My Valley Forge Story: Dawn and Frank Spaccarotella

Dawn's handwritten note from 2023 when first sharing her story with the park. NPS/ Dawn and Frank Spaccarotella

We were married November 10, 1973, at Mountain View Gospel Church in Wayne, NJ. After the lunch in the church basement, we changed to street

clothes and took the car trip to Valley Forge, staying in the new Downingtown Inn. It had snowed lightly, so we crunched our way around, visiting the Chapel, the gift shop, where we bought a jar of rose-geranium jelly, which we have never opened and still have!

The Washington Memorial Chapel jam jar form the Cabin Shop, 1973. NPS/ Dawn and Frank Spaccarotella

We stayed until Monday as my husband and I had to return to work. It was the days of gasoline rationing. My husband had just graduated grad school five months earlier, and his first teaching job was waiting two days later. So extra time-oƯ was out of the question, then. But we did return to Valley Forge for our 40th Anniversary in 2013, and again, for our 50th. So, I suppose we enjoyed ourselves. See below re-enactors of Militia (left) and a thumbs-up Ben Franklin!

My husband’s ancestor, Conrad Dreisbach was in the militia from Lehigh Valley, PA. My Post relative was killed at the battle of Acquackanock Landing in NJ, where there was a bridge Washington used to escape to Jockey Hollow, near Morristown, NJ. My female ancestor was a victim of rape at Forty-Fort in PA. So, Dawn’s ancestry is part Seneca. Our family have men who have served in the Civil War, the uprising of Pancho Villa, WWII in both Omaha Beach and the Pacific, in addition to the Revolution.

Dawn and Frank Spaccarotella NPS/Dawn and Frank Spaccarotella

God has blessed our nation and our family, all immigrants, including the Seneca. We worked to achieve a better life and did not expect things to be easy. Real life never is. Those who fought for our Republic knew it. We hope your center’s 50th Anniversary story is a fun-filled one, too!

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely, Dawn and Frank Spaccarotella

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• Valley Forge National Historical Park

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