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610 Day, or June 10, is also known as “610 Day,” which is a nod to the 610 area code. For a lot of us, 610 still feels like the Lehigh Valley area code, even though it came after the 215 days and before 484 entered the chat.
A little phone-number history: 610 was placed into service in January 1994 after being split from the 215 area code, which had covered much of southeastern Pennsylvania since 1947. The 484 overlay was introduced in June 1999 for the same region, which meant 10-digit dialing became part of local life. Today, 610 and 484 cover the same general region, which includes the Lehigh Valley, with 835 also added in 2022.
Anyway, on 610 Day, it is fun to give a shoutout to the Lehigh Valley. So we asked people on Facebook: If you had to celebrate 610 Day in the most “Lehigh Valley” way possible, what would it be?
The answers were exactly what you would expect, which is to say they were extremely specific, slightly chaotic, and deeply local.
Route 22 was the unofficial winner. Out of the 100+ comments, we counted roughly 20 mentions of Route 22, traffic, merging, fender benders, rubbernecking, potholes, or general driving-related suffering. “Sit in traffic on 22” showed up almost immediately, and several people found ways to combine 22 with hot dogs, complaints, and poor merging etiquette.
Yocco’s (and hot dogs in general) was not far behind. Depending on whether you count “Yocco’s,” “Yoccos,” and the occasional “Yacco’s” (I hate it) as the same sacred hot dog institution, it came up around 20 times. Some people kept it simple with “Yocco’s hot dogs.” Others built full itineraries around hot dogs, chocolate milk, A-Treat, Yuengling, WZZO, and traffic.
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Food in general dominated the discussion. Cheesesteaks with sauce, pierogies, tomato pie, halupkis, scrapple, Wawa hoagies, Jimmy’s hot dogs, Potts, Josh Early, A-Treat, Yuengling, and chocolate milk all made appearances. A few people suggested the true 610 experience is eating a cheesesteak with marinara while complaining there is nothing to do around here.
The nostalgia crowd also showed up. Several commenters remembered when the Valley was still 215, while others gave shoutouts to places and references like Hess’s, Laneco, Whitehall Mall, Orange Julius, Rocky Horror at the Lehigh Valley Mall movie theater, Bushkill Park, the Fish Hatchery, Shankweiler’s, the Roxy, and the old Service Electric jingle.
There were some sincere ones, too! Suggestions included tubing on the Lehigh River with a cooler, going to an IronPigs game, hanging out at Lehigh Parkway, walking in local parks, going to SteelStacks, visiting the Allentown Fairgrounds flea market, climbing toward the Bethlehem Star, and sitting on a porch talking to neighbors.
Warehouses came up, because of course they did. So did data centers, luxury apartments, transplants, New Jersey drivers, parking spot behavior, Musikfest complaints, and the timeless local art of blaming everything on someone from somewhere else.
Some of our favorite answers included:
- “Sit in traffic on 22.”
- “Build a warehouse!”
- “Get an LV cheesesteak and pierogies for lunch, then come to the SouthSide Film Festival opening night screening.”
- “Eat a cheesesteak with extra sauce and blame all my problems on people from NJ.”
- “Y’all didn’t even talk about tomato pie??? Not real 610ers.”
- “Tubing on the Lehigh River with a Styrofoam cooler of Yuengling tied to your foot.”
- “Go to the Brass Rail. Then grab some Malone’s.”
- “Definitely spending time in our beautiful parks, walking, playing sports, fishing, picnicking and stopping for ice cream on the way home. Then sit on the porch and talk to neighbors.”
- “Eat a Yocco’s and Potts hot dog simultaneously while being stuck in traffic on 22.”
- “Sit in traffic on 22 while drinking an A-Treat and eating Yocco’s Hot Dogs with WZZO blasting.”
- “Complain about being in the Valley. Yet never leave.”
Happy 610 Day, Lehigh Valley. May your hot dogs be kinda fresh, your cheesesteaks be sauced, your river full of tubes, and your trip across Route 22 be shorter than expected.
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