From: barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N. Barrett)
Subject: Re: The Truth about Iowa.....
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 07:11:26 GMT

In article <roelle.726508908@uars_mag> roelle@uars_mag.jhuapl.edu (Curtis Roelle) writes:
>Paula_Lieberman@amicol.UUCP (Paula Lieberman) writes:
>
>>Iowa is a basket case in the United States -- it's full of cornfields, and
>>looked down on as a place full of yokel farmers and -cornfields- without
>>much culture, interesting things to see, or intelligence..... [Iowa's part
>>of the "bread basket"] There are lots of jokes about there being nothing of
>>interest between the east and west coast of the US -- it's a 6 hour
>>airplane flight, over a lot of -boring-, flat, -cornfield- landscape.  It's
>>less tedious than -driving across- the midwest (I've never drived across
>>Iowa.  I;ve driven for 9 hours across Kansas, I've driven across Texas..
>>Iowa's merely further north.  It's -boring-... the same landscape without
>>change for hours....
>
>The drooling above betrays a [not too] underlying neurosis w.r.t.
>cornfields.  It appears that the author must have been "rubbed the
>wrong way" by an ear of corn in the past.  Have you ever stopped to
>consider how many of our food products are based on corn -- not to
>mention wheat, rice, oats, or barley?  Think about that next time you
>snarf a bag of Doritos.  Unless your diet excludes corn, you would be
>better off not displaying your hypocrisy in public.
>
>As far as culture, it is in the eye of the beholder.  The agri-culture
>may just be too suble to be observed by insensitive people.  As far as
>jokes go, great.  Why don't you tell us some so we can all enjoy a
>chuckle or two.
>
>You make broad sweeping statements about how boring the place is, and
>then admit you've never been there -- except for perhaps brief visits
>via airplane, restricted to a small geographical area of the state.  I
>find such admitted ignorance to be quite amazing.  While you find the
>"same landscape without change for hours" to be boring, I expect that
>people from the world's maga-cities, say Tokyo or Bombay, wouldn't share 
>your impression.
>
>Of course, how one interprets their surroundings is in large part determined
>by their experiences.  So to someone from a wooded state, the midwest would
>appear like an alien wasteland.  But how would someone from a desert 
>region view a region rich with vegetation?  How would someone from Iowa
>view a large metropolitan area?  World class culture -- itty bitty living
>space.  Enough said.

   I was born in Kentucky and spent some time in Europe (about five years),
but I pretty much grew up in Iowa.  I have never really been bored here.  There
is a rather large shopping mall less than 1/4 of a mile from my home in
Council Bluffs, Iowa where I grew up.  Council Bluffs is a suburb of Omaha,
which is no hick town.  Ames, Iowa, where I go to school, is near two major
interstates (I-80 N-S, and I-35, E-W), and attracts just about every major
tour there is.  I also kind of like being able to go out jogging at 2:00 AM
and not having to worry about being killed.  (I started to take that for
granted.  I will have to learn to be more careful if I move to a bigger city).

   By living in Iowa, I get the best of several worlds.  There is enough going
on to keep from being bored, and life is peaceful enough here that I never
worry much about crime.  I am not very envious at all of the people who live
in the really big cities.

---
| Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu
--------------------------------------------------