My home state, Iowa, has shown up on my radar quite a bit lately. Here are the most recent sightings:
Sociologist Jeremy Freese, who I read avidly to remind myself that you can make it through grad school with your sense of humor intact, has been proposing that Dar Williams’ song “Iowa” be made the official state song. That’s fine by me, since the only music I currently associate with Iowa is the Iowa Fight Song and the TV jingle for Adventureland amusement park.
I went to a dinner party last night and when I told a couple in their mid-70s that I was from Iowa, the man turned to his wife and asked, “We don’t know anyone from Iowa, do we?” “No, I don’t think so,” she said. (Ah…the world is shrinking indeed. It took them 75 years to meet an Iowan, but only 25 for me to meet a New Jerseyan.)
The NY Times had a piece on tax money being used to evangelize prisoners. Their prime example was a state prison in Newton, Iowa, which, coincidentally, is pretty close to Adventureland.
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I know Dar and I can’t quite get behind her as an Iowa spokesperson. Maybe I know too much. Could have something to do with her lack of sobriety………but the song is cool.
If this were up for a vote, I think Greg Brown’s “Iowa Waltz” would win. You should know Greg…he’s an Iowa City fixture, along with Bo Ramsey and all those other blues bands. Greg really captures Iowa past and present.
Then of course for the younger folks…there’s always Slipknot’s “Iowa.” Not sure you can really call that a song, but to their credit, they have the most amusing Iowa quote I’ve seen to date:
(pulled from the Des Moines Register 2005- an interview with Slipknot’s Corey Taylor & Joey Jordison)
Q: Do you still live in Iowa?
TAYLOR: Yeah, a few of us have moved around now and then, but we’ve all come back. There’s something about Iowa that just keeps you there.
JORDISON: It’s the state equivalent of the “Death Star” with the big tractor beam.
Suppose he was referring to a John Deere Tractor Beam? You know, the green and yellow ones…….
Hey, great suggestions. I’ll have to forward your comments to Jeremy… Love the tractor beam idea!
Did I know you were from Iowa? Where?
I’m not entirely sure I made it through graduate school with my sense of humor intact. I wonder what my blog would have been like during my last year of graduate school, which I fondly refer to as “Hands down the worst year of my life.” Nice thing about a sense of humor is that apparently it’s like the limbs of a starfish–it grows back.
I was born in Dubuque and moved to Coralville when I was around 5. I lived there until my 18th birthday, when I moved to Illinois for college.
Good to know sense of humor can be restored. If I reread old email I wrote to friends back in the day, or meditate on those elephant jokes Lucy posted on your site, I get a twinge of phantom limb pain!
Ah, Coralville. Obviously having gone to the University of Iowa (and making a trip back there just about every fall), I know it well. Especially, in college, the Taco Bell.
I had no idea you went to the U of I. What years were you there? Were you in Soc. back then?
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