Berks may not be paradise, but it’s awfully nice

Once again summer has zipped by us with ludicrous speed. If only January and February moved that quickly. Now that summer is almost over, it’s time for a bit of reflection. As we step back from the vortex of daily existence for a moment, we should pause to appreciate why we are blessed to live in Berks County.

Granted, Monaco is a tad nicer but who wants to put up with all that celebrity and yacht traffic? And I’ll concede that Oahu with its tropical forests thicker than Buddha’s belly, luscious beaches, North Shore shock-and-awe waves, incredible landscape and Waikiki’s Manhattan-with-palm-trees charm isn’t too shabby. Of course, locales such as London, Paris, Rome, Prague, Amsterdam, and Hong Kong all have considerable Q ratings if you can put up with the plague of tourists.

Then again, the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere. For instance, you could be living in North Korea.

For those of us living in Berks County, we hardly are marooned in a rather grim location.

Berks County is special because of its captivating natural beauty with breathtaking countrysides not suffocated by sprawl; a centralized location that puts us a long 3-iron shot away from Philadelphia, New York, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and the Jersey and Delaware beaches; relatively low cost of living and traffic congestion; quaint small towns like Boyertown, Kutztown and Hamburg; oodles of attractions, museums, art galleries, performing arts venues, concerts, restaurants, fairs, bike trails, and plenty of history to knock the cobwebs off; the Reading Fightin Phils; the Reading Royals; the Reading Symphony Orchestra; the Reading Pops; the Kutztown Folk Festival; Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest; Reading Blues Fest; the NHRA Keystone Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway; and undoubtedly many others I didn’t mention because I am running low on commas and semi-colons in this sentence.

Oops. I forgot to mention the weather, somewhat surprising because the weather is all people talk about when they don’t know what else to say.

If you’re into the four seasons (not the ones with Frankie Valli), Berks County is the place to be. Our winters seldom imprison us in a stockade of snow or turn us into frozen hams. Our summers usually don’t melt our souls, and this summer definitely hasn’t been drier than high-brow British humor. Granted, our springs are generally too cold but our autumns are usually spectacular.

One more thing of note for those of you not particularly religiously inclined: You can experience this Berks County version of heaven without the bother of putting yourself into a state of grace.