Last updated: May 6, 2026
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My Valley Forge Story: Dawn and Frank Spaccarotella
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!
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.
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