When you amble through the streets of Carlisle, a town of less than 20 000 inhabitants in Cumberland County, PA, you get an impression of a sleepy past. Well maintained and beautifully restored buildings exhibit plaques showing their age.

Quiet porches beckon.

 

 

 

 

People shout friendly Hello’s and Halloween decorations sprout wherever you look.

 

The air smells sweet of cider and pumpkin spices (little do you know that you are also inhaling a pollutant called PM2.5 – because of Carlisle’s  location at the intersection of two major trucking routes (I-81 and I-76), air pollution within the borough often falls within the range considered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.”)

Little do you also know, or at least I did, until I read up on the history of the place, that this small place was involved in major events in US history. Founded in 1751 by American pioneer John Armstrong it soon became headquarters for army expeditions in the French and Indian Wars and Pontiac’s War in 1761. It housed the munitions depot in the American Revolutionary War (which later became the US Army War College which to this day educates officers.)

In 1787, Anti-Federalists instigated a riot in Carlisle in response to a planned march in favor of the United States Constitution. George Washington assembled his troops there during the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. During the Civil war, an army of the Confederate States of America, under General Fitzhugh Lee, attacked and shelled the borough during the Battle of Carlisle on July 1, 1863 as part of the Gettysburg Campaign – Carlisle also served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

 

One of the signers of the Constitution, Benjamin Rush, founded Dickinson College, these days an excellent liberal arts college. (Oh, Wikipedia, what would I do without you….)

 

 

 

None of that is apparent when you walk through quaint alleys, colorful mews, in a town proud of its annual car shows (whose majority of attending car salesmen seemingly decided that my hotel floor was the perfect place to congregate at 3 am in the morning, drinks and all…)

You do notice the large number of old shade trees lining the streets, making it a beautiful green place to walk. Turns out Carlisle has the distinction of being a tree city, which implies having a tree board or department, an  established community ordinance for tree care, a community forestry program with an annual budget of at least $2 per capita and an Arbor Day observance and proclamation. That care for the protection of nature almost lets you forget that Cumberland County votes solidly Republican, straight down the ticket.

I was there for a lovely, lovely wedding; its happiness blotted out, thankfully, all thought of war, constitutions, American politics for a blissful weekend. Taking my breaks, where I can find them.

Here is a folk song from the Civil War era.