Richmond, Indiana - my home town

Sept 5 - 15



It was like going back in time to be in Richmond, Indiana where the family left in 1961.

I was about to be a kid again.

Grandma Platfoot's home where my Mom grew up. Spent many happy times here.
 The present owner invited us in for more memories.

                  
 Grandma Puthoff's home on 8th St. sadly neglected now.

She volunteered in St. Andrew's School cafeteria a few blocks away until just two months before she passed away at 84.

Parts of this town of 33K people are struggling due to the economy and other parts are thriving.

       This place is a twin of the house I grew up in that has now been torn down. A 200 year old Dutch Colonial. Gone.

           Lots of green, that's grass --- caused by WATER. 

Homes with acres of lawn. One of Richmond's most successful early businesses was a lawn mover production company where my Dad  got his early tool design experience.

US Hwy 40 aka National Road

President Thomas Jefferson decreed a National Road to link East and West in the country.

National Road came thru Richmond in 1816 when the city was just 11 years old.

Richmond's History Museum is full of inventions by local people:  farm machinery, autos, recording equipment, etc. showing why Richmond for much of the 1900's was the wealthiest city in Indiana per capita.

  The owner of that lawn mower factory ordered his engineer to come up with a design for an auto "because everybody's doing it".  He did and it became the 15th make of auto produced here in the teens.

St. Mary's Church and school where I attended grades 1 - 4

Holy Family Church and school
grades 7 - 8

Bobbie and I took the walking tour of downtown.



Or what remains of it
after an explosion in a gun shop in 1968 took out an entire block and bad remodels took care of some of the other old buildings.

We moved to Calif in 1961 so missed all the excitement.

Today's downtown isn't as interesting. 

My favorite place was the Neff and Neusbaum shoe store where we got our feet x-rayed every chance we got. It's a wonder we have feet now.

The classy Knollenberg's Dept Store had a system of pneumatic tubes that went shooting up to the office and returned with your change. It's a recycle clothing shop now.

 Bobbie is a knitter and liked the yarn shop which is sponsoring a "Yarn Bomb" contest where knitters cover trees, bicycles, and anything visible with a sweater of yarn.

Notice the little knitted bees in this yarn bomb.

 Cool!

      Bobbie surprised me with an early birthday present....a knitted garland of flowers for the Doodle!

                    Bobbie and I camped at the Stone Quarry in New Paris for a night.  We used to swim here as kids. The water so cool and clear, no man made pool is as good.

            Bobbie could have stayed all day just floatin'.

I jumped off the diving board like I used to and nearly drowned, forgot to blow out as I entered the water!

              
That night we made Som'ores at the campsite using pink peeps left from Easter.

Peeps-on-a-stick marshmallow roast. 

PETA people would flip!  Roasted Peeps.
I can only imagine the psychic damage to Girl Scouts.

They were yummy!

Back driveway surfing at Carol Sue's country place in New Paris, Ohio

It was good to see the cousins and do all the things you do when you visit relatives ---eat their food, use their shower, do the laundry, and sit and visit for hours.

This is Carol Sue's grandson, Dalton's, Gr. Pyrenees puppy named Poseidon, Po for short.

Hope you don't mind, Lori, but I gave the stuffed white dog you gave me for the trip to Po. It had done it's job keeping me safe.

Po on the left, stuffed toy on right

   

Po loves his stuffed toy.

As I was leaving Carol Sue decided she needed a puppy, too. Zeus will be a playmate for Po.
.

Turner cousins in beautiful St. Andrews Church.
Ken, Jim, Joan and friend and Aunt in back row.

Stone bridges in Glenn Miller Park built by the CCC during the Depression in the 30s.

No, Lisa, CCC does not mean
cousins, corn, Carol Sue

This natural spring at the park is a popular watering hole
 like the fountains in Rome. 

The Historic Depot District around the old train depot has been restored with wonderful murals.

Built in 1902 by famous architect Daniel Bumham, it was empty for 30 years until recently restored and is now available for lease. It would make a great restaurant.
The building just to the right has a train mural.

I had to look twice to be sure this mural wasn't a real train.

Many of the warehouses have been converted to restaurants and antique shops.

Check out the murals on the building next to the patio of the Fire House BBQ and Blues Restaurant.

You know how when you go back to someplace you knew as a kid and everything seems smaller than you remember?  The Wayne County Court House seems larger than I remember. It is enormous!

Richmond became incorporated in 1806 and the courthouse was built in Romanesque Revival style in 1893.

Richmond was well known in the early to mid 1900s as a recording studio for stars like Gene Autry,  Hoagy Carmichael, and Louie Armstrong. 

Ken Burns documentary on Jazz music devoted a large section to Richmond's recording studio, Genet and Starr Records.

Richmond Senior High where I graduated in 1960 with almost 500 classmates.
Our 55th reunion was held last week.

My favorite memory is Journalism class when Mr. Garrett asked for someone to interview presidential candidate John Kennedy who was in town to speak  at Holy Family School. He wanted an article for the Register, our high school newspaper, on Kennedy's  proposal for young people, the Peace Corps. I volunteered because it was my parish.   I took my Brownie camera, which turned out to have no film, stood in the reception line, shook his hand, and sat to hear his speech. Someone announced he had laryngitis and his speech would be delivered by someone else, so no interview. I think he was really saving his voice for his next big stop, Indianapolis.  Not really disappointed in the way it turned out because at the time he was just another politician.

No, that was not the beginning of my stalking famous people.

Indiana is known for basketball, but Richmond didn't win the state title until 1992, unlike Milan, the tiny school of 161 students who won in 1954.  The movie Hoosiers was made about them.

Reunion committee at Chuck's Sports Bar







                                                                                        Me, Bonnie, Jack, Bill, Linda, Glee Ann

In the 5th grade Barbara and I used to take a sack lunch and ride our bikes out on the country roads all day Saturday in the summer.
We just had to be "home by dark".

 

It was fun catching up with friends at the reunion like Martha, middle, and Sharon and Denis on the right.  None are in the Witness Protection Program (yet) so I had permission to use their photos.

It turns out you can go home again, but home is different and so are you.  And that's a good thing.  Otherwise it would be Groundhog Day every day over and over again.
Home can only live in your memory of the way it used to be.