Two Gents' Worth
April 29, 2025
I met Iowa’s newest — and one of its only — neighborhood ice cream truck drivers this past Friday night. I was out walking on that lovely evening through the Roosevelt neighborhood in Ames — where we had lived decades ago — when I heard what sounded like music from an ice cream truck. Surely,…
Read More about The Ice Cream Man Cometh
We went back to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines this past Friday to see if things had changed much since we had last been there. Considering the last time we were there was back in 1979 or ’80, you might think things would look a whole lot different. And they likely did —…
Read More about State Fair, Iowa StyleWe’ve just reached, unfortunately, two mid-way points during our summer-long sojourn here in the great heart of the American heartland, Ames, Iowa. This past Wednesday marked the exact half-way point of our stay — and this weekend marks the half-way point of that lovely season of summer. Neither marker is causing us to celebrate, but…
Read More about Those Lazy, Hazy…
There’s nothing quite like a Fourth of July parade in Middle America. Yes, it’s patriotic, but most of them are, no matter where they take place. But here in Ames, you get a different feeling when you watch our Fourth parade. Our parade — which kicked off promptly at 11 this morning — somehow makes…
Read More about A Main Street FourthSummer officially made its way to Ames a week ago, but signs of its impending arrival had been here ever since we drove into town from the West Coast early in June. Summer-like thunderstorms had been rolling their way through these parts on an almost every-other-day basis , leaving us with incredibly lush lawns, fast-growing…
Read More about Summer in the MidwestThunderstorms here in the Heart of the American Heartland — Ames, Iowa — are not for the faint-of-heart. Though we’ve been here only a bit more than a week, we’ve already endured one of those “fasten your seat belts” weather-makers. This one blew in with quite a vengeance last Wednesday afternoon around 5. The sky…
Read More about Midwest Musings, 2018Traveling across country was incredibly difficult back in the early 1800’s. Just imagine — and it’s not easy to do — driving a covered wagon across rutted dirt trails that stretched thousands of miles from the Midwest to the West Coast. It took months, and many of those 19th-century travelers never made it. They had…
Read More about That Midwestern Feeling, AgainThis week back in Fresno — several months after we moved to the Central Coast in retirement — has been busy, indeed. Some of what made it hectic were great get-back-togethers with old friends Al and Bud. Al is one of the people I’ve known longest. We go way back to Hamilton Junior High days…
Read More about Old Gents, Still GabbingMy buddy Bud and I got together yesterday at a Starbucks in northeast Fresno. Bud is the “other guy” whose picture you see on this blog. He and I had not seen each other for a couple of months, since my wife and I pulled up stakes in Fresno and moved to our retirement home…
Read More about Two Old Guys, TalkingIt’s no small thing, leaving the place where you were born and lived for half a century — even if your “new” place is only a bit more than 100 miles from your “old” one. You leave many things behind — including friends and a sense of pride that you had played a part in…
Read More about Living in a New Place