Joe Paterno, Procession

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

To start my day on Wednesday I went to the statue. The pile of mementos was continuing to grow. Several new ones caught my attention as people circled the area.

I stopped in at the All Sport Museum, which is located in the stadium to find an area where they were asking people to write a favorite memory on a paper cut out of Joe's glasses. They were hanging them on the window in the shape of glasses also.

On the other side of campus a private service was occurring for Joe. After the service a procession would circle through campus and downtown before going to his final resting place. The crowd started to grow as the afternoon wore on. Some brought flowers and some had signs, while these young boys paid tribute to the coach by rolling up their khaki pant legs.

The sunny afternoon started to fade as people lined the street by the stadium, listening to the helicopters circling above waiting for the procession to arrive.

The procession was led by several cop cars, then the royal blue hearse. Behind the hearse was one of the Penn State Blue Buses that the team arrived at football games on. Joe's seat on the bus was left empty, as Sue and the rest of the Paterno family rode on the bus.

College Avenue was lined with people, as the procession turned onto South Atherton.

On my way home from work I saw the stadium still illuminated and was inspired to stop and capture the glow from different locations then I first had.