A Lovely Lunch at Duffy's Tavern in Boalsburg

I like to have lunch with "the old gang" at least once a month. The group was made up of a half-dozen ladies who became fast friends while working together for 20 years or more at Penn State. But then one of us moved to North Carolina upon retirement, so now we are five. On this day, just three of us were able to make it, but we had a fine time indeed!

We had lunch at Duffy's Tavern, on the diamond in Boalsburg, PA, about a 10- to 15-minute drive from State College. The tavern was built in 1819, and originally served as a stagecoach stop, a rest point for weary travelers. The decor features items of historical interest, and as several of the members of our group are history buffs, we feel right at home there. (Friends, food, and history - an unbeatable combination!)

It is a special treat to have lunch out, and on this day, I decided to have a lovely little meal of soup and a house salad with ranch dressing. Everything was delicious. The soup was French onion, and it was absolutely wonderful, every bit as good as the French onion soup that I rave about at the Corner Room in downtown State College.

After lunch, on my way back to work, I snagged just five minutes at the beautiful cemetery by the Zion Lutheran Church, just a few blocks away. I told you last summer about the vandals who broke and knocked over quite a few of the historical tombstone markers, but then the stones were repaired and things were set right again with immense speed and skill by local artisans.

Alas, I did not have time to stroll past the statue of the three ladies celebrating the first Memorial Day, or to visit another favorite Boalsburg haunt, the grounds of the military museum (shown here and here). But there is much to see in Boalsburg, so perhaps I'll get back there on another day a bit later in spring. . . .

In honor of the historic nature of the venue, I wanted the song for this image to be about history. And the one that came to mind was Sam Cooke's Wonderful World ("don't know much about history . . . "), so here it is. Some of you may remember that the song was used to beautiful effect in the 1985 Harrison Ford/Kelly McGillis film Witness, which was filmed in Pennsylvania and has a marvelous Maurice Jarre soundtrack. If you haven't already done so, you really MUST see it.