Some new photos from Fort Wayne

[rfaspen]

The art installation seen here looks a lot like another piece I've seen that was a tribute to the communist/socialist effort. Hammer and sickle, energy as a lightning bolt through it. I don't think a tribute to communism would go over well in the midwest. Kind of funny.

The artist is a sincere nostalgic for the days before the fall of the iron curtain. Many eastern European countries had some aspects of life and society decline after the fall. I love how the young people have so much hope and energy. Truly the future for these countries. But I feel for the "abandoned" older folks who never even had the option to have a retirement account, or accumulate sufficient savings to live in retirement. Suddenly, the "State" that took care of you vanished. I feel quite bad for those folks. Very nice people, many who appreciate art.

I was in Fort Wayne on Friday... here is a picture of a sculpture that my brother John made that is at the art museum

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[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Scout is the latest cat to patrol the aisles at Hyde Brothers Books in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

She is an incredibly friendly cat; so much so that it was hard photographing her, as she kept wanting to rub against my legs and be petted. Every time I would sit down to get a photo, she would run over to me!

Hyde Brothers is an incredible locally-owned used book store on Wells Street in Fort Wayne. As long as I can remember, they've always had at least one cat in residence.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Last photo of the cat at Hyde Brothers Books in Fort Wayne.

When I made this photo, she was staring at something and wouldn't look at me. After I got the shot, I noticed what had her transfixed. There was a housefly buzzing around in front of her!

 

[dmr]

My one cat loves to hunt flies. He actually eats them too. (_GAG_)

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

My one cat loves to hunt flies. He actually eats them too. (_GAG_)

I think they all love eating bugs. Even the laziest cats I have known ALL loved to catch and eat insects. You're right about flies, though. Gross. Those things eat poop and carry more than 100 diseases and parasites!

Funny story about my old cat, Simba. Simba was a gigantic 23lb longhaired orange fatcat who was born at my parents house around the time I graduated from high school in 1994. He was extremely lazy, and always layed in the same spot in the middle of the kitchen floor.

One day when I was in college, my parents went grocery shopping. When they got home, they sat the bags on the floor while my mom cleared off space on the counter. One of the bags fell over and a COCKROACH ran out of it!

The roach ran right past Simba, and that lazy cat instantly pounced on the roach! Totally out of character for him; it was like someone flipped a switch and put him into "Predator Mode." He had the bug under his front paws and was pulling it into his mouth while my mom and sister freaked out: "Eeew, he's going to eat it!"

He ate it, crunch crunch crunch, then sat up and began smacking his lips like it was the yummiest thing he had ever eaten! My mother says to him; "You nasty creature how can you eat that?" He kept smacking his lips!

I think she was being ungrateful. I think it was very nice of him to eliminate that roach. He ate flies all the time too.

Simba died in 2018 at age 16. He was an awesome cat!

 

[CMur12]

Chris, I really like the photos of Scout at the book store. The one taken from behind very poignantly portrays her role there.

I, too, have a big, fat orange, long-haired cat. His name is "Joey" and he is almost six years old. He was abandoned as a kitten in the parking lot at work and a co-worker found him and brought him right to me. He most recently weighed in at 22.5 lbs. He can be pretty lazy, too, but he has his moments when he tears around the house. He often jumps up into my lap to be cuddled.

- Murray

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

These wind turbines stand in a soybean field south of Township Road 94, near the state line, in Paulding County, Ohio. In the background, you can see the grain elevator in the small town of Edgerton, Indiana.

The wind turbines are part of a huge wind farm along the Ohio side of the state line that stretches across the western edges of Paulding County and Van Wert County.

This is the first of three photographs that I made of the wind farm on a rainy July afternoon.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This old brick farmhouse is on Webster Road, north of Edgerton Road, in rural east Allen County, Indiana. The handmade sign in the front window says: "It's A Girl!"

 

[robert blu]

Hi Chris, first I hope you feel better now and wish you all the best.
Second I desire to thank you for the new photos. Indiana is a place where I have never been and most likely I'll not have opportunity to visit and your photos and texts let me know the place. In some pictures there are similarities with the plain area in north Italy!
Grazie, robert

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Hi Chris, first I hope you feel better now and wish you all the best.
Second I desire to thank you for the new photos. Indiana is a place where I have never been and most likely I'll not have opportunity to visit and your photos and texts let me know the place. In some pictures there are similarities with the plain area in north Italy!
Grazie, robert

Thanks, Robert. My health will never improve, I suffered permanent brain damage from the stroke.

Northern Indiana is probably a lot like northern Italy's plains. Its flat and mostly farmland. Lots of small towns and a midsize city, Fort Wayne, that serves as the main economic and cultural center.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Here is the second of three photos that I made of the windfarm in Ohio a couple weeks ago. This is in Paulding County, Ohio, just east of the Indiana-Ohio state line. The small town in the background is Edgerton, Indiana, which is right on the state line.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Here is the last of the three photographs that I made of the windfarm in Ohio a couple weeks ago.


This wind turbine stands in a hayfield on the Ohio side of State Line Road, between Township Road 94 and State Route 613, in Paulding County, Ohio.


I found it interesting that the entrances to all of the wind turbines (there is a door on the side of the mast) were elevated several feet off the ground, with a little stairway leading from the ground up to the door. You can see it in the crop below:

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I just found some photographs that I made of my grandpa back in 2006, two years before he died, which I had never gotten edited. Here is the first of them.

Grandpa was 81 years old and suffering from early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease when I made this portrait of him standing next to his house on Ellison Road in rural southwest Allen County, Indiana.

 

[MISH]

Very cool, MISH. Wish I'd known, I'd have come out and said hi. No one ever visits Fort Wayne!

I live just up the road in Goshen so I make it to Fort Wayne from time to time. I will let you know some time when I am coming and we can get together. Or let me know if you find yourself up this way, I have a hell of a darkroom and no one to show it off to.
BTW: love the picture of your grandfather, it really strikes a cord with me


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[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I live just up the road in Goshen so I make it to Fort Wayne from time to time. I will let you know some time when I am coming and we can get together. Or let me know if you find yourself up this way, I have a hell of a darkroom and no one to show it off to.
BTW: love the picture of your grandfather, it really strikes a cord with me


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Until a few months ago, I dated a woman who lives in Mishawaka; passed through Goshen every time I went to see her! Took a few photos in Goshen on my trips through there.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

My son and I were driving through the intersection of Coliseum Boulevard and Goshen Road (US-33) in Fort Wayne when we saw this young man panhandling on one of the islands in the middle of the intersection.

His sign says: "Too Ugly To Be A Hooker."

His name is Jason Ball, though he prefers to be called Wanigi, a name he says a Native American friend gave him. Wanigi is from Mishawaka, Indiana but he has traveled all over the midwest. He described himself as "home-free" rather than homeless, but didn't tell me why he was without a home.

After I photographed Wanigi, we talked for a few minutes until a police officer came by and ran us off.

 

[helen.HH]

Always GOOD Stuff... GOOD Stories Chris

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Thanks, Helen. I have a lot more coming; I have been slow in getting my stuff edited and posted.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The second of two portraits that I made of my grandfather, Charles Crawford, on March 27, 2006. He was 81 at the time.