If you’re a car guy, the Carlisle Fairgrounds has a show almost every weekend - Corvettes, Ford, Dodge, then if summer show with tons of classic and vintage cars. It keeps things hopping in downtown. There are a number of street fairs and a Farmers’ Market every Wednesday. Summers also have First Fridays downtown with different themes. Fireworks on the Fourth of July.

If you like to fish, bring your gear because the streams around here are pretty decent. You just need a license.

They just built a (small) skate park, plus there is a public pool and a YMCA (newly renovated.) Kids from Dickinson and Penn State do stick around for the summer, but not a lot. You’ll probably meet people mostly through work and your neighborhood, which is what most of us do.

What do you mean by “night life”? If you’re talking place you can go with friends, have food, or snacks and adult beverages and talk, Carlisle has you covered. As others pointed out, there’s microbrews, bars and restaurants with liquor licenses.

If you’re talking live bands and dancing, that’s Harrisburg (about 30 minutes away.)

It’s about two hours to DC, Philly and Baltimore, where you can see major concerts/museums/events. Though a fair few decent acts show up at Hershey Stadium (40-min drive), HMAC and Sunoco Theatre (Harrisburg). Touring casts of Broadway shows come to the Hershey Theatre. SIX, Hadestown and Come from Away are playing this season.

OH. And in case no one mentioned it, you can’t exactly buy wine/beer in the grocery store. And all liquor must be bought at the state store (PA Wine and Spirits shop.) You can get wine/beer/six-packs at the grocery store and Sheetz (convenience store), but they have to paid for separately.