Suddenly Sleepy, State College Exhales As Summer Descends

Along South Garner Street, a fourth-floor fraternity window sat open, swinging back and forth on the breeze, apparently unnoticed, untouched.

At University Drive, a lackadaisical groundhog nibbled dandelions in the new-found calm.

Over on Pugh Street, the line-up of party houses south of East Nittany Avenue sat silent, most of them dark. The downtown bars still had some fair crowds, but there were no lines to get in. On the University Park campus, the HUB-Robeson Center was locked, nary a soul to be found.

Even the downtown parking garages heralded the news. By late evening on Sunday, both the Pugh Street and the Fraser Street garages told the story — each with more than 400 spots available.

You wouldn’t have known from the frosty weekend temperatures, but summer has clearly arrived in State College. The calendar may not say as much, but the relative silence on the streets agrees.

After all, summer here is as much a subdued state of mind as anything else, a suddenly slower, lower-octane way of life.

Ironic thing is, this week — this springtime week, starting yesterday — is probably more summery than summer itself.

That’s because summer — the summer defined by the calendar — has become busier here over the years. Penn State’s summer-session classes have boomed in popularity. More conferences and camps enliven town and campus from May through August, too.

The summer months here just aren’t as sleepy as they once were. Nothing to whine about on that score.

But we still have this week, this one sluggish week between the end of spring final exams and the start of summer-session classes. It’s the week right before commencement. And the loudest thing going is a steady stream of bar tours, as soon-to-graduate seniors drink up one more round in the valley.

For them especially, it’s a perfect time to absorb not only some booze, but also the region they’ve called home for the past four — or five or six — years. If they haven’t been here in the off-season before, it’s a chance to see — to understand — the area’s older, less-transient self.

Most seniors by now have probably hiked Mount Nittany and done the other cliched things you’re supposed to do before graduation. Before they collect their diplomas on Saturday, though, a few off-beat suggestions:

• Go down into the Pattee basement and rummage through some of the old local publications. Grab a random microfilm reel from a few decades back and spend an hour perusing. It’s a wonderful lesson in what town once was — and how its current incarnation emerged.

• Wander up to the third floor of the State College Municipal Building, 243 S. Allen St., and take a look at the well-preserved photo project up there. It’s a remarkable portrait of several blocks of East and West College Avenue, captured decades ago. Much has changed since then; much hasn’t. For one thing, you’ll see no pedestrians with phones glued to their ears. Somehow, they made it.

• If you can find a set of wheels, make your way to Route 45 and head away from town in either direction — east toward Aaronsburg or west toward Spruce Creek. Either direction will illuminate the area’s beautiful agrarian character that set the groundwork for Penn State two centuries ago.

In this week of peace, it’s easier to find our shared history, to stew and reflect thoughtfully in quiet moments. In the silence, in the absence of deadlines and academic stress, it’s an ideal time to contemplate our place in history, all that’s come before and, in that context, what happens next.

Wallow in the calm. Get lost in your own thoughts. For the natives, this week of tranquility arrives just once a year. But for graduating seniors, it may come around but once in a lifetime.

No need to rush. Just soak it up.