Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
phone books almost anywhere in Iowa and you get a view. From where I was now I could
lookoutonasweepoflandscapeaboutthesizeofBelgium,buttherewasnothingonitex-
ceptforafewwidelyseparatedfarms,somescatteredstandsoftreesandtwowatertowers,
brilliantsilverglintssignifyingdistant,unseentowns.Faroffinthemiddledistanceacloud
of dust chased a car up a gravel road. The only things that stood out from the landscape
were the grain elevators, but even they looked all the same, and there was nothing much to
distinguish one view from another.
And it's so quiet. Apart from the ceaseless fidgeting of the corn, there is not a sound.
Somebody could sneeze in a house three miles away and you would hear it (“Bless you!”
“Thankyou!”).Itmustnearlydriveyoucrazytolivealifesodevoidofstimulus, whereno
passing airplane ever draws your gaze and no car horns honk, where time shuffles forward
so slowly that you half expect to find the people still watching Ozzie and Harriet on TV
and voting for Eisenhower. (“I don't know how far you folks in Des Moines have got, but
we're only up to 1958 here in Fudd County.”)
Small towns are equally unhelpful in offering distinguishing features. About all that separ-
ates themaretheirnames. Theyalways haveagasstation, agrocerystore,agrainelevator,
aplace selling farmequipment andfertilizers, andsomething improbable likeamicrowave
ovendealeroradrycleaner's,soyoucansaytoyourself,asyouglidethroughtown,“Now
what would they be doing with a dry cleaners in Fungus City?” Every fourth or fifth com-
munity will be a county town, built around a square. A handsome brick courthouse with a
Civil War cannon and a monument to the dead of at least two wars will stand on one side
ofthesquareandontheothersideswillbebusinesses:afive-anddime, aluncheonette, two
banks, a hardware store, a Christian bookstore, a barber's, a couple of hairdressers, a place
selling the sort of men's clothing that only someone from a very small town would wear.
At least two of the businesses will be called Vern's. The central area of the square will be a
park,withfattreesandabandstandandapolewithanAmericanflagandscatteredbenches
full of old men in John Deere caps sitting around talking about the days when they had
somethingelsetodootherthansitaroundandtalkaboutthedayswhentheyhadsomething
else to do. Time in these places creaks along.
ThebestcountytowninIowaisPella,fortymilessoutheastofDesMoines.Pellawasfoun-
dedbyDutchimmigrants andeveryMayitstill holdsabigtulipfestival forwhichtheyget
somebody important like the mayor of The Hague to fly in and praise their bulbs. I used to
like Pella when I was little because many of the residents put little windmills in their front
yards,whichmadeitkindofinteresting.Iwouldn'tsayitmadeitoutstandinglyinteresting,
but you learned from an early age to take what pleasures you could find on any trip across
Iowa. Besides, Pella had a Dairy Queen on the edge of town where my father would some-
