the day began in Chicago, with Jasmine drawing me into her magical world of fairies - I think better than Disney princesses.... glens and hollows and fairy dust - and did you know that tumbleweeds are a particular nemesis?
West we went into Iowa - cornfields, cornfields, soybeans, cornfields (I can almost taste the hi-fructose corn syrup) - still green but grasses beginning to look toasted. We got Lewis onto the Ohio River and heading for St. Louis, where Clark is to catch up with him. Dauntless is the right word for him.
We detoured into the Amana villages - touristy, but interesting - and I got my fried pork tenderloin sandwich and some German-tasting (that little bit of sweet) slaw...which was wonderful. The early settlers were conservative Lutherans, leaving their church in Germany, and coming to NY, then on to Iowa. Communal living in a closed society was how they chose to serve God and live his message. They lived in individual houses , but without kitchens, as there was a communal dining facility. Men at one table, women and children at another , and they were to finish their meals within 15 minutes and not converse. They gave up their communal ways in 1932. And I will guess that God really didn't mind.
Surprised to find that Iowa is gently hilly, with hedgerows and tree thickets - not the miles and miles of cornfields we expected to see- but we are still in the middle of the state in Fort Dodge.
boys sit together, girls together, 15 minutes.. sounds like a high school cafeteria. Have we really made progress? Hope you're getting to sample some corn?
ReplyDelete