It was an ordinary day. Just finished reading the story about Chris Millard and "The Four Diamonds Fund." As I continued to leaf through the rest of the booklet "LIVE. WORK. PLAY." I found a few pages telling the history of the state of Pennsylvania. One page featured a covered bridge with the words, in reverse type, Pennsylvania FIRSTS. The top portion of the page listed the "First to Invent, Discover, or Patent." It featured 48 items that can be attributed to the state of Pennsylvania. Items such as:
Polio Vaccine, Electronic Computer, Ferris Wheel, Steamboat, Franklin Stove, Cement, Bifocals, Soldering Gun, Cable Car, Folding Machine, Accordion, Revolving Door, Street Letter Box, Pencil with attached eraser, Rotary Washing Machine, Steam Shovel, Daylight Savings Time, Rubber, "Big Mac", Stereoscope, Air Brakes, Snap Top for Cans, Typewriter Ribbon, Lightening Rod, Printing Press in America, etc, etc., etc.
There was also a section that listed the "First to Manufacture" which included:
Boiler Plates, Straw Paper, Lager Beer, Mustard, Printer's Ink, Root Beer, Wallpaper, Jeans, Folding Bed, etc., etc., etc.
A section that read "First Among States" which included:
Number of Licensed Hunters, Rural Population, Covered Bridges, Potato Chip Production, Pretzel Production, Scrapple Production, Licensed Bakeries, Meat Packing Plants, Mushroom Production, etc., etc., etc.
"First in the Nation" which included:
Television Broadcast, Carpet Mill, Paper Mill, Radio Broadcast, Hospital, Library, Newspaper, Zoo, Electric Watch, Commercial Rdio Station, Educational public Television station, Production of Connonseed Oil, Production of Rayon, CommercialProduction of Aluminum, Print Patent, Dual Elevator in Service, Belt Conveyor System, Tunnel for General Traffic and Railroad Tunnel, Successful Oil Well, Natural Gas Piped to Homes for Commercial Use, Full-Scale Nuclear power Plant, Druggist, Sleeping Car for Railroad, Locomotive for Railroad Use, Seed Business, Commercially Successful Steamboat, Building erected in the United Staes for Public Use, Mint of the United States, Crematory, Use of Electric Turnstile, Glass Crystal Chandelier, Planned Community, Commercial Pretzel Bakery, Professional Football Game, Streetcar, Bible Translated to English in America, Water Pumping Station, Melon Grown, Arcade, Circus, Nursing School, Christmas Savings Club, Sugar Beet Grown, Book for the Blind, Graduate School for Women, Symphony Orchestras, Automobile Road Way, Printed Ballot for an Election, Commercial High School, Bottler of Mineral Water, etc., etc., etc.
And one final category that was titled: "Did You Know" which featured sentences such as:
The Pennsylvania Farm Show, the largest free indoor agriculture exposition in the United States was first held in Harrisburg in 1917 and has been held there every January since then. The venue also hosts an annual outdoor sports show and North America's biggest auto show featuring new and classic cars.
The Pennsylvania State Capitol was completed in 1906. The central dome rises to a height of 272 feet and was modeled after St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, Rome, The Rockville Bridge in Harrisburg is the longest stone masonry arch railroad bridge in the world with 48 arches measuring 70 feet each spanning the Susquehanna River.
Harrisburg is the location of over a dozen large bridges, many up to a mile long, that cross the Susquehanna River. The Walnut Street Bridge, also known as The Peoples's Bridge, now used only by pedestrians and cyclists, links the downtown and Riverfront Park area with City Island, but goes no further due to missing spans on the western side. Massive flooding resulting from the North American blizzard of 1996 destroyed them.
As you can see, Pennsylvania is a fantastic state in which to live. I have lived here all my life and have no reason to move. The only other place I would move to, if necessary, would be an island in the Caribbean known as St. Martin/Sint Maarten. Heaven on Earth! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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