By Felicia A. Petro

Allied News Staff Writer

Grove City is a household name in the country just above us.

I learned this when traveling to Canada last week for a conference to a quaint, lakeside town in Ontario about 330 miles from here.

Although I never heard of Orillia, Orillians had heard of us.

It was ironic, since my Pennsylvania license plate stood out in the sea of Ontario ones at places like Walmart or Tim Hortons – which, by the way, is similar to our Dunkin’ Donuts but is more wildly popular.

Every Orillian had a sincere interest in why my friend, Bridget, and I had traveled that far into the “great white north” for vacation. In fact, people at the conference were outright blessed by it, calling us “the Pennsylvanians.”

We loved the attention, since Americans are typically, well, not as enthusiastic about such things.

We were equally surprised to learn that mentioning our hometown would provoke more conversation: “Oh, yeah, the outlet mall,” was the usual enthusiastic response.

Everyone we met had either shopped at Prime Outlets at Grove City or stopped to lodge at a hotel in Springfield Township, the home of the outlets.

It was kind of odd to us, since Bridget and I agreed that we rarely go to the mall. But we started making a point of mentioning that we were from Grove City, nonetheless, to shamelessly help ourselves feel even more special.

It made us Grove City people feel like the Orillians knew us – even though we had never heard of Orillia before.

The Canadians also liked traveling to America.

They not only shop here – consider clothing is not taxed here, but is taxed 13 percent there – they enjoy visiting closer cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland and New York, and sunnier states like Florida.