I can tell I’m getting used to rural life because yesterday I went to Columbus (Indiana) and it felt like I was in the big city. There were people walking around downtown! And restaurants without drive-ups! And some people were not white!

It was awesome.

I’ve driven through Columbus many times, but I only remember stepping out of my car there once, in 2005, when I was deeply enmeshed in historic theater obsession and I stopped to photograph the Crump.

Pac-Man?

This picture from 2005 makes me realize that I never see old cars like this since Cash for Clunkers.

My library recently entered into a reciprocal borrower agreement with neighboring Bartholomew County, which means I get a free library card in Columbus. So, I went there yesterday to get it. I don’t know how often I will make the 40 minute drive to use the Columbus Library, but I do like to collect library cards. I also wanted to check out their local history room. The Charles & Hazel Layton family lived in Columbus for a short time in the 1930′s.

Once my library business was complete, I spent some time walking around since it was a gorgeous day, and I was really surprised by how nice it was. Columbus has a lovely preserved historic downtown with lots of great old buildings, but it also has this amazing new building called The Commons with a giant indoor playground (just for kids, unfortunately), some neat public art, a performance hall, and community meeting space (free for non-profits). I was kindof amazed. Every town should have a space like this. It certainly would take the pressure off under-funded public libraries to provide meeting space for a whole community.

Columbus suddenly seems like a great place to live. I love Greensburg because it’s rural and quiet, and it’s also equidistant to Indy and Cincinnati, two Midwestern cities that are near and dear to me. Columbus, though, is a great little town, and it’s super close to other great places: Bloomington, Lake Monroe, and Brown County.

I could tell just by walking around how hard the city of Columbus works at making their downtown beautiful. It just looked really nice. It made me happy. They also have a Puccini’s, home of my favorite margharita pizza, which I most certainly did purchase and devour. (The food situation in Greensburg is really bad, so I got pretty excited about this.)

Anyway, here are some photos from my big adventure.

LOVE this building! Currently vacant, but someone seems to be in the process of renovating.

Pretty amazing old ice cream parlor: http://www.zaharakos.com/.
I had some ice cream, which wasn’t that impressive, but the place itself is wonderful. I’d like to go back sometime when it’s not quite so busy.

That whole corner section of The Commons is a playground. If you have little ones, bring them here!

Across the street is Kidcommons, the Community Children’s Museum.

I have visited many war memorials. I have walked through Arlington Cemetery, witnessed the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, and run my hand over the names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. But I never once cried until I unexpectedly stumbled upon this relatively modest memorial in Columbus, Indiana. It’s made up of 25 limestone pillars listing the names of the 171 local veterans who died in America’s 20th Century wars. Carved into the limestone are letters written by these soldiers who died in combat.

I was not expecting this emotional turmoil on my leisurely Columbus stroll. I would like to re-visit sometime when I am more prepared.

They also have a pretty courthouse. (But it’s not like there’s a tree growing out of it or anything.)

I consider my new-found Columbus appreciation to be yet another positive side effect of living in the middle of nowhere. It suddenly looks, to these eyes, like a cultural mecca of the Midwest.