Erie, PA
Saturday, July 21st

I woke up and went to my cousin Matt’s softball tourney. The tournament was the Pennsylvania modified pitch softball championship. If you were wondering, modified pitch rules in essence state that the pitching can be as fast as the pitcher can “bring it” but the are limitations to their motion, which limits the spin and therefore decreases the difficulty of the pitch to hit. He plays with a bunch of guys who vary in age from Matt, who is 18, to guys in their early forties. It is pretty competitive and fun to watch. The tourney was double elimination and all the games were going to be at two fields on the east side of Erie.

Every town has their direction driven demarcations of what is the good and bad parts of the city. Most of them take on a pejorative of some sort. Well in Erie that is the “East side”. Well that is the “old neighborhood” for my family. Now mind you when my dad was growing up the east side was simply the blue collar part of town where most of the folks were only one or two generations removed from a trip from Europe. They all had great manufacturing jobs at the machine shops, steel mills, and of course the paper mill, which was the largest employer in Erie and where all of males in family worked for at one time or another. Well as those jobs went away the neighborhoods suffered. My first residence in Erie was the house that my parents rented from and eventually bought from my grandparents. Over the last few years their have been some attempts to revive the area but with the mill gone and little prospect for solid jobs that is a difficult task. We moved from the east side when I was in the first grade.

After the first game I went to visit with my cousin Jules and her husband Mikey Boam. They were having a garage sale so we just kind of hung out for about an hour before I went back to the east side to meet up with Aunt Sue and Uncle Dave for lunch. On Aunt Sue’s excellent suggestion we went to a place called Clancy’s on East Avenue. The place dates back to the 1800’s. The wood work is excellent and the ceiling has the old school tin tiles on it. There was tons of great stuff on the wall. The original owners were German and then eventually through different owners it became Clancy’s. The current owners are friends of the family. Mr. Lundstrom is about my dad’s age and he bought about fifteen years ago when the paper mill shut down and he like thousands of others lost their jobs. Mr. Lundstrom’s dad worked with my Grandpa Stephany at the mill. The three of us shared a pitcher and had sandwiches. I chose the pizza sub. Although certainly not unique to Erie, Pa this culinary delight is certainly done quite well here and Clancy’s version is certainly no exception. Mr. Lundstrom came out from the kitchen and hung out for a while as he and my uncle Dave shared stories of life on the East side and the mill days.

A picture of Clancy's from the early 1900's

Clancy's today

After our lunch we went to Matt’s next game which was played at Roman Blaszczyk Field. Not sure who this was but it shows the heavy Polish influence on the east side of Erie. The group that had it dedicated to Roman “let’s buy a vowel” Blaszczyk was the Moniuszko Club of Erie, one of the many polish clubs on the east side. Matt’s team lost a close game where the umpires lost control of the game. The team, Parker Pools, is sponsored by a woman named Shirley who in addition to keeping the book provides a substantial food spread after each and every game. Her husband passed away years ago and the team has become “her boys”.

Evidence of the Polish influence on Erie's east side

Shirley and "her boys"

For dinner, yes more food, I had a heated combination sub from Theresa’s Deli. A visit to Erie that doesn’t include a stop here simply did not happen. One time I risked missing a flight out of Erie to grab a combo sub. I was eating it during my layover in Detroit and a guy came and asked me, “Are you from Erie?” I responded affirmatively and he subsequently said, “That has to be a Theresa’s sub, man I haven’t had one of those in years.” Suffice to say the sammies are good luvin’. I took a “nap” for a couple hours. Not really sure you can call it a nap when you go to bed at 7pm. As requested Aunt Sue woke me up around 9:30pm so I could over to another cousin’s house, Jon and his wife Lisa. They just moved into a new house about a week ago and it is quite nice. They are expecting their first child in January. I have to say that all of my cousins have married people who are over the top, sick, twisted, hilarious, and really out of control. They REALLY fit in well with out family.