Days 16 – 18, Monday, November 10 – Wednesday, November 12, 2008-
My last few days in Phoenixville were spent relaxing with my family watching movies, making dinner, enjoying the fire. During the day I worked to finish editing the wedding videos that were in progress. Nothing too exciting…
I did want to share a few photos of Kimberton, near my dad’s house. Kimberton is actually the small town he lives in, although the street address is Phoenixville because the post office doesn’t deliver mail to Kimberton addresses. It’s that small.
I moved around a lot growing up, 11 times by the time I was 15. Most of that moving was with my mom. My dad moved twice and then landed in this house in Kimberton, where he’s been for about 16 years. Although I only lived there for a few years when I was in community college, it’s the place I’ve known the longest. It looks very rural, although fifteen minutes away is the second largest mall in America. It feel rural. It’s caught between pockets of development all around, but somehow still maintains itself as a tiny town.
Many of the people in Kimberton are there for the same reason I ended up there, for the Kimberton Waldorf School. It’s an alternative educational system. On their website (www.kimberton.org) they explain it as, “Waldorf teachers strive to educate the human being through all three soul capacities of thinking, feeling and will. In each subject, whether it is history or language, math or science, painting, singing or movement, the teaching is essentially an artistic process. Students learn by encountering the world as experience.”
I went to the Kimberton Waldorf School for a total of 3 days. My brother went there for part of a year. The intention in moving to Kimberton was to send us there, but it’s expensive and we couldn’t afford it. Nevertheless, my dad lives right up the street so I grew up walking to their playground and occasionally hanging out with other Waldorf kids. There’s a whole community of… not quite hippies but people looking at holistic living… perhaps that’s why Kimberton has maintained its charm and resisted the development taking place around it.
Right across the street from the Kimberton Waldorf School is Seven Stars Yogurt, an organic dairy farm. Their yogurt can be found in health food stores around the country. In fact, I just bought some from the co-op in Syracuse. The maple flavor is the best. Growing up and still whenever I visit, I walk down to the farm to say hello to the cows and the baby calves. Barn cats abound, making for good company. I get such a kick out of walking into a store in, say, Chicago and seeing their yogurt on the shelves.
To get to the Waldorf School and the farm, one must cross a wooden covered bridge. There are not many of these left and some people get really obsessed with them… There are books and such on the subject… So there’s a great one right down the street.
Also down the street from my dad is French Creek… an awesome water source that eventually leads to French Creek State Park and becomes so massive it would be challenging to swim across. One of my favorite memories takes place one day when I was on a routine walk. I stopped to say hello to the neighbors, who were out painting their shutters, when we heard moos coming from the creek. Sure enough, the whole heard had escaped and were meandering down French Creek. It was a funny scene.
One more thing that adds to the charm of the area is the fact that it is scattered with ruins… old stone houses falling in on themselves. These are not properties that have been neglected, these are more like old ruins. All that’s left are the crumbling walls covered with vegetation. It feels more like discovering a lost city than a boarded up house in a low-income neighborhood. Take a look at the photo below… you’ll see what I mean.
I have found memories of this place and just wanted to share them. Thanks for reading…
front of house
side of house, with my dad's project boat
house across the street
French Creek
wooden covered bridge
a little snake I saw on my walk this time
Elliot... there used to be half a dozen cats running around, but Elliot has outlived them all
