I will be driving back home tomorrow, so it's a good time to stop and take stock of my Davenport vacation.
I seem to have gained no profound insights this trip (at least not yet -- insights are sometimes slow to percolate up to the conscious mind), but I have the following humble observations to offer.
1. Social connections are valuable.
The value of relationships with friends and family was made clear to me at my high school reunion and again at my family reunion last Saturday. I noted that a fellow often spends the first part of his life emphasizing the distinctiveness of his abilities and attainments, while during the last part of his life his priorities shift toward his relationships with family and friends. (Women understand these things earlier and deeper than men.)
A great deal of fascinating history is preserved in family relationships. I visited my aunt in her nursing home before driving down to the family reunion. She used my grandmother's speech pattern of substituting "Them's" for "They are", as in "Them's good folks at the market." My mother remarked today that my grandmother's father was an Irishman who came out with the railroad construction in Iowa and Missouri during the late 1800s. A linguistic sociologist could probably trace the use of "Them's" back to the time of Irish immigration.
2. Home-grown tomatoes, cucumbers, and green beans are wonderful.
My mother asked me if I was growing tired of eating tomatoes from the garden. I said no but admitted that it was hypothetically possible for me to tire of eating sweet, fresh tomatoes if I ate them every day until February. Therefore, if science ever develops a tomato that can grow under Iowa snowdrifts, I might have to face the danger of tomato boredom. (The odds of tomato boredom are similar to the odds of getting bored with dating Raquel Welch.)
3. Quietly watching the Mississippi river helps restore a healthy perspective of one's place in the universe.
4. Mustard supplies must not be neglected.
Today I went to the local Fairway grocery store and purchased five jars of Boetje's Stone Ground Dutch Mustard. It is an unwritten law that every expatriate Iowan must bring back a year's supply of this excellent brown mustard from Rock Island, Illinois.
