IOWA CITY GETAWAY

I got away to Iowa City, home of my alma mater, and hung out with my pal Brad and family for a couple days. I also grabbed an extra day to mosey around on my own and read on the terrace of my hotel. Ah summertime, finishing one book and starting another. I caught a movie at the Film Center (midwest movie mecca) which is attached to my hotel. I’m heading back today but not before breakfast at The Hamburg Inn. Of course I went to Prairie Lights…got outta there with four books, pretty good restraint.

This turned out to the weekend parents dropped off their kids for the new school year. I thought of my mom, who was the one dropping me off in ‘87, driving her powder blue Nissan Stanza with the In A Nuclear Attack, This Car Would Melt bumper sticker. I’ve been back here a few times now, but this time it was with gratitude for that. It was a big deal—the last of her 8 kids going off to college. I wasn’t sensitive to that and scoffed at her hovering care—the little medicine kit she put together, for example.

It was a good place to be for four years—not sure I started young adulthood here—that may have come later. Much later.

Meanwhile, it is 2022 and life is for the livin’. I enjoyed Brad’s intro to Golden Delight Bakery, where he drops about $150 every time he passes through and fills up his chest freezer with Amish goodness. I got a strawberry rhubarb pie. It won’t be getting home totally intact.

We played a round of golf and I hit two of my benchmarks: only lost one ball and didn’t go into double digits on any holes. I used to laugh at my dad’s stiff golf swing and now look at this.