Hello from Hershey, Pa

Hi everyone.
I'm Teresa from Hershey.
It really is the sweetest place on earth and the air really does smell like chocolate.

I'm active in my local environmental group (Derry Environmental Action Committee). We plant trees mostly, along with handing out information about trees, recycling, and composting at various community events.
I attend many of Hershey's municipal events, something I HIGHLY recommend.

If you don't go to the meetings on a semi-regular basis, you won't know what your municipality is getting up to.

My family and I have been living on less for decades, since I discovered Amy Dacyczyn and the Tightwad Gazette. She's what made our life today, as self-published writers, possible.

I've been reading The Archdruid report for years, although I never commented then and I rarely do now.

Is there anyone who lives in central Pennsylvania?

Teresa from Hershey

Hi Teresa - I've seen your name around (I read JMG's blogs but never post). I'm in Baltimore, so not terribly far away.

You aren't that far away; about 3 hours depending on time of day and day of the week.

If you come visit Hershey, let me know. I can suggest places to visit.

Teresa from Hershey

ClareBroommaker's picture

Yeah, I am pretty far away from you in the middle of the US. The night we moved here the air smelled like garlic and my pre-schooler declared happily,"Now we're Italian!" We live on the edge of the only remaining Euro-ethnic neighborhood in this city, and yes it does sometimes smell like garlic and good food!

I have pretty much zilch connection with the goings-on of my city.

Love The Tightwad Gazette, as I encountered it in book form. I discovered it when my mother, who could have written her own such publication, was reading it. Mom was a champion at use it up, make do, do without. Only my mom, for example, had her tool shed supplied with ropes she had made from old cotton bedspreads..So I became the sort of person who notices that you can make a clothes pin by slitting a bottle cork, or a field knife by picking up the nearest piece of broken glass. Stringy bark or vines can be-- string, of course. Etc.

I can't smell the chocolate in the air anymore unless I've been away for a long time or the Reese Factory (one street over from our house) does something to make the odor especially strong.

I LOVE the Tightwad Gazette. I subscribed as soon as I heard about it and have the books as well as the newsletters.
Amy Dacyczyn made it possible for us to get near Financial Independence.

Teresa from Hershey

It's crazy how busy-active people are around here. I can't keep up with it. The annual Pollinator Fair was at the museum this weekend, and there were plant sales all over town, supplied by local gardeners. A local guy who made good in Silicon Valley has returned home to spend his big bucks on community delevopment, and we can hardly keep up with his projects. Chuck Marohn, the president of Strong Towns, was here on Tuesday to talk about sustainable development. We just received a grant from the US EPA to work on the "food desert: in one of our oldest and poorest parts of town:

U.S. EPA looks to revitalize South Peoria’s food resources
https://week.com/news/peoria-news/2019/05/08/u-s-epa-looks-to-revitalize...
As the article points out, "Several urban farms and community gardens already exist in Peoria, such as the Well Farm at Voris Field, an urban farm on SW Reed Ave." Well Farm is an innovative project just outside our business district to assist with our dreadful stormwater overflow problem.

Wednesday night I had wanted to go to the Audabon society program on ongoing wetland reclaimation at a regional bird sanctuary, but all of my buds had gone Springfield for Lobby Day--coal ash cleanup...

There's a permaculture workshop coming up next weekend at the first big summer music festival:

https://youtu.be/LVYZlrvB8rM

It's crazy: we've got 2.8K people in our Central Illinois Gardeners Group. The Rescue Mission has a mulch business and the job training program for handicapped adults runs a greenhouse. The maker collective has moved into their own digs. It's all very exciting!

David Trammel's picture

Glad to have another wizard.

ClareBroommaker's picture

It can still be pretty garlicky, off and on. Some of that comes from my own house, and I was pleased as punch when an Italian neighbor closed his eyes smiled, and told me how good the cooking smells from my house were! Ha-ha. But other city smells present themselves as well. About three blocks away is a distillery that makes a dozen or so of the really cheap brands of whiskey. Sometimes that has a characteristic sour smell. Then there is a bakery that makes the place smell like blueberry pie. Oh, geeze, the worst was the print shop that was very nearby. They put off sometimes visible fumes that made my laundry on the clothesline smell like diesel exhaust. Thank goodness that business moved. Not very often I can smell the big beer brewery, but that requires a rare wind from the southeast. That same wind can bring me, in spring, the city compost smell, I guess when they are also working the giant windrows. We've had a recent range of magnolia, daffodil, mock orange, and now iris fragrances. I can't wait for the honeysuckle smells to begin. Can you tell I'm attuned to what my nose senses?

Blueberry's picture

Clare I think you would enjoy this book hope the local library has a copy. https://www.amazon.com/Being-Dog-Following-World-Smell/dp/1476796025/ref...