Many an online newspaper comment section has snark about Biden not setting foot in Scranton in decades; not true. A few snips from a long article:
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080901/NEWS02/809010342/1006Hometown friends say senator's Pa. roots are authentic
By KRISTIN HARTY • The News Journal • September 1, 2008
SCRANTON, Pa. -- The cynics insist it's just politics -- that U.S. Sen. Joe Biden's wistful recollections of Scranton are simply a means to an end.
...
But a visit to Biden's old neighborhood suggests there's something authentic behind the rhetoric, an attachment that goes beyond an effort to garner votes.
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Though his father, the late Joe Biden Sr., was born and raised in Delaware, his mother's family lived in Scranton for generations. His great-great-grandfather was an engineer who laid out many of the city's early streets.
"The Finnegans were here for 100 years," said Tom Bell, 65, another of Biden's close childhood friends, who still lives in Scranton.
Jean Finnegan, Biden's mother, joined him onstage Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention in Denver after he accepted the nomination for vice president of the United States. Now 91, she lives with him in Delaware.
"The Finnegans were a very close-knit family who treasured good relationships and friendships," said Bell, an insurance agent who raised four children in Scranton. "They were just a tight family and a good family. And that was how they raised their children."
That could be why Biden never stopped coming home.
"You didn't know he left," said Bell, who attended St. Paul Catholic School with Biden and sat next to him in first and second grades.
Sister Eunice had nicknames for both of them. Biden was "Bi-Bi-Blackbird" because of his stutter; Bell was "sleepy-eyed Bell" because he had trouble staying awake.
After the Bidens moved, Bell remembers Biden coming back to Scranton on weekends and summers as the boys grew up. Biden opens his 2007 book, "Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics," by recalling the frequent visits to the town of his birth.
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From across the Pennsylvania state line, his Scranton friends watched, making trips to Wilmington for rallies and elections, cheering him on.
Always, the friends -- Bell and Kennedy, Larry Orr and especially Charlie Roth, who died of cancer eight years ago -- picked up where they left off.
"I know Joe has a lot of political friends, but I feel like we're really close," said Orr, 65, another of the Green Ridge gang.
When Biden's father died, Orr, Bell and Kennedy traveled to Wilmington for the funeral.
When Roth died, Biden returned to Scranton to deliver the eulogy.
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Earlier, during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night, he called Delaware "my state," and referred to his roots several times as being in "Scranton and Wilmington."
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