Some new photos from Fort Wayne

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This abandoned farmhouse is located on a farm on US-33, southeast of Wolf Lake, in Noble County, Indiana.​

The farm itself is still in operation; there were several horses in enclosures next to modern barns behind the house, as well as a lot of modern farm equipment. Only the house was abandoned.​
 
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The antique gas pump in front of this garage is a Gilbarco Calco-Meter pump with Texaco Fire Chief Gasoline signage. Gas is just 49 cents a gallon!​

I photographed it while the sun was setting behind me, as the light was fading away.​

The garage is behind a house on Arbor Avenue in the neighborhood where I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. When I was a teenager, the house was owned by an old man named Cecil Young, who was in his early 80s at the time. Mr. Young was also a photographer, and I spent a lot of time talking to him when I was in high school. The current owners added a porch to the front of the house and placed the gas pump in front of the garage.​
 
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The barn is all that's left of the abandoned Pure Sealed Dairy on Bass Road, just outside Fort Wayne, Indiana. I photographed it at sunset, in the very last light of the day.​

There used to be several other buildings, used for storing and processing the milk, but they were torn down several years ago. The pond full of cattails in the foreground used to have a house next to it, but the house burned down eight or nine years before I made this photograph.​

I think the dairy closed in the mid-1990s, after Pure Sealed and several other dairies in northern Indiana were prosecuted for illegal price-fixing related to milk contracts for public school lunch programs.​
 
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I made this portrait of Mack standing behind our house in Fort Wayne, which used to be my grandparents' house. He was a couple weeks away from turning 19 when I made the photo back in March.
 
Never made it to Roanoke, Chris, as the family kept me busy. Someday I'm going to have to take a real vacation. I did get some photography in, but mostly drive-by shots with my compact digital. And I found a nice Nikon F3 with a Nikkor 135/2.8 AI at the Shelbyville 44 Flea Market.

Nice portrait of Mack. I've seen plenty of operating farms where the houses were abandoned, mostly because it was bought up by some corporation, and they don't care about the living quarters. Due to some quirk in the Indiana tax codes it is better to leave the building standing, than to tear it down.

PF
 
farlymac said:
Never made it to Roanoke, Chris, as the family kept me busy. Someday I'm going to have to take a real vacation. I did get some photography in, but mostly drive-by shots with my compact digital. And I found a nice Nikon F3 with a Nikkor 135/2.8 AI at the Shelbyville 44 Flea Market.

Nice portrait of Mack. I've seen plenty of operating farms where the houses were abandoned, mostly because it was bought up by some corporation, and they don't care about the living quarters. Due to some quirk in the Indiana tax codes it is better to leave the building standing, than to tear it down.

PF
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Did you buy the F3?

Interesting about taxes being the reason to keep the houses.
 
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This wagon with a stuffed toy leopard was pulled behind Richard Robinson's "Veterans For Earned Healthcare" car in the annual Waynedale Memorial Day Parade. The sign on the wagon says:​

"It's a doggone Shame. But, do 'U' treat pets better than vets?"​

I photographed it before the parade yesterday morning in the parking lot of Waynedale United Methodist Church, which was the staging area for the parade. The parade runs north along Old Trail Road, from the church to the Prairie Grove Cemetery, in the Waynedale area of Fort Wayne, Indiana.​

Richard Robinson is a local veteran who has campaigned to keep the Fort Wayne VA Medical Center open. The Department of Veterans Affairs has considered closing it as a cost-cutting measure.​
 
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This little girl was riding her patriotically decorated pedal car in the parking lot of Waynedale United Methodist Church before the start of the annual Waynedale Memorial Day Parade.
 
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Here's another photo I made Monday morning at the Waynedale Memorial Day Parade.

These kids were getting impatient waiting for the parade to begin. They're riding on the Southwest Conservation Club float. SWCC is was founded in Waynedale in 1938, and is located on Bluffton Road, next to Chief Richardville's House.

Waynedale is the part of Fort Wayne where I grew up. I moved back to the area a few years ago. It was once a small town several miles southwest of Fort Wayne, but it was annexed by the growing city in 1957. Waynedale has actually been part of Fort Wayne longer than it was an independent town, but it still looks and feels like a small town.
 
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This family was sitting on Old Trail Road, waiting for the Waynedale Memorial Day Parade to begin. The kids were having fun laughing and playing with the little American flags handed out by a group of veterans.​

The annual parade takes place on Old Trail Road, starting at Waynedale United Methodist Church and ending at the Prairie Grove Cemetery, in the Waynedale area of Fort Wayne, Indiana.​
 
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Some of the spectators watching the Waynedale Memorial Day Parade. They're sitting under an American flag suspended between two utility poles at the corner of Old Trail Road and Waynewood Drive. A lot of the people in the crowd, including the children and woman here, were wearing clothes with the American flag on them.
 
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This 1978 Pontiac Bonneville is Richard Robinson's "Veterans For Earned Healthcare" art car. It was part of the annual Waynedale Memorial Day Parade.​

Mr. Robinson is a local veteran who has campaigned to keep the Fort Wayne VA Medical Center open. The Department of Veterans Affairs has considered closing it as a cost-cutting measure.​

Here are some crops from the image above, showing details from the car:

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This woman was watching the annual Waynedale Memorial Day Parade on Old Trail Road. Her t-shirt says: "America is #1 thanks to our veterans." It is the last of the photos I shot that morning. I'd have shot more, but wasn't feeling well.
 
Raccoons are often more common in Indiana's large cities than in rural areas. My parents, who have a half-acre yard with lots of tall trees in Fort Wayne, have had a number of raccoons living in their yard as long as I can remember.​

The raccoons have had an extortion racket going on for twenty years. Feed us, and we won't overturn your trash cans and spread garbage all over your front yard.​

These little furry animals are very intelligent, and outsmarted my father at every turn as he tried to keep them out of the trash. He tried tying the lids on with rope and bungee cords. He tried putting heavy rocks on top of the cans, and he even bought cans with locking lids. NOTHING worked. The raccoons got in every time.​

Finally, my mother began putting out peanuts, dog food, and fruit for the little gangsters. That stopped the raids on the trash cans!​

One of the female raccoons that lives in the huge oak tree in their backyard had five babies this spring. I was able to photograph her with one of them when they came down to eat peanuts on the evening of June 5, 2016.​


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Yesterday evening, I made this photograph at sunset, looking northwest from South County Line Road, just west of Coverdale Road, in rural southwest Allen County.

South County Line Road is the border between Allen County and Wells County.​
 
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