Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Since 2007

Latest articles

  • All about the old road to Bloomington

    I’ve finished writing about my Bloomington road trip at my personal Web space. Every dead end and bit of abandoned pavement is described in excruciating detail at the link below. http://www.jimgrey.net/Roads/SR37IndyBloomington/index.htm

  • Wanted by the FBI

    When I was 16, I spent a summer on an exchange program in Krefeld, Germany with 30 other Hoosiers. On the flight over, engine trouble forced us to land in Düsseldorf rather than in Frankfurt as expected. Düsseldorf expected no international flights that day, and so nobody was working in customs. My passport went unstamped;…

  • The old road to Bloomington

    A ride down the old Dixie Highway, former State Road 37, between Indianapolis and Bloomington.

  • Please stand by

    I try to write here about once a week, but a family emergency has thrown me off my pace. A small bleeding tumor was found on my father’s lung last week, and he was sent straight into surgery to have it removed. Dad came through surgery remarkably well and has been recovering faster than expected.…

  • Holding up my hand

    On my first day of Kindergarten, my mother walked with me the half mile to school so I’d know the way. I was a little anxious about meeting so many new children, but only a little anxious because I felt tremendously reassured that Mom was taking me there. When the time came I reached my…

  • My Terre Haute home today

    I was in Terre Haute a couple weeks ago and, of course, drove by the house where I had my first apartment. I thought I’d share what the house looks like today. The apartment entrance is on the far left of the house, below. I was disappointed to see that the house, currently for sale,…

  • Re-integrating joy

    My dad once told me that I was the most joyful little boy he had ever known. During my first few years, he said, I seemed to constantly have a big beaming smile on my face, and everything seemed to make me happy. Now, I’m sure I didn’t enjoy it when I got in trouble…

  • Brushes with greatness

    In the summer of 1986 I drove a rusty brown 1975 Ford Pinto all over northern Indiana delivering papers and small packages for a courier service (owned by my aunt, thank you nepotism). This car came complete with manual steering, manual brakes, and an AM radio with a single speaker mid-dash. The South Bend AM…

  • Merciful invitation

    It’s easy to get a bad impression of God as you leaf through the Old Testament. God said that the natural consequence of sin — of falling short of what God wants from us — is death, just like overeating’s natural consequence is getting fat and not paying the rent’s natural consequence is eviction. It’s…

  • Home alone

    My ex-wife was happiest when she was busy, and so she always had an astonishing to-do list going. Saturday mornings she’d bounce out of bet at six and work hard and fast, a million things to do, all day. She reminded me of the episode of Gilligan’s Island where Mrs. Howell ate the radioactive sugar…

  • Photos from old cameras

    I found some photos I took with a few of the old cameras I had and thought I’d share a few of them. Here’s a photo of my bike and my old friend Brian’s bike, taken in 1981 or 1982 with my Kodak Duaflex II, a fixed-focus twin-lens-reflex camera, in the driveway of the home…

  • I like cameras

    My parents were sure I was headed toward a career in engineering because I liked figuring out how things worked. I could hardly keep my fingers off anything with buttons or knobs. I messed up a few things as a kid by pushing buttons and turning knobs. My great grandmother had a very old TV,…