They Start Loaning Pitchforks At 1 PM

Driving north in Missouri, once you see lots of fireworks stands, you know you are about to enter Iowa.

Fireworks, which are legal in Missouri, are illegal in Iowa.  So, enterprising Missourians set up stands on the state line, to lure Iowans south across the border to buy fireworks.

Once you enter Iowa, you notice lots of tidy farms, where every square foot of soil is tilled.  The soil in Iowa is rich, and the farmers are prosperous.  That means Iowa farmers are middle-class, on the same footing as the townspeople.  I think this sense of equality creates a certain can-do spirit.

I saw that can-do spirit when I visited Eldon, Iowa.

Eldon was once a thriving railroad hub, but the railroads left and the town shrank to 900 people.  This reversal of fortune did not stop the town from purchasing the old railroad workers’ bunkhouse to be used as a community center.  It did not stop the town from purchasing the old railroad station and turning it into a museum.  It did not stop the town from renovating their 1891 opera house. 

In Eldon, I drove past the Gothic Apartments and saw signs for Gothic Days.  My mind had a vision of hordes of tattooed teenagers wearing black descending on Eldon for Gothic Days.

But "Gothic" is a tribute to Eldon's gem: the house in Grant Wood's painting "American Gothic".  Eldon knows it is a gem - the town set up a parking lot and a visitors' center for all the tourists who want to be photographed in front of the American Gothic house.

Of course, that means that visitors will want pitchforks for their poses - and the visitors’ center gladly loans out pitchforks.  Unfortunately, I was there on a Sunday morning, and they don't start loaning pitchforks until 1 PM on Sundays.  So, I am pitchfork-less in my photo.

This town has 900 people, about the size of my high school.  Yet, Eldon preserved its history, predicted the needs of camera-toting tourists, and got four of its buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.  That's a lot of can-do spirit.

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com