![\"Plaza](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_20180502_120511_596-1024x682.jpg\")
The Detwiller Plaza fountain was built in the 1940s using lighting from the General Electric display at the 1939 World\u2019s Fair in New York City.<\/p>\nI love the rain. I especially love the kind of rain that causes the creek in Dimmick Park to rise and to send the water rushing. Summer is the perfect time for rain; in the fall and winter, you might wish the rain were snow. In the spring, rain can bring a chill when you\u2019re beyond ready for warmer weather. But in summer, rain is right where it belongs.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, where you yourself belong isn\u2019t so abundantly clear. Your life\u2019s seasons don\u2019t always change with the grace of spring\u2019s first flowers, or get your attention with the strong silence of December snow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was born and raised in Hellertown, but during my four years of college in North Carolina, I felt that Hellertown and I had grown apart. When I moved back to Hellertown to earn a Creative Writing master\u2019s degree at DeSales University, I didn\u2019t know what to expect, but there was no time to dwell on it once classes began. I was living on Main Street and needed a place to study, because studying in my noisy and often-interrupted apartment was too distracting. There was only one thing to do: head to the Hellertown library. The library was where, as a kid, I used to sit reading I Spy and Scuppers the Sailor Dog. So I stuffed my books and papers and laptop into my backpack and went to work on my master\u2019s thesis at the Hellertown library. If I needed a break, Miss Andrea was always ready with a smile and a chat. If I felt like shifting focus, I could turn to the 900s and browse the travel guides or maybe scan the headlines in the \u201cMorning Call.\u201d\u00a0And if my mind wandered, it would\u00a0take me to one of my favorite Hellertown spots: the Detwiller Plaza fountain. As a kid, my Dad would stop by the Dunkin across from the plaza on Sunday mornings to pick up a dozen donuts while my siblings and I waited excitedly in our car parked by the fountain. In those days my biggest worry in life was that Dad would forget to pick up a Boston cr\u00e8me donut for me.\u00a0It was thoughts like these that punctuated my hours of study at the library.\u00a0And it was there at the Hellertown Library that my master\u2019s thesis took shape\u2026exactly where it needed to be.<\/p>\n
The Detwiller Plaza fountain was built in the 1940s using lighting from the General Electric display at the 1939 World\u2019s Fair in New York City.<\/p>\n
Soon after, I earned my master\u2019s and presented my thesis successfully. And before I knew it, the time had come for me to apply to graduate school\u2013a step closer to my dream of earning a PhD and teaching university students about the value of poetry. One April day the wind blew a Baylor University acceptance letter (and a lot of anxiety) into my mailbox. Mom and Dad were right there to celebrate with me, get me some Rita\u2019s, and in place of a Boston creme donut, buy me a beer at Lost Tavern Brewing.<\/p>\n
I was looking at five years living in sunny Waco, Texas, where Baylor University is located. Of course I was excited, but there was apprehension, too. Waco\u2019s a long way from home and doesn\u2019t get any of the snowy winters I love so much. But I told myself that if, as a 6 year-old,\u00a0I could make it through the long eight minutes in the car waiting for Dad to come back with my donut, I could, as a 26 year-old, make it through the five years in Waco.<\/p>\n
The move-in date for Baylor was in early July, so I didn\u2019t have much time left in Hellertown.\u00a0I made the most of it, though. I sat with my friends inside the cozy space of Nick\u2019s and Noah\u2019s while a storm blew past. The restaurant had become our monthly Saturday staple, and over pancakes and home fries, we discussed the logistics of a four-day trip to Texas. One day I found myself under the vintage Hellertown post office sign, mailing my last letter from home\u2013a notification to someone in Waco, telling them I\u2019d soon be there to pick up my apartment key.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There will be sunny days on the Baylor U. campus, and there will be rainy days.\u00a0At some point, I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll be walking back to my apartment after morning classes, and there will be a sudden downpour, and I\u2019ll get completely soaked. I\u2019ll enter my apartment, dripping, and have to feed the cat and find my rain boots before gathering books, pencils and laptop for a trip to the campus library. I don\u2019t think that a\u00a0typical day at Baylor will be as stress-free as a stroll in Dimmick, but I believe that I\u2019m meant to be there. And of everything I will learn in the PhD program in Waco, Texas, the most important lesson will be one that, no matter the distance, Hellertown is, was, and always will be my home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
P.S. The Friday before I left, I sat on my porch thinking about everything I\u2019d miss about Hellertown: ice cream from Vassi\u2019s, afternoons at the pool, fireworks at the Dewey carnival. I\u2019d love to hear from Hellertonians who are still enjoying those things, and who are experiencing other Hellertown happenings, both good and bad. Please write to me and let me know what\u2019s going on in my hometown. You can email me at helenrdorothy@gmail.com<\/a>. Goodbye everyone, and thanks for reading!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I love the rain. I especially love the kind of rain that causes the creek in Dimmick Park…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,106054,6077,524,72029,55602,106055,204,1983,36899,28,8345],"class_list":["post-248188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-baylor","tag-column","tag-community","tag-goodbye","tag-graduate-school","tag-helen-behe","tag-hellertown","tag-hometown","tag-local-history","tag-pennsylvania","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}