Editorial: Right to remember 'close-knit town' destroyed by flood

When more than 200 ex-residents of Robindale reunited 40 years after the town was destroyed by the 1977 flood, the love they still had for their former home was obvious.

They shared memories of playing games in the streets, spending summer days at the baseball field, crossing a suspension bridge over the Conemaugh River to go to Seward for pizza. There was a fair in the summer and a community Christmas tree in the winter.

“It was such a close-knit town,” said Jeff Harding, an organizer of that 2017 reunion. “Everyone was like one family.”

Harding said then that he hoped the gathering would help the children and grandchildren of former Robindale residents, many too young to remember the town or the flood, understand what it meant to their parents and grandparents.

“We’re hoping that they get some part of what old Robindale was,” he said. “If they weren’t part of Robindale, they really don’t know it, just what we — grandparents, parents — have told them. That’s unfortunate because it was such a great place.”

Seven years after that reunion, the effort to preserve those memories of Robindale took another step forward when a stretch of Plant Road at the former town site was designated as the Robindale Memorial Highway.

Nearly 100 former residents attended a dedication ceremony — an impressive number nearly a half-century after the town was wiped off the map.

“This is more than just a layer of concrete,” said Lynn Harding, 73, of the road. “It’s where we rode our bikes … and hitchhiked to football practice. It’s (what’s left of) the neighborhood where we used to live.”

A highway sign may not seem like much — but it has a value like those of the signs for bridges named after U.S. military members who were killed in action.

It keeps the name visible to people who drive by it and may inspire some of them to research the relevant history. And for those already familiar with that history, it provides some reassurance that the namesake of the bridge or the road has not been forgotten.

State Rep. Jim Struzzi, R-Indiana, was right when he said the fond memories shared at the ceremony illustrate why Robindale deserves to have a “memorial highway” named after it.

One of the former residents who attended the ceremony, Karen Franklin Coffman, echoed Jeff Harding’s words from seven years earlier.

“Robindale was always like one big family,” she said.