This should be of interest to anyone who lives in the
Punxsutawney Area and/or is interested in learning more
about its history and entertainment and recreation
oppurtunities in the town's past.

I've included some links associated with Punxsy
at the bottom of Part Two.

The following document is a paper that I researched and wrote for a writing class that I had last spring (1997). The topic I chose, since it had to be oriented toward local history, was the history of Punxsutawney; and namely the history of teenage recreation. This decision was centered around my long-standing opinion that Punxsy doesn't give enough attention to the adolescent age youth living in and around the town.

My original goal was to show that in the past, there was an abundance of youth oriented establishments, activities, and hangouts -which I could then contrast to the present day town. I discovered a lot about the town that I had not known previously and I began to develop a new respect for it. There really were more options for the youth during the 1950's and 1960's, but not as many as I had originally thought. Perhaps the youth then just had a different attitude and opinion of what was "fun". However, I still felt that the lack of options for the town's kids was present and readily apparent.

Since the time that this paper was written a number of changes have taken place in Punxsy. The former Junior High School building was remodeled into a Community Recreation Center. This has opened up many oppurtunities for the teens of the town, staging regular dances and even bringing a "theater" back to the town. This has been a major step, I feel, in the right direction, the return of consideration for the town. There needs to be such positive activities (and I've tried to do my part by staging shows such as Hallowpalooza) in the town for the youth, steering them away from other more negative activities (the underage drinking and drug use has become very evident in town over the last few years -a point I established in an earlier paper that I researched). Hopefully, the town (i.e. the Town Council, The Chamber of Commerce, and advisors) will continue to carry on in this direction now that this first step has been initiated.

Please read the paper and let me know what you think; especially if you are from the area. I'm very interested in what anyone has to say. Thanks.

Proceed to Part One