My “home” state has had a hard summer.   Most recently it has been in a pretty severe heat wave.  

In June, though, much of Iowa was flooded and was declared to be in a state of emergency.   This photo was sent by my old junior high friend, Lorri.   It depicts a highway just south of Mount   Vernon.   The damage done throughout the state has made it hard on city commuters and farmers alike.

Iowa takes a hit with comedians as being a little podunk or backwards, but it is a beautiful state where things grow easily  in the rich, black soil and summers are sweet.   Kids enjoy a good educational system and  chase lightening bugs in warm weather.   Corn on the cob, in the self-proclaimed “Corn State” is the sweetest you’ll find and I have lots of wonderful relatives who live there,  all city folk!  

I was born in Des Moines and lived there until I was 10.   Then we moved to Davenport for about 3 years, then on to Cedar Rapids, where I spent 8th and 9th grades and a couple of months  of 10th grade.   After I married Dave, we lived in Sioux City for 2 years.   So even though less than 18 years of my life total were spent  in Iowa and my parents and siblings haven’t lived there for more than 30 years, they were important ones for me.   Does that make it my home?   I last passed through there on my way to somewhere else in 1997.  

I read an apt description in an Oprah-recommended novel once, that when you move a lot, “home” isn’t a place, it is a collection of experiences and stories and people.   Where I am “from” sort of changes each time my parents move.   Even though I have never been to Springfield, MO that I recall, they just retired there, so I guess that is “home” now in some ways.   But deep in my heart, I am an “Iowa girl.”

I  wholly and truly love corn on the cob, too…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Plan a trip to go back to Iowa.   Explore roots.   Remember.   Understand.