So Long, Heartland
Autumn has come to us in this great heart of the American heartland, and not just on the calendar. Daytimes here in Ames are now delightfully sunny and cool, with crystal-clear blue skies. Evenings have turned chilly, and there’s a rumor promulgated by the weather bureau (and by KCCI-TV’s ace weather guy, Kurtis Gertz) that we might even see a patch of frost this Friday night. Pumpkins are now on many lawns and porches, and a few energetic residents have even put up Halloween lights that sparkle on these brisk October evenings.
In other words, we are enjoying the very best weather the Midwest has to offer, and the joys of the season the weather brings. Trees are starting to show off their colors, and leaves are falling onto lawns and sidewalks. If you enjoy the sound of leaves being crunched underfoot on autumn mornings — as I do — this is a spectacular time, indeed. The rabbits and squirrels in our Old Town neighborhood are skittering around and about. I don’t know what the rabbits are doing, but the squirrels all seem to have acorns in their mouths when I’m walking by. They know something’s up, and they’re hiding their treasures where they can find them when times get tough, and sub-freezing weather starts closing in on man and beast and squirrel.
Our neighborhood lawns are still incredibly lush and green, courtesy of all the rain that came our way last month and the first week of October. That’s forced neighborhood residents to fire up their lawnmowers these chilly early evenings and do a once-over on their grass. 
Lawn-mowing in Ames is an equal-opportunity event. I’ve seen an equal number of men and women pushing their gas-powered rotaries. A couple of Saturday evenings ago, I walked by a woman who was pushing one of those mowers without an engine. She had a big corner lot, and there was plenty of grass to cut. I complimented her on her energy and told her that once upon a time, long ago, I had to push a mower like that on the corner lot of my family home in Fresno. Yes, seeing this hard-working lady brought back plenty of Fresno memories.
It’s a great time of year here in Ames and the rest of the Midwest. So naturally, we’re leaving this coming Saturday — starting out on the long trek back to our Other Place on the Central Coast of California. It might seem paradoxical for us to take our leave at this particular time of glorious weather, but we have obligations Out West, and friends and neighbors we haven’t seen since June.
Make no mistake — we’ve had an exquisite summer and early autumn here. We’ve loved Ames since the moment we first moved here 40 years ago. But we allowed the winter weather we encountered back then — weather we thought was more suited for polar bears than for the Californians we were and are — to determine our career goals. So we left after a couple of years, and it took us more than three decades to find a way to return to this, the best place we’ve ever lived.
The method we discovered that allowed us to return — at least during the summer months — was simply to keep turning calendar pages, year after year and decade after decade. And voila! We finally got old enough to retire — and when we did, we decided to roll the dice as long as we could. We retired to a small town in California and bought a “summer place” here in Ames. We’ve driven back and forth for the past couple of years, and it’s been as satisfying a retirement experience as we had hoped it would be.
We have been much busier here these past summer and fall weeks than we are Out West the rest of the year. Sharon spent several days each week volunteering at Reiman Gardens on the Iowa State University campus. She was already a fine photographer, and she became an expert on butterflies and other flying creatures. Her photos this summer have been spectacular, and the Reiman folks have featured many of them on their website.
I’ve spent a few early mornings each week at one of our local radio stations, which has kindly let This Old Radio Guy produce and host an hour-long news and talk program. I always hated getting up early — until this particular gig made itself available. I can walk to the station from our place in seven minutes. It’s been dark these past few mornings when I’ve started my trek — but the chill has been exhilarating. I’ve loved being back on the air, live — and working with co-hosts Paul and Maggie was a joy. I will miss them this winter and hope we can all reconvene in the studio next spring.
There’s been much more this summer, of course — plenty of get-togethers with friends at Café Diem on Main Street and at Culver’s and at Noodles — and plenty of beef — yes, beef — at Hickory Park. That restaurant on South Duff Avenue is one of the most famous in the Midwest, and deservedly so, because it’s a great barbecue place. Every day of every week, it is jammed, and that’s part of its considerable charm. Hickory Park serves 15,000 people a week — 15,000! — and no one minds the long lines that are seemingly ever-present. The food never disappoints — and the ice cream desserts are spectacular. Of course, being a university town, Ames has a wide variety of other restaurants to choose from, and choose we did, often. My expanded waistline is proof of that.
This was a special summer to be here because of that phenomenon known as the Iowa caucuses. Every four years, this state plays an outsize role in presidential politics with its first-in-the-nation caucuses. And every Democratic presidential candidate has come to Iowa, and come back again. Many of them have shown up here in Ames. Their favorite stopping spot here has been the aforementioned Café Diem. In the nearby city of Nevada (pronounced “Nuh-VAY-duh,” unlike the western state), the candidates made their way to another coffee shop — the Farm Grounds. During the run-up to the caucuses in Iowa, it’s quite difficult to avoid seeing a presidential candidate. They’re everywhere, and they show up for innumerable meet-and-greets. Yes, we got to see them up-close-and-personal, and one of them — Joe Biden — even took a selfie with us. And I do mean that he took the picture — when I handed him my iPhone. Amazing.
It’s easy to live here in Ames. After all, it’s a smart, safe place with a great university and beautiful old neighborhoods. We have wonderful friends here, and opportunities to do whatever we want — or nothing, if we want to. But winter can be a brute, and we’re still wimps when it comes to low temperatures. So, as the nighttime temperature approaches 30, we’re going to make like 70 (mph) and head south and west on the 35 and 40 (interstates). Along the way, we’ll trek through Abilene, Kansas (to see Ike’s presidential library); Oklahoma City; Amarillo; Gallup; Albuquerque; Kingman; Barstow; and on to Paso Robles. Yes, many of those towns and cities sit alongside old Route 66, and if you already knew that — congratulations. You, too, are old enough to be retired.
Much as we are grateful for the time we’ve spent here in Ames, we’re also grateful to live in our small town Out West. We don’t know much longer we’ll continue to have this best of all possible worlds, and we do not take it for granted, by any means. So for now — so long, Ames — until next spring. We hope.