Back Yard

In the time that Sara and I have been married, we've lived in several different cities and towns in four states.  Although there are no universals, I can say that one thing I've run into time and time again - and it never fails to amaze me - is that people don't recognize the things that are in their own back yards.  One of the first times I noticed this was on a trip to San Francisco.  First, you had to look long and hard to find someone there that considered themselves a "native" but when you did and you asked about the local sights, they hadn't been there. They had not been to Alcatraz, or out to Napa Valley, or in some cases even down to Fisherman's Wharf.  I remembered thinking it was amazing that they would have missed these things, but chalked it up to being a "California" thing.

Time passed and we landed in Dallas.  Although we were only there for a short period of time, I knew there was a lot that should be seen and experienced.  And in the middle of it all, there was the Grassy Knoll and The School Book Depository.  These locations were at the center of a moment in time that compared to few.  Twice in my life I remembered school being interrupted for something happening in the world.  One was the assassination of Kennedy and the other was the moon landing.  Now, here I was, at  the place where the Kennedy assassination happened. I wanted to learn as much as possible and take in as much of the feeling that I could about it.  In the time we were there, we went to this area two or three times with company from out of town and with people that were from Dallas. I was always amazed that the people who lived in Dallas had never been there before.  They meant to, but they had just never gotten it done.  They didn't recognize the importance of things right in their own backyard.  Well, maybe it was a California and Texas thing.

After Dallas, we worked our way back through Kansas City and home to Iowa.  We've been here about six years now.  And lo and behold, I found out that we are the same way here. I actually live the same way. When we were moving so much it seemed like we should check things out in these other places, but now that we settled back in to Iowa, I know that there are things here we are missing.

We have yet to go to the new High Trestle Bridge up in the Boone area.  I've been talking about going there for five years already and done nothing more than that.  It is not like it's too far, it is just that we haven't gotten to it.  We haven't been to the State Capital since coming home ... or the State Historical Museum.  All of these are worth the time that it would take to take in the venue.  We did in fact visit the Art Museum when Karen and Jaye were here because we knew that they would enjoy it, but that was the push that finally motivated us.

On top of the things that those of us who live here haven't been to see, it's really interesting the manner that we think about the things that are in the state.  For example, we have a great number of really quality educational institutions, even beyond Drake University.  Yet when you talk to Iowans, they often have a tendency to minimize or dismiss the local institutions as not being of the same quality that you find outside the state.  It just isn't true.  We have quality undergraduate degrees and graduate programs in law, medicine, engineering, and veterinary science that will line up against anyone in the nation.

Finally, while we are talking about this kind of thing, and I know I have mentioned it in the past, we have one of the finest State Fairs in the nation. Good food, great exhibits and if you have never been to "East Side Night," you have truly missed something. 

We need to be aware of all of the things that exist right in our own backyard.  We need to recognize and appreciate all of them.