My long romance with Iowa…
…and the biggest changes I’ve seen in it over about five decades. Others I’ve missed?
URBANDALE, Iowa – I’m about to close the door on my sidelight career of public speaking. After 45 years of it, from border to border all over Iowa, I think our good people have heard more than enough from me.
But there was one recently I couldn’t decline. Lynn Vorbrich, retired executive at MidAmerican Energy in Des Moines and long a friend of my wife Mary Riche, asked if I’d be the speaker at the annual Dickinson Lecture held for residents of the Deerfield Retirement Community in this suburb northwest of Des Moines. The lecture, endowed by the late Des Moines business leader L. Call Dickinson Jr., who helped develop Deerfield, is part of an elegant banquet, and there were 150 dressed-up people in my audience.
“Your wife Mary and I have known each other through business for so long, we’re good friends,” Vorbrich told me. “And I also feel like I know you well, because I’ve been reading you for so long.”
Well, I thought to myself, if these people have been reading my columns over the decades, I can at least show up, thank them for sticking with me, and re-tell a few stories they might remember.
All these retirees – just older than I am -- were a very friendly audience.
“As Lynn just told you when he was introducing me, Mary Riche and I are newlyweds,” I said in starting. “True story: We’d been good friends for 48 years -- through other marriages, career changes and many different circumstances – but never had a romantic thought about each other. Then about a year ago, we started seeing each other differently. And now we’re having the red-hottest romance that two 75-year-olds could possibly muster.”
After that, they hung right with me the whole rest of my 45-minute speech!
I told them about my trademark black & white saddle shoes, and how I’ve been wearing a single earring longer than any man in Iowa since Chief Blackhawk. I told them about my “Roll Poll” in which I’d rate the Top Ten cinnamon rolls in the state. I told them about covering the Persian Gulf War and covering RAGBRAI, too. “War and RAGBRAI are alike in three ways,” I said. “They’re both very big, they’re both very confusing, and everybody in them wants to talk. Good place for a reporter to be.”
When I had them well warmed up, I got to the main course of my banquet message – all the changes I’ve seen in Iowa while traveling it for more than five decades.
Here’s my list of the biggest of those changes, and please let me know what else should be included:
--Agricultural productivity. A positive about this – with bigger and better equipment and agronomy, the average farmer has more than doubled his or her production capability. A negative – we don’t need as many farmers.
Doug and Karen Lawton, on July 4 of 2020, show just how productive farming has become.
--Development of the bio-fuels like ethanol and bio-diesel. Who’d have thought we’d reach a point where 50 percent of our corn crop is used to make fuel for vehicles?
--The loss and then rebuilding of our livestock industry. Think of it – we saw almost all of cattle and pork production move out of state, and now we’re seeing it return and thrive. When I moved to Greene County 18 years ago, I doubt there were more than a couple of hog confinements – and they were small ones. Now there are more than 100 huge CAFOs. They come with positives and negatives.
--The proliferation of organic food production. Increasing numbers of farmers are opting to make changes to meet consumer preferences.
--The out-migration from small towns and rural Iowa. It’s an old story – at least 100 years old – but it just keeps happening.
--The explosion of our urban areas, particularly our suburbs. Every time I drive through the west suburbs of Des Moines, I see five new buildings.
--The growing number of immigrants and other newcomers to Iowa. Thank goodness for our new citizens and residents. They built and developed Iowa more than a century ago, and they’re rebuilding and redeveloping it now.
Marching in the Bell Tower Festival parade in Jefferson this past June.
--The revolution in information technology and communications. Thanks to Jefferson Telecom, we’ve got better internet service in Greene County than Polk County does.
--The decline of the Des Moines Register and many other newspapers. Breaks my heart, as an alumnus of the once-great paper. This trend has changed Iowa – negatively – more than most people realize.
--The rise of women in government, and the enrichment of our political scene by the Iowa Political Caucuses. I assume you’ve noticed that we have a female governor, her opponent is female, we have a female U.S. Senator and three female members of the U.S. House. That’s amazing. And progress. And I’ve loved the Iowa Political Caucuses, with all their thrills and, yes, their heartbreaks, too.
--The legalization and growing of gambling in Iowa. Some still object on moral grounds, but there’s no debate that Iowa’s well-policed and nicely-operated casinos have produced millions of dollars for public facilities we’d have never had otherwise.
--The development, construction and popularity of recreational trails. There are now probably more than 5,000 miles of paved trails all over Iowa, many of them interconnected. These have a very positive impact on public health, tourism and economic development.
The “Waukee Railroad Pergola” is a gateway trailhead on the Raccoon River Valley Trail in west central Iowa.
--The growth in quality and availability of the arts, culture and entertainment. First-class facilities for festivals, fairs, concerts, conventions, trade shows and more. We even have a Bacon Festival!
--RAGBRAI. The biggest, oldest, longest and best bicycle touring event in the world.
--But, 6-on-6 girls basketball died. Who’d have thought?
And, I said in conclusion, through all those major changes, the one constant? Black & white saddle shoes are just as popular now as they’ve always been.
—
You can write me by commenting below here, or by direct email to me at chuck@offenburger.com.
—
I am honored to be a part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. We are a group of 16 professional writers producing columns on the Substack platform of interest to an Iowa audience. To receive a weekly roundup of our columnist links each Sunday, subscribe here: IOWA WRITERS’ COLLABORATIVE.
We came together to address a growing lack of local commentary around the state. Many towns have lost their local newspaper, and others are producing less opinion writing. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative connects writers to readers in an ad-free format. You can subscribe at no charge, but if you can support their work, we encourage you to become a paid subscriber to as many as possible. And we ask you to support your local newspaper.
The latest addition to our IWC is Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices column. She is a coach who highlights new writers. The first column was posted this week:
You've seen a LOT, Chuck. Great observations.
Sincere thanks, Chuck, for honoring my request for columns about how Iowa has changes. Your list is impressive---and sobering. And like Suzanna, I'm not ready for you to go silent on public speaking.