Where in the World is the Box?: ENOLA, DUNCANNON, AND LINGLESTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA

The Box waits patiently at Leonard's Oak World.

This past Monday, Susanne and I drove to the Summerdale Diner in Enola to meet my sister Rachel, her husband Jack, and my sister-in-law Wanda for brunch and conversation. And converse we did! We hadn't all been together for some time, so there was a lot of catching up to do.

I think we were the last people to leave from the lunch crowd, so I am sure the servers were happy to see us go and start getting ready for the dinner crowd. I counted fourteen cobalt-blue glasses on the table -- signs of the water, diet Pepsi, and iced tea that kept us going.

With all the bad weather in recent weeks, we were feeling a little bit of cabin fever, so instead of going right home, we decided to take a ride up the river to an antiques mall. I could swear I heard the Box hum a little tune as we took off and headed up Rts. 11 & 15 towards Duncannon.

Near Marysville, we passed the notable Rockville Bridge, longest stone arch railroad bridge in the world; zoomed by the famous Lady Finger bakery; then stopped for the only traffic light in all of Perry County. From there it was smooth sailing along the frozen river to Duncannon.


From log to roll-top desk. What a machine! (Click to enlarge.)

Part way there, we pulled into the parking lot of an old barn full of antiques, only to find out it was closed until March! All that good old junk sitting in there, and no way to get at it. There are some French drinking glasses, the kind you see in all the French cafés, that I would like to buy, you know, because I really need them.

Well, we headed with high hopes a few miles further to the old sled factory, another antiques mall. This one was closed, too, but only until Wednesday!

"Oh, well," we said, "it was nice to be out and about." We took a tour of Duncannon's back streets and discovered some interesting old buildings and wondered at the number of churches found in such a small town.

Reversing direction, we drove south on 11&15, veering suddenly into the parking lot at Leonard's Oak World, a place we had often passed but never visited, mainly because we don't like oak furniture. However, their signs promised so much more! So we parked near a lone car and entered to find a rather nice selection of "country-style" furniture. Susanne searched for a small table to use beside a bed, and I was interested in a wooden island to replace the table in our kitchen. That would give me a place to work that is higher than the counters and therefore more comfortable for a tall person like me. We could also sit at it for informal meals as we watch our new flatscreen television -- if we ever break down and buy one! I guess I am sort of waiting until the price comes down to, say, $10.00.

We didn't buy any furniture but took measurements and came away with a nice catalog. The people were really friendly, and we really enjoyed our visit with Leonard. Oh, and there was that cool little machine that some clever woodworker invented. You put a log in one side, set the dial, and out comes a completely finished roll-top desk!

Kitchen island.

By now it was time to be thinking about dinner. Our goal is never to feel a hunger pang, you know, so we have to think ahead. After very careful calculations, we decided that there were two choices -- the Pizza Grille in Lemoyne, where they have that wonderful chopped salad; or the Eagle Hotel, which offers "the best wings anywhere" on the Square in Linglestown. Both serve a good cheese steak sandwich, too. We settled on the Eagle, piled into the Box, and headed south on 11 &15, east on I-81 across the mighty Susquehanna River, continuing on to the Linglestown exit, and finally landing in the parking lot at the Eagle.

From 1981 to 1991, we lived at the other end of the block from the Eagle. Our kids grew up playing with Bill and Tessy, whose parents owned the Eagle. Once we were invited to the Greek "name day" party for the kids' dad. It was a lot of fun, with great food, of course. Now Bill and his wife run the "hotel," and it's quite popular around here.

Susanne leads the way to the Eagle.

We ordered our cheese steak and quickly decided that we should have ordered one to share. (We did have the second half the next day for lunch.) Susanne had yet more iced tea, and I went a little wild and ordered a Tröegs’ Nugget Nectar Ale. You know, the one that "will take hopheads to nirvana with a heady collection of Nugget, Warrior, and Tomahawk hops. Starting with the same base ingredients of [Troeg's] flagship HopBack Amber Ale, Nugget Nectar intensifies the malt and hop flavors to create an explosive hop experience."

This seems to be one of the beers of choice of such young(ish) turks as my son Matt and our friend Mike, whose company built our back porch and patios. I drank responsibly, of course, nursing the drink until draining the last drop. It was then that I found out how wild I had been. That beer cost $6.00! The last beer I paid for cost about 25 cents! Nirvana ain't cheap!

We packed up our leftovers, stood out front for a moment soaking in the atmosphere on the newly redesigned Square, and then headed home to a nice warm house and an evening of junky TV shows. On the way home I recalled the old Linglestown knee-slapper: Question: "What do people in Linglestown do for fun on a Saturday night?" Answer: "We go down to the Eagle Hotel and see who got the room." Yuk, yuk!

These swivel-top stools go with the island --

for additional money, of course.