Cooling Off at Bald Eagle State Park

It was a July day that would become hot and toasty. The afternoon high temperature in the state would turn out to be 99 degrees down around Philly, but only somewhere around 90 in our yard. But before the heat cranked up, we took a little trip to Bald Eagle State Park for a quick swim.

I am not usually much for shooting figures against a landscape, but there is something about a sandy beach scene with people arranged against it that I do like. And so I spent some time both before and after our swim watching people and taking pictures.

I immediately noticed two distinct groups of people when we got there. An Amish woman with about a half-dozen kids of all ages and sizes stood at the edge of the water in the middle of the scene. The children chased each other and took turns submerging themselves, fully clothed, in the water. The tiniest little girl barely left her mama's skirts.

A second group - Mennonite, I think - slopped around in the water, playing with innertubes. The group anchored itself around a matriarchal figure sitting in a beach chair in the right foreground.

Both groups descend from the Anabaptists in the 1500s, and both believe in traditional, simple living. The Amish way of life - which is to say, living separately from society and eschewing most modern conveniences - has been made famous in films such as Harrison Ford's 1985 Witness (the bulk of which was filmed at a farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania).

Interestingly enough, Penn State is a big university with a large and diverse student body, and it is located not far from Bald Eagle State Park. So the park is a common location for university groups to hold picnics and other outdoor events.

While visiting there, my husband and I have often seen groups of international students on such outings. I sometimes wonder what they think of such a rural area. (And what do the plain people think of THEM?) I have to admit that I find the juxtaposition of all of these very different groups - plain people, international students - against this rural scene to be unusually pleasing.

On a hot summer day, we find ourselves more alike than different, I think. United by our desire to cool off against the heat, we all head to the nearest sandy beach to dip our toes in the cool, cool water.

The soundtrack: Eddie Money, Gimme Some Water.