02 Ottumwa, Iowa

We look around the area of the family homestead, take a few pictures to
reinforce our memory, then us from the East quickly surmise our
progenitor had good reason to move onward, and we abruptly follow the
wandering pattern either by habit or genetics I’m not sure which. It may
make some sense, considering the distance we traveled and the bumpiness
in the Beechcraft, to hang out and grock the surroundings for another
hour. I smell the air and kick the gravel, the sweat bees are a positive
nuisance. I find there is not so much to be found in our past as we
disperse toward our future.

In Bloomfield there is a fine limestone courthouse that seems to be kept
up in finer condition than the rest of the town. I walk halfway around
the square and purchase a diet Pepsi from a Sicilian woman in a pizzeria
that I doubt my grandfather frequented. It is the only place in town
open on Sunday morning.

Ottumwa is where Radar (MASH), Tom Arnold, and Donald Keyhoe came from.
Despite this intellectual legacy finding a place to purchase a book in
Ottumwa is a challenge. After four days wandering the vicinity I locate
a shop where I purchase, “The Facts on UFO’s, Do UFO’s Conflict with
Christian Belief?” along with, “The Facts on Creation Vs. Evolution, Is
Evolution Compatible with the Bible?” As a theocratic-anarchist I feel
like a cult on a covert mission behind enemy lines. The challenge now is
to read each tract. I decide while in Iowa not to bring up the subject
of corn circles, though while touring the John Deere Ottumwa Works I
point out that the technology behind the laser machines we see cutting
out ¼” thick steel plate was derived from Roswell. Possibly narrow
minded, I fail to see how this information would be relevant to an
individual who has proudly spent the last twenty-three years working his
way over to application of decals at the end of the green paint line.
Contrary to expectation I do not see a single pig in Iowa. I’m told the
pigs are hidden in barns and are known to die off if exposed to harsh
winter weather. A pipefitter tells me, that the Excel processing plant
in the southeast portion of Ottumwa, owned by Cargill, slaughters 8,500
hogs per day. The pipefitter, a relative of mine which gives him a
certain license to go into excruciating detail, goes into excruciating
detail about the blood filtration and pumping system that he helped
build. Beyond the yada yada, some blood goes for plasma, some for
fertilizer. My pipefitter, a welder, is the closest that I have met in
Iowa to a skilled building trade.

On the first day I see a lot of soybean and corn. On the second day I
see a lot of soybean and corn. At night, driving around with a cousin,
not much else to do except look at soybean and corn, I come upon
Cargill’s Eddyville corn processing plant. This is a complex refinery
the size of several rural Iowa towns, all lit up in an ochre-violet
glow, in what seems to be an oasis of nowhere. I wonder what future
president is working here where corn syrup and ethanol mix. What I do
know is that Cargill is a primary site of employment for a pipefitter
who in other environs would be an experienced mason or carpenter. South
of Eddyville in Chillicothe, which in a slight mythical muddle I confuse
with an Ohio mound city, I stop with my son and we walk out on a bridge
over the Des Moines to view the full moon reflected on the river. At
present this is worth the trip. Then we listen to Tool on the radio.
--
][<en Follett
SOS Gab & Eti -- http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/5836