Page Toppers

• Pennsylvania Avenue
• Pennsylvania Polka
• Philadelphia Morning
  (from Rocky)
• Philadelphia Story
• South Street (in Philadelphia)
  (song by The Orlons)
• Streets of Philadelphia
  (song by Bruce Springsteen)

Symbols

• Nicknames: The Keystone State; The Quaker State; The Oil State; The Steel state
• Slogan: Memories Last a Lifetime
• Slogan from License Plate: You've Got a Friend in Pennsylvania
• Motto: Virtue, Liberty, and Independence
• Colors: blue and gold
• Song: Pennsylvania (words by Eddie Khoury, music by Ronnie Bonner)
• Pops Orchestra: Philly Pops
• Animal: Whitetail Deer
• Bird: Ruffed Grouse
• Dog: Great Dane
• Fish: Brook Trout
• Insect: Firefly
• Tree: Hemlock
• Flower: Mountain Laurel
• Beautification and Conservation Plant: Penngift Crownvetch
• Fossil: Trilobite
• Beverage: Milk
• Cookie: Chocolate Chip Cookie
• Pro Sports Teams: Philadelphia 76ers (men's basketball); Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers (football); Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates (baseball); Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins (hockey)

Facts About Pennsylvania

• Capital: Harrisburg
• Residents: Pennsylvanians
• State Name Origin: named after William Penn and a Latin word meaning "woodlands"
• Admitted to Statehood: 12 Dec 1787
• Order of Admission: 2nd state
• Coastline/Shoreline: 0/89 miles
• Length: 283 miles
• Width: 160 miles
• Area: 46,055 square miles
• Size Rank: 33
• Number of Counties: 67
• Streams and Rivers: 83,260 miles
• Geographic Center: 2 miles SW of Bellefonte in Centre Co.
• Mean Elevation: 1,100 feet
• Highest Point: Mt. Davis, 3,213 feet
• Lowest Point: Delaware River, sea level
• Agricultural Products: food products
• Commercial Products: iron, steel, coal, stone, clay, glass products, industrial machinery, printing and publishing, electronic equipment, transportation equipment, chemicals
• Average Annual Rainfall: 40.2 inches
• Average Winter High Temperature: 25 degrees
• Record Low Temperature: -42 degrees (5 Jan 1904 Smethport)
• Average Summer High Temperature: 80 degrees
• Record High Temperature: 111 degrees (10 Jul 1936 Phoenixville)
• Official Language: English
• More information about Pennsylvania

Quotes

• No more egregious error can be committed by the visitor to Gettysburg than to assume that the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) is over. (Philip Hamburger)

Items of Interest

• Pennsylvania has the largest rural population in the nation.
• The U.S. Constitution was written in Philadelphia.
• Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on a Civil War battlefield in PA.
• The Pennsylvania Turnpike, completed in 1940, was the nation's first superhighway.
• Pennsylvania is the first state in the US to list their website URL on a license plate.
• In 1909 the first baseball stadium was built in Pittsburgh.
• Hershey is the Chocolate Capital of the United States.
• In 1913 the first automobile service station opened in Pittsburgh.
• In 1946 Philadelphia became home to the first computer.
• The first daily newspaper was published in Philadelphia on Sept. 21, 1784.
• Edwin L. Drake drilled the world's first oil well in Titusville in 1859.
• In Philadelphia in 1775 Johann Behrent built the first piano in America.
• Philadelphia is the site of the first presidential mansion.
• The Rockville Bridge in Harrisburg is the longest stone arch bridge in the world.
• The Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia in 1776.
• KDKA radio in Pittsburgh produced the first commercial radio broadcast.
• Pennsylvania is the only original colony not bordered by the Atlantic Ocean.
• Benjamin Franklin founded the Philadelphia Zoo, the first public zoo in the United States.
• Pittsburgh has over 300 sets of city maintained steps. If they were stacked on top of each other, they would reach over 26,000 feet high.
• Little League Baseball's first World Series was held in 1946 in Williamsport.
• Nazareth is the home of Martin guitars - started in 1833.
• The State College Area High School was the first school in the country to teach drivers education in 1958.
• Philadelphia was once the United States capital city.
• Punxsutawney is home to the world-renowned weather forecasting groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil.

Notable Natives

Some of these people were born here, others just lived a part of their life in the state.

• Edward Goodrich Acheson (1856-1931) - engineer, inventor (Washington)
• Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) - author, wrote Little Women (Germantown)
• Richard Allen - religious leader
• Marian Anderson - singer
• Maxwell Anderson - playwright (Atlantic)
• Samuel Barber - composer (West Chester)
• John Barrymore - actor (Philadelphia)
• Donald Barthelme - author (Philadelphia)
• Stephen Vincent Benet - poet, author (Bethlehem)
• George G. Blaisdell - founded Zippo Manufacturing in 1932.
• Daniel Boone - frontiersman (Reading)
• James Buchanan (1791-1868) - 15th U.S. president (Mercersburg)
• Charles W. Cadman - composer
• Alexander Calder (1898-1976) - sculptor (Philadelphia)
• Simon Cameron - political leader
• Rachel Carson (1907-1964) - environmentalist, biologist, author (Springdale)
• Mary Cassatt - painter (Allegheny)
• Henry Steele Commager - historian (Pittsburgh)
• George Catlin - native American expert, poet (Wilkes-Barre)
• Bill Cosby (1937- ) - actor, comedian (Philadelphia)
• Bing Crosby - actor, singer
• Stuart Davis - painter (Philadelphia)
• Jimmy Dorsey - band leader (Shenandoah)
• Tommy Dorsey - band leader (Mahanoy Plane)
• W.C. Fields - actor (Philadelphia)
• Stephen C. Foster - composer (Pittsburgh)
• Henry Clay Frick - industrialist/philanthropist
• Robert Fulton - inventor (Lancaster County)
• Bill Gates - founder of Microsoft, philanthropist
• Henry George - economist (Philadelphia)
• Martha Graham (1895-1991) - dancer, choreographer (Pittsburgh)
• Alexander Haig - secretary of state (Bala-Cynwyd)
• Henry J. Heinz - industrialist/philanthropist
• Milton S. Hersey - industrialist/philanthropist
• Bob Hoffman - U.S. Olympic coach, businessman, philanthropist, known as the "Father of weight-lifting"
• Dr. George Holtzapple - first doctor to use oxygen to save a patient's life in 1885
• Marilyn Horne - mezzo-soprano (Bradford)
• Lee Iacocca - auto executive (Allentown)
• Reggie Jackson - baseball player (Wyncote)
• Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) - poet (Pittsburgh)
• Gene Kelly - dancer, actor (Pittsburgh)
• Grace Kelly - actress
• Jim Kelly - football player (East Brady)
• Walter C. Kelly - cartoonist
• Gelsey Kirkland - ballerina (Bethlehem)
• S. S. Kresge - merchant (Bald Mount)
• Mario Lanza - actor, singer (Philadelphia)
• Tara Lipinski (1982- ) - Olympic gold medalist figure skater (Philadelphia)
• George C. Marshall - five-star general (Uniontown)
• Mary McCarthy - author
• George Brinton McClellan - general, hero (Philadelphia)
• Margaret Mead - anthropologist (Philadelphia)
• Andrew William Mellon - industrialist, philanthropist (Pittsburgh)
• Tom Mix - actor (Mix Run)
• Ethelbert W. Nevin - composer
• Hezekiah Niles - journalist (Jeffers Ford)
• Arnold Palmer (1929- ) - golfer (Youngstown)
• Maxfield Ferederick Parrish - artist
• Robert E. Peary - explorer (Cresson)
• Man Ray - painter, photographer (Philadelphia)
• Mary Roberts Rinehart - author (Pittsburgh)
• Betsy Griscom Ross (1752-1836) - made the first American Flag (lived in Philadelphia)
• Charles M. Schwab - industrialist
• B. F. Skinner - psychologist (Susquehanna)
• John Sloan - painter (Loch Haven)
• Gertrude Stein - author (Allegheny)
• James Stewart - actor, each year at Christmas his hometown of Indiana is decorated in the theme of It's a Wonderful Life
• John Updike - author (Shillington)
• Honus Wagner - baseball player (Carnegie)
• John Wanamaker - merchant
• Fred Waring - band leader (Tyrone)
• Ethel Waters - singer, actress (Chester)
• Anthony Wayne - military officer (Waynesboro)
• Benjamin West - painter
• Andrew Wyeth (1917- ) - artist (Chadds Ford)

You know you are in Pennsylvania when...

• All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain or animal
• At least 5 people on your block have "electric candles" in most of their windows all year long.
• Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are packed with snow.
• Hearing horses clopping down a paved street doesn't bring you to the window to see what's going on outside.
• It takes you three hours to go to the store for one item, even when you're in a rush, because you have to stop and talk to everyone in town.
• Red Beet Eggs makes your list of top ten favorite foods.
• School closings due to snow take the radio stations half an hour to finish because almost every town has its own school district.
• The local paper covers national and international headlines on one page but requires six pages for sports.
• The municipality buys a Zamboni before a school bus.
• There is a Dairy Queen in every town with a population of 1000 or more.
• The trunk of your car doubles as a deep freeze.
• 'Vacation' means going to Cedar Point or Hershey Park for the weekend.
When it snows they put cinders on the roads instead of sand.
• When someone says 1972, you think "Agnes" and when someone says 1979, you think "TMI."
• When traveling and asked where you are from...you say "P-A" rather than saying "Pennsylvania".
• When you have a craving for a cheesesteak sandwich, water ice, soft pretzels, or TastyKakes you know to go to Philadelphia.
• Words like: gumband; buggy; hoagie; chipped ham; and pop actually means something to you.
• You ask the waitress for "dippy eggs" for breakfast.
• You buy your beer and soda only by the case.
• You call Sloppy Joes "barbecue."
• You can eat, and like, cold pizza (even for breakfast) and know others who do the same.
• You can give directions to Intercourse with a straight face.
• You can stop along the road to buy fruits, vegetables, or crafts on the 'honor system.'
• You can use the phrase 'Fire Hall Wedding' and not even bat an eye.
• You can't go to a Pennsylvania Wedding without hearing the Chicken Dance and at least 5 other Polkas.
• You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend or wife knows how to use them.
• You carry jumper cables in your car.
• You consider Pittsburgh to be 'out west' and you know the fastest way to Philly is the Turnpike.
• You design your Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
• You do things "once," as in "I'll go check in the back room once."
• You don't understand how anyone could watch a football game without either Halupki, Halushki, or Kielbasi.
• You end your sentence with an unnecessary preposition. Example:"Where's my coat at?"
• You find -20F "a little" chilly.
• You have 10 favorite recipes for venison.
• You have an uncontrollable urge to buy bread and milk when you hear the word "snow."
• You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.
• You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.
• You know several people who have hit a deer.
• You know several people who have hit deer more than once.
• You know several places to purchase or that serve Scrapple, Summer Sausage (Lebanon Bologna), and Hot Bacon Dressing.
• You know that a turkey dinner at a firehouse is the most nearly perfect food on earth.
• You know that the top three Pennsylvania sports are bowling, darts and pool.
• You know the four seasons: Winter, Still Winter, Almost Winter, and Construction.
• You know the only way to make good fastnachts is to cook them in lard.
• You know the Penn State cheer.
• You know what "Cow Tipping" and "Snipe Hunting" are.
• You know what a "State Store" is, and your out of state friends find it incredulous that you can't purchase liquor at the mini-mart.
• You know what a Moravian star is and what to do with it.
• You know what REAL pot pie is.
• You know what's knee-high by the Fourth of July.
• You know which leaves make good toilet paper.
• You live within two miles of a plant that makes potato chips, corn chips, pretzels, candy, or ice cream, or that packages turkeys, beans, or bologna.
• You measure distance in minutes.
• You not only have heard of Birch Beer, but you know that it comes in several colors.
• You often switch from "Heat" to "A/C" in the same day.
• You only own three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup.
• You owe more money on your snow mobile than your car.
• You prefer Hershey's Chocolate to Godiva.
• You pronounce "Suite" as SUIT, not SWEET.
• You remember fondly days of youth known as "Snow Days."
• You say the correct pronunciation LANG-kist-er (instead of Lan-CAST-er), and LEB-en-in (instead of Leb-a-NON).
• You say things like, "Outen the lights," "I'm calling off today," and "They're calling for snow."
• You say you're going out to the shed "awhile," instead of "for awhile."
• You see a car running in the parking lot at the store with no one in it, no matter what time the year.
• You see people wearing hunting clothes at social events.
• You think "medium rare" equals well done.
• You think everyone from a bigger city has an accent.
• You think of the major food groups as deer meat, fish, and berries.
• You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and a flannel nightie.
• You think the roads in any other state are smooth.
• You think the start of deer hunting is a national holiday.
• You use a down comforter in the summer.
• Your grandparents drive at 65mph through 13 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.
• Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway.
• Your school classes were cancelled because of cold.
• Your snow blower gets stuck on your roof.
• Your turkey has "filling," not "stuffing" or "dressing."
• You've heard of distelfinks and hex signs.
• You've never met any celebrities.
• You've seen all the biggest bands ten years after they were popular.
• You've seen people wear bib overalls at funerals.
• You actually get these jokes.