hill Cemetary where Susie and I walked, the Moravian Bookstore, the Hotel Bethlehem (where Megan Rees and I spent our first night together), the Rose Park where I walked home from Nitschman to the 16th Street house (which we drove by). I did go back to visit mom and dad a few times on High Street, but I have almost no recollection of those visits, and since they never left their house it was not like we ever explored Bethlehem those times (though we did walk by the house, which is just a couple blocks from Susie's). I am looking forward to making Bethlehem my home town once again.