Hello, Marietta! I’m excited to announce that The Marietta Traveler (MT) will be starting a new semiregular column that will be entirely dependent and centered around what makes Marietta tick… you! We, the team for MT, feel that it is important that we give the members of the community as many chances to express themselves as possible and to share their positive experiences with others. Thus, this new column, Meeting Marietta, will be based on first person accounts of how members of the community came to be a part of Marietta. We at MT consider this to be semiregular because it depends on the participation of our readers. Any submissions for this column, including two pictures, can be submitted to awj101@yahoo.com.
Please enjoy learning about fellow members of the community and don’t hesitate to share your story!
Without further introduction, our first Meeting Marietta submission:
Meeting Marietta #1 Marietta Is Where Our Heart
Is Written By Trisha Ries I’ve always strived to find that niche in life, that place where I belonged. I guess part of that stemmed from life experiences I have had growing up; being bullied, not being part of “that crowd”, losing a very dear loved one at a young age, etc. I am nobody special, but I knew a long time ago that I had to march to the beat of my own drum. If I needed to find my lost piece, I needed to get off my keister and find it. Who knew it would only take me 30 years?
I grew up a hop, skip, and a rather long jump away in Lebanon Pennsylvania. My childhood home was just mere blocks from a rail road track, and as a kid I would walk down to the crick to catch crayfish. As a teen I walked to the same crick to smoke and drink behind my parents back. Lebanon was a slightly different scene; you were either a good kid or a bad kid. There was no in between. I guess I fell into the latter, but I didn’t feel “bad” I was just bored. I yearned for an adventure, and I tasted it when I came to Lancaster with a friend just on a mere shopping trip. I fell in love with the shops like Pop and Zap, I fell in love with the music scene, I fell in love with the art! I craved Lancaster like a drug, and knew that one day I would come to stay.
I moved to Lancaster in 2002, living right outside of Millersville University on Wabank Road. I ventured my way to the new apartment when suddenly my car broke down in the middle of 741. I watched as cars whizzed by me and I felt like I had made the biggest mistake in my life. Tears still streaming down my face, I started pushing my car on my own to the side of the road. Finally, someone had stopped and helped me finish the task, even offered me their phone to use to call a tow truck and my new roommate. They were also kind enough to give me a tissue, a pat on the shoulder, and a “welcome to Lancaster.” I didn’t sleep well that night. In fact, I never slept well at all.
My roommates, who were friends for several years prior to moving, weren’t the people I thought they were. I would come home from work to the typical college life stereotype. I needed an out from the life I was subject to growing up, and they needed an ounce of an excuse to drink until 3 a.m. every night. The white noise of the television in my room hardly muted the drunken slurs that crept underneath my door.
I needed to go out and meet new people, and I found them at Coconuts. These were my people! The movie geeks, the music nerds, and the art enthusiasts. We would have dance parties in each other’s living rooms, go sit and paint in the park for hours, find a dive bar and sing karaoke, and get into fun (and sometimes heated) debates over what was the better mob film; Goodfellas or Casino. I knew it wouldn’t last forever; my friends were graduating art school, I left Coconuts and started working at That Fish Place – That Pet Place, people were getting married and having kids. Suddenly I was an official member of the Adults Only club, and I hated it.
Pieces started to fall into place back in 2010 when I met my now husband Jack. He was quirky, geeky, nerdy, and funny. He was my complete package of handsome goodness that I didn’t know I wanted. We began looking for apartments, and found one that I was convinced was too good to be true in Marietta. We called and made an appointment to look at the apartment the next day. Granted, we have been to a friend’s house in Marietta but we have yet to really experience the wonderment that is this small river town. When we pulled up to view the apartment, I knew in my heart of hearts we found exactly what we were looking for. Sure enough lady luck was on our side, and by March 2011 it was ours.
Moving day was upon us, and even though it was abnormally warm for the season, a freak snow dusting couldn’t retard my excitement. Within five hours Jack and my life came crashing in box by box. After we dropped the moving van off, we decided to take a walk around, and see what Marietta was all about. I could hardly contain myself when I saw the line of bare cherry blossom trees lining up Front Street. I closed my eyes, and pictured how gorgeous Spring would be. Jack and I slowly began to realize that Marietta catered to both of us; his love of local history and my love of all things vintage, Americana, and primitive deco. We soon found ourselves at a local watering hole, where a now familiar “what can I get you, hon?” turned into a night of being introduced to several local townies with open arms. We walked home feeling welcomed, a feeling I personally have not felt before this moment.
When we finally hit the sack, exhausted by the day, I felt full; full of excitement, full of genuine human kindness, and full of new friendships. Jack finished setting up the television and DVD player so that we could fall asleep, and it was at that moment I heard the train. I was out before Jack even had the chance to hit play, and it was the best night of sleep I have had in 9 years.