Hazelton, PA Graduation Party

Saturday, we drove up to Hazelton, PA, for a graduation party. My father-in-law's cousin's oldest daughter graduated high school and there was a big throwdown in their back yard for her. It was a nice party. Hazelton, for those who don't know, was one of the coal-mining towns in the "Upstate Pennsylvania". Since no one's really mining coal anymore, many of the small towns in the area have all but collapsed. Many of the towns, in order to survive, have had to create subsidized and low-income housing to maintain any population and, therefore, revenue. Much of the demographic has changed from middle-working-class whites to migrant-working Latino/Latino families. I have no idea about any of the other demographic information, but I figure for most of the "natives" of the area, at least from what I observed, aren't exactly happy with the way the towns seem to be moving. There was a big tourist-town called Jim Thorpe (yes, named after the famous Olympian of folklore) that seemed to be doing quite well for itself. The area, overall, is beautiful. The mountains make for an astonishingly serene paranormic that has few rivals (this observation from my travels around the Americas). I was, unfortunately driving at the time, so I didn't get the opportunity to take any pictures of the landscape, but I will remedy that some time.

Anyway, this post wasn't meant to be a social commentary of Upstate Pennsylvania. It was, however, so show off my kid...so show him off I shall. These were photos from the party. Christopher with his Uncle Patrick and some with Daddy.