Indiana, Pennsylvania, October 2006
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All Photographs Copyright © 2006 - 2011 by Robert E. PenceRaindrops keep fallin' on my lens.
As I left Coolspring in the beginnings of a drizzle, I noticed a road that I hadn't yet explored. I took a short detour.
Railroad in the sky
I had intended to spend a little time in Punxsutawney, "Weather Capital of the World," but the drizzlehad become a steady rain too intense for photography, so I continued on to Indiana. Indiana,
Pennsylvania is in the Appalachian foothills about an hour northeast of Pittsburgh.
The city is home to Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The old Indiana County Courthouse, circa 1870, and the adjacent original Sheriff's residence and
jail now house offices for First Commonwealth Bank. I was able to look around the first floor of the
courthouse, but not allowed to take pictures. It's done very well, with respect for the original design.
The present courthouse was built in 1968.
Actor Jimmy Stewart came from Indiana. The library next door to the courthouse housesa museum that honors his memory.
IndiGO operates twenty vehicles on hourly and half-hourly intervals, with late-night shuttles on weekends
Preservation in progress. The stones from the bell tower are all individually numberedand stacked neatly on the lawn.
The main downtown intersection still has diagonal crosswalks, and one part of the signal sequence involves lights in both directions turning red so thatpedestrians may cross in any direction. A series of loud electronic chirps sounds when all the lights are red; the audible signal used to be a loud bell.
I remember one of these "scramble" intersections at Wayne and Calhoun Streets in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the 1960s.
Excuse me. "Free Gift" is redundant.
I was first introduced to Rolling Rock in the USAF while stationed at Dover AFB, Delaware.Some folks said it needed to be run through the horse one more time, but I liked it.
College students + lots of bars = weekend late-night bus shuttles?
When last I visited Indiana, in 1995, this was a regular barbershop, I still had some hair, and itneeded trimming. I stopped in and got it taken care of. I consider it loss that old-fashioned barber
shops have become an endangered species, displaced by salons and boutiques.
For a generally attractive town its size, Indiana has a surprising amount of tagging. Some if it even isvisible on the upper levels of occupied business buildings from the main downtown street.
