The Creation of Iowa...Day 6
On the sixth day, God turned to the Archangel Gabriel and said:
'Today I am going to create a land called Iowa. It will be a land
of outstanding natural beauty. It shall have tall majestic landscapes
full of buffalo, tall grass, and hawks, beautiful skies, forests full of
elk and deer, rich farmland, and kindly* people.'
God continued, 'I shall make the land rich in resources so as to make
the inhabitants prosper. I shall call these inhabitants, Hawkeyes,
and they shall be known as a most friendly people.'
'But Lord,' asked Gabriel, 'don't you think you are being too generous
to these Iowans?'
'Not really,' replied God 'just wait and see the winters I am going to
give them.'
'Today I am going to create a land called Iowa. It will be a land
of outstanding natural beauty. It shall have tall majestic landscapes
full of buffalo, tall grass, and hawks, beautiful skies, forests full of
elk and deer, rich farmland, and kindly* people.'
God continued, 'I shall make the land rich in resources so as to make
the inhabitants prosper. I shall call these inhabitants, Hawkeyes,
and they shall be known as a most friendly people.'
'But Lord,' asked Gabriel, 'don't you think you are being too generous
to these Iowans?'
'Not really,' replied God 'just wait and see the winters I am going to
give them.'
Poor Hawkeyes....the winters in Iowa are especially nasty. Having been raised in North Dakota and lived there for another 10 years after I got married (and had Tom and his sisters) and then lived in Minnesota for a good 10 years and in IOWA for almost 15 years, I think I qualify as a connoisseur of lousy winter weather.
Iowa is nowhere as cold as ND or MN, but it has ICE STORMS, which are totally horble.
After one of these ice storms, I recall CRAWLING on my hands and knees across what was normally the busiest intersection in town to get to the grocery store for milk and bread. It was that slippery, and the intersection had nothing to hold onto.
Go Hawks!!!
*p.s. the original communique had "fair-skinned people" here, but of course, the original inhabitants might not agree with that. I think they'd agree with beautiful if that's what is meant by "fair," but to make it really true to life, i'm calling everyone "kindly." Cuz that's what Iowans are and have been for a long time.
My lovely daughter-in-law, while not Iowa born, got her degree as pharmacist from the U. of Iowa -- does that count? She also drove her car with Iowa Hawkeyes license plates in Indiana and Illinois. Dunno about that now that they're in NV.
ReplyDeletesure that counts! a degree from the University of Iowa in anything is outstanding!!
ReplyDeleteWow - I'm trying to picture you crawling across an intersection to get to the store! In all my years in MN, ND, and now IL, I've never seen anything like that. The librarian in me says I should try to look that up to see the pictures. The D.N.
ReplyDeletelet's have proof, in other words? it's sheer physics....that intersection is at the top of a hill. the road slopes down in four directions. cover it with ice, as often happens in those iowa ice storms (and we did NOT have ice storms in ND or MN except rarely, and iowa has them ALL THE TIME), and you can't walk. if the sanders/salters/plows haven't gone out yet, what are you gonna do? i crawled. there was absolutely no traffic at that point. it wasn't any "storm of the century," just a garden-variety iowa ice storm.
ReplyDelete