Kielbasy and Coal

After the easiest drive back from Ohio on Monday, the following day we took a drive with K's dad up to the "Coal Regions" of PA. The primary purpose of this trip was to go to Kowalonek's to get a big order of Kielbasy and various other related meats for all the family. The secondary purpose was a bit of a field trip for K including drives around Centralia (her mum's hometown) and Shenandoah (her dad's hometown) and various coal dependant towns and former towns in-between.

First port of call was Kowalonek's. Having left Bethlehem at 7.30 we arrived a bit after 9 and there was a queue outside the door. This was to be expected. While waiting in line we were given a $1,000,000 bill by a chap who then went on to talk about the million dollar question. Any guesses? Yep. What is going to happen to you when you die? We were being hit up by someone asking us if we were going to heaven in the line for some Polish sausage, probably the first and last time I will experience such a scenario.

When we actually got into the shop the ticker was on 10. K's dad pulled 36, a bit of a wait, but it was pretty fun overhearing how much people were spending on cured meats ready for the holidays. $156.27 here, $89.70 there. One chap ended up hauling out three boxes of the stuff, potentially not all for him and his family.

I was amused by the above sign and the shop's obvious desire to encourage people that they can eat Kielbasy all year round not just at Christmas and Easter. We were assured they are only ever as busy as they were when we were there during the holidays, but it would seem that the seasonal business is enough to keep them going for another 100 years and a few more generations.

After a bit of breakfast we stopped in the (former) town of Centralia, inspiration for some of K's writing. There are only about five or six houses left after an underground mine fire meant the town was pretty much razed to the ground when the local government bought out everyone that lived there at the time. We had visited once before, but this time it felt particularly sad and bleak, probably not helped by the weather and time of year, but still sad to think of what was a thriving place overgrown and pretty much deserted.

We passed plenty of derelict mining buildings all over the area, but also a good few working mines as we made our way back down from the area back to Bethleham.