Cheap Food and Drink

One of the great things about Penn State … well, State College, actually … is the great food and drink deals available to the hungry and thirsty students. Here are some of my favorites from 1994:

1. Pizza Pie North – this pizza place may not have had the best pizza around (sometimes a little soggy, oddly enough), but the price was unbeatable. A large cheese pizza for $3.99 – and that included delivery! Oh happy days!

2. The Café 210 West – On Sunday nights, the Café had 5-cent wing night, and also $1.00 Yuengling bottles. The wings were small, but for $1.00, you could have an entire meal. I’m getting fatter just thinking about it.

3. The Den – On Thursday nights, the Den had $1.00 pitchers of beer nights. Even with the $2.00 cover, you got one free pitcher. Even though the pitchers were a little smaller than standard size, it was still well worth the investment. I still have trouble forking out $8 or more for pitchers because of this.

4. The Gingerbread Man – On Wednesday nights, they had $0.50 drafts of Black and Tan. I believe they had 10-cent wing night as well, but I can’t remember (black and tan knocks one on his/her ass).

5. Uni Mart – On Tuesdays, they had 19-cent hot dogs. This was lunch and dinner for under a buck. One of the few reasons to look forward to Tuesdays.

There were many other great specials. If you remember some, pass them along.

Why Mont Alto?

This is probably around the time I made my choice on going to Penn State Mont Alto. I remember limiting my choices to three or four schools – Penn State Mont Alto, Drexel, Widener, and Salisbury State.

The first school I looked at was Drexel. The campus was very deceiving because it looked very regal and classic, which was a plus. However, it was surrounded on all sides by a part of Philadelphia that not even Mike Tyson would want to get lost in. The price of the education at Drexel was a little high, but the school had a great reputation. Plus, one would have to buy a computer (an Apple) in order to go there (at the time, computers were at most optional for students at most schools). I just never got a good feel for going to Drexel. Maybe it was because of stats like this – the guy to girl ratio at Drexel was 6-to-1. Or maybe it was that they couldn’t guarantee that your car would be safe, even on the campus.

Next, we looked at Widener University. Again, the price was a little high, and truthfully – it was a little too close to home. I really wanted to get away from Delaware County, and meet new people. I knew that if I went to Widener, I would’ve been hanging out with a lot of Interboro people – and even though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I really thought it was time for me to experience another place.

I looked briefly into Salisbury State, but the place was never really a place I took seriously. After all, the name sounded like something I would order at Outback (Hey-yo!). I also looked at West Chester, but I really didn’t get a good vibe out of it.

I finally took a trip to Penn State Mont Alto, thanks to the suggestion of my guidance counselor. The campus was far away from Delco – approximately three hours to be exact. It was much more rural than the surroundings I was used to. In Glenolden, I could walk 10 minutes in order to get to a mall, but in Mont Alto, it would take a 25-minute drive to reach a shopping area. Hunting, woodsmen games, horticulture, and forestry were big-time in Mont Alto. Sometimes people “hunted” doves if they traveled a little in Delaware County.

So, why would I ever choose a place like this to go to? (A) it was far enough away that I could find new friends, yet close enough that I could keep in touch with old friends. (B) They had a soccer team that wasn’t very good – which means I could gain confidence and flourish (which ended up happening to an extent). (C) When I toured the dorm rooms, we went into a room where a guy was playing Atari and listening to the Stones – if there was ever a sign that I should choose Penn State Mont Alto, that was it.

I don’t think it took more than a week for me to apply, and after a month, I was accepted to Penn State Mont Alto (I was also accepted to Drexel and Widener, but I just couldn’t bring myself to go there).