Kevin Is this heaven? No, it’s Iowa! It’s National Iowa Day 2023. Up until today, I had no idea this was even a thing. I was on the last day of this tour of duty on an assignment I’ve been to before, and helping support a few students in one of the upper grades. At this school, they have a thing called something other than the Daily Huddle. It’s this thing where they all get to talking about something before they start classwork, and today, it was National Iowa Day 2023.
I hate to say this, but this was the first time I heard of this being a thing. For all the talk we get into around these parts about observances and holidays, you’d have thought I’d know all about this. Alas, I didn’t.
Until today, anyways.
In the not-Daily Huddle, the class talked about their favorite things about Iowa. Many mentioned specific events and parks, and a few talked about some of the more obscure things. Some mentioned they didn’t like Iowa for various reasons, and I can totally understand why. I’ll say for sure that Iowa’s got its fair share of problems, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I do have a bit of a beef going on w/ Iowa over those problems. But that’s a post for another time. To keep w/ the spirit of National Iowa Day, I’m gonna focus on what I like instead.
In no specific order, here are my favorite things about Iowa. First up is the Iowa State Fair. Yes, it can get pretty expensive, but over the years, I’ve figured out how to do the fair on the cheap. Advance tickets are the way to go for me, and I get em every year from the store when they go on sale. Better yet, you can show your advance ticket and get half-fare for a round-trip bus ride from any one of the designated stops to the fair gates.
It’s also a great place to load up on school supplies w/ the freebie pens and pencils from the various companies at the Varied Industries building, ngl.
My second favorite thing about Iowa is the Iowa Cubs games in the summer. The last time I went to a Cubs game in person, it was 2019. Since then, I’ve been listening to the games on the radio, and whenever I see there’s a home game, I got the radio on. Just need to get my hands on a tape recorder, since I got some blank tapes knocking around that I’d like to get used up.
3rd on my list is the farmers’ markets. The one in my neighborhood’s been my go-to for the past 7 years, and while I’ve left empty-handed cuz I couldn’t afford it, I never leave disappointed in it. It’s where I get my lenga-lenga, and other great stuff I posted about on the ‘gram. I even still have the bag I got from there when they first started it, and it’s held up great over the years. I’d love to see what they come up w/ in terms of a new bag design, tbh.
I also love the woods in my neighborhood, and the way they look in the spring and summer. Since I have seasonal allergies, I can only appreciate the looks, nothing else, haha. Since it’s a wooded area, there’s bunnies all over the place, and there’s deer. One night, I heard noise outside my bedroom window, and I opened the window to see 2 deer in my backyard, one I came face to face w/ through the window! The other one was toward the edge of the yard, and he sniffed around at something.
At my old house, I’d see deer in the yard all the time too. They loved the hundred-year-old juniper bush in the front yard that’s long since seen better days.
Last on my list, is Casey’s General Store. It’s a local chain of convenience stores, and I remember seeing the commercials on TV as a kid, and a former neighbor of ours raved about them. Problem was, there weren’t any locations in any areas my mom was willing to travel to, so that was the end of that. More locations opened up as time went on, and they became her go-to for gas when the old station that was her be-all, end-all quit selling gas.
A new location opened where the old station used to be, which I was stoked about. I was sad to see the old station gone from a historic standpoint, but on the other hand, it’s probably for the best it’s gone in terms of moving on w/ life.
As I mentioned in the Land Acknowledgement, Iowa is the ancestral homeland to the Baxoje Nation (also referred to as the Iowa Tribe), and the Sauk and Meskwaki Nations. One of the things I’d love to do sometime is visit the Meskwaki Settlement, and go to their pow-wow held every summer.
Speaking of summer, last summer there was a free drive-in movie going on in town, and one of my favorite radio stations was hosting it, and I had the chance to go. It was Field of Dreams. I hoped there’d be spots for us to sit outside or lock our bikes up at instead of just cars, and as luck would have it, that was indeed the case.
I got the bus out to the mall, brought my donut-shaped outdoor blanket, and found a spot to lay it down on in the old parking lot everything was set up at. I was thankful I had on my swimsuit and cover-up, since I heard on a different radio station there was a chance for rain. Either way, it was hot as balls outside, so it didn’t really matter so much to me.
Remember that one time how I talked about movies I somehow never saw? Field of Dreams was one of em for me, until then. I seriously wished I could’ve been able to have y’all w/ me at that drive-in, but this pic’s gonna have to do.
Over to you, readers. Have you been to Iowa before? Lived here at some point? Currently live here? What’s your favorite thing about Iowa? I’d love to hear your thoughts and takeaways, so drop it all like it’s hot, and let’s talk.
