Knox County Public Library

I created the Facebook group “Vincennes Indiana Remember When” on Feb. 28, 2009. On a whim, I scanned and uploaded a few old photos from my personal collection, created some discussion threads, and invited a few of my historically minded friends to join the group. To my surprise and delight, other people, somehow associated with Vincennes, began asking to join the group. Shortly thereafter, many people began participating in the group by posting photos and adding interesting facts to the discussions accompanying the photos. Today, I am proud to say that the group now has over 21,000 members. There have been many thousands of photos added through the years and seemingly endless comments on many of them.

One thing I have learned over the years is that Vincennes residents love their food! To the out-of-town members a bit, I once posted a photo of a Bobe’s Pizza within the group. The number of comments and likes on that particular post quickly surpassed all other images that had been uploaded to the group up to that point. Another wildly popular post was created by Mindy Minderman. Her parents, Jerry and Midge Minderman, along with Woody and Peg Allen were the first owners of the Frostop in Vincennes. She posted the original Frostop coney recipe and included the story with how the recipe came to be. A short while later, Bill Minderman, as well as members of the Allen family, also chimed in, to the delight of group members. The number of comments and shares on the Frostop posts were nothing short of amazing! Group member Stephen Stalcup suggested to the group that Vincennes should host a “Coneyfest” around homecoming time. What a fantastic idea!