Schuylkill County Childhood

I followed the prompt for Day 18 of NaPoWriMo to write a poem that involves “the sound of home.”

Schuylkill County Childhood

I live so far from my childhood home.
I miss the taste of sweet sauce pizza
on the days we could afford to buy it.
I miss the crisp Ellios pizza baking
in the oven on any other normal day.

I miss the delicious taste of WaWa

lemonade iced tea, though my brother

would tell you he'd much prefer Guers,

and the crinkle of a bag of Snyder's

BBQ chips or the delicious flavor

of the chocolate peanut butter Tastycake.

I remember walking through the woods

and exploring abandoned coal mines

(or just the cold entrances, in my case)

until boards blocked them off for safety.

I remember treading the path of many

before me and walking across the ruins

of what I imagined to be a castle from long ago.

I remember riding on my stepfather's quad

next to the crick and through the trees,

up tall hills of tiny rocks, some so tall

that the quad would strain to reach the top.

I played outside in the leaves and the snow,

in the rocks and the grass, no parent in sight.

We'd walk to the candy shop and use

our pennies to buy little candies.

In the summer, we'd run up the path

leading to the next town, wearing our

circle medals on our bracelets, eagerly

waiting to go swimming in the pool.

Sometimes Mom would buy us a soda

or drive to Rita's for an Italian Ice.

Now I've grown up, and I've moved away,

but I'll always be a Coal Cracker.

I'll ask for dippy eggs and pierogies.

Sometimes I'll say youze and bolth.

I'll forever remember block parties

and coal candy and riding on the Phoenix

rollercoaster or the Sklooosh at Knoebels.

I can pronounce Mahanoy, Shenandoah,

and Nesquehoning, and I've seen the

abandoned coal town of Centralia.

These are the places I knew as a child,

These are the memories I'll hold 'til I'm old.