This American Gothic Life

Iowa’s winters are perennially dreary. Like dirty soapy water it floods the sky and coats the ground with snow, which with the dim winter light is really just another shade of gray. It takes effort for one not to become a ghost and fade into the drab winter. I peer out my window and see that it is snowing as I write this. Well, that and someone wearing shorts. I’ll admit, once the temp got above 25 degrees it felt balmy and I thought about doing the same myself.

Yesterday I took a road trip I had been looking forward to. Shy of an hour and a half south of here is Eldon, Iowa. The town has several fixer-uppers are on the market if you are looking for a good deal. Eldon isn't much. It is the type of place you don't mind leaving some tax dollars behind. That is, if you can find a merchant open or a store that isn't abandoned. The funeral home appears to be the business anchor of main street. So why Eldon? A glorious piece of Americana, that is why. Grant Wood's American Gothic house is located just on the outskirts of town. You don't need a map, if you find the town, I'm sure you will find signs to direct you to the landmark.

I learned Wood choose that house because of the opulent sized window. Which is ironic, because for most of us, it seems to be such a modest home. The models used were his sister and his dentist.

You can tell that this is the pride of Eldon, and rightfully so. Just two years ago, they build a visitors center and the volunteer we met spoke optimistically about a prospective bike trail would link the bike loving town of Iowa City and Eldon. If you like, you can borrow costumes complete with pitchforks. You can almost imagine the local church ladies' axillary sewing the dresses that hung in the staging area. Since most pictures are only taken from the waist up, the overalls are absent from the waist down. They become more bib-like and really don't go 'overall.'

Not far from Eldon is Fairfield, Iowa. A small town that is actually well known in the Maharishi community. Fairfield is home to the Maharishi University of Management which is "not a conventional university." The downtown area is a bit surreal. The town square has vintage Christmas decorations (and the token menorah.) The streets are lined with more chiropractors than bones in your spine and a disproportionate number of Indian restaurants for a quintessential Midwest town.

Upon stepping into Revelations, a wonderful bookshop, coffee shop and vegetarian cafe (of course) I felt that I was transported to a place far far from Iowa. I commented that everyone looked different than in Iowa City. People looked organically vegetarian fed as opposed to the prized "corn fed" diet in the rest of the state. If I didn't know better, I'd think that Revelations was a portal to Boulder.

Of course when you spend time in grocery stores for the fun of it and you see a local market called "Every Body's" and you naturally have to check it out. The produce were all organic. Conventional was not an option and I don't recall seeing any meat products. It seemed as if a gallons of their business came from purified water sales.

Sadly, I had to leave Fairfield, but am pretty sure I wouldn't mind going back to visit again. It is an intriguing place and a pleasant surprise, here, in my homestate.