Guest Post by Susie K.
We arrived with a full U-Haul to the little brick house where we would plant our family and watch it grow. After the truck was emptied and the pizza was ordered, we started the process of carefully rearranging the contents of our life on new shelves.
We had left the city hustle for a country sprawl. The commute to work no longer involved highways and exit ramps and satellite parking. People made eye contact and smiled as they walked by. Everyone in the post office seemed to be on a first-name basis. It was the opposite of what we had left behind, what we had become accustomed to. It didn’t take very long for us to feel comfortable and content.
It was over ten years ago that my husband and I moved to Ligonier, in the valley of Pennsylvania’s scenic Laurel Highlands. We had recently gotten married, had rented for a while in the city, and decided it was time to choose where we should buy our first home. We had good friends who lived in Ligonier that we had visited often. Its place on the map made sense for its proximity to relatives and work. It was a small, quiet, pretty town, like something out of a Rockwell painting. It seemed like a natural choice. We found a house minutes from the Diamond, the heart of town, that matched most of our needs, and everything fell right into place.
Now that we have children who are immersed in the activities of this town, we see even more the value of the strong sense of community that Ligonier offers. All of us have formed real and meaningful friendships with good people in the area. Our kids look forward to traditional town-wide events, like the Scarecrow Contest in the fall, Light Up Night and the Ice Fest in the wintertime, and Sunday evening band concerts on the Diamond in the summer. We feel fortunate to live so close to Linn Run, Laurel Hill and Ohiopyle State Parks, taking family treks to these spots often, even in mid-winter for snowy hikes.
Our family is thriving in Ligonier, and so far we haven’t found a better option than our little brick house. But if we ever do pack our lives into another U-Haul, we don’t plan on moving outside of Ligonier. The community we have surrounding us here in this little town is part of our family success story. It’s one of the best decisions we’ve made.
Comments