I hadn't been back to my "home town" for several years until a buddy and I came to Iola on a mission of mercy for a needy person in his care. *(Thanks for the help Brenda)For me what makes Iola special are the memories...Walking the few miles from my house to Riverside park at 11:30 at night with a group of friends. Climbing the shale hill, or the Epiphany up there after Christmas to burn the Christmas trees. Trying to walk across the ice of Lake Basola to get to the island or attempting to detach your slightly melted taffy bar from your towel that got too hot sitting on the concrete beside the Iola pool. Trying to walk on a rail road rail from my elementary school all the way to my baby sitters house or under the Elm Creek bridge looking for crayfish on the way home. Chasing lightning bugs in the back yard or June bugs under the street light. A first date and sitting in the balcony Iola Cinema. Ice cream parties where everyone on the block was invited...
Going out on Halloween night soaping all the windows of stores down town and then showing up with a razor blade, bucket and old towel the next day and offering to clean the windows for a couple of bucks. (I suspect most of the people recognized me from the night before) My first school dance, my first girlfriend, and of course the first kiss...Memories and people too numerous to mention. Its true that you can never go home again but as Maya Angelou adds "the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right." ~Maya Angelou
What makes Iola so special? Drop your blackberries and cell phones, get off of the couch and turn off the computer. Get outside and make a few memories of your own, That will make Iola special to you as well.
The course I wrote this for required multiple edits and critiques, I've included two of the versions I wrote. They are both below and in order of when they were written. I apologize for inaccuracies - I had to take some creative liberties. They're best read slowly like a story in prose.Iola
Folks on their porch speaking slow and easy
Barefoot children wave carefree in the street
Protected in bluegrass and trees lofty and tall
Listening to the Municipal Band play at the square
Josiah F. Colborn placed his claim along the banks of Neosho River
Building a cabin and rails by hand to fence his forty-acre farm
That summer droughts brought corn without ears or fodder
Reminding the builder he wasn’t a farmer, he had land to sell
The Rock Creek colony nearby itched for a new county seat
Beside the Neosho River where Weaping Willows peak
Pristine Bradford Pears, Maple trees amber and gold
Autumn Purple Ash among the American Sycamore
His forty-acres created half of Downtown Square
Named for Josiah’s wife, she was Miss Iola Friend
A city settled in 1859 decided by fifty pioneers
The town sure grew in those early years, first a general store
One side of the square was bustling while the other flopped
Way back then it was just too big and the people wouldn’t cross
It may have been only four blocks but it was too far to expect folks to walk
And what was too big then and known as out of town
Is often considered way too small now.
The following version was written based on the previous after having been critiqued a few times in my creative writing class:
Iola
A forty-acre farm
Built on the word of many men
She is the deed sold for the new county seat
A savings jar buried in shallow ground
Iola is a town square where string bands play
She is the chime on the door of every shop
Offering handmade quilts and cold cuts
She is sticky cotton candy on Farm City Days
A wave from floats as queen of the parade
Iola is an old cow off West Boulevard
Once an A-Frame house, which no longer stands
They say the sale was due to a drought
That brought corn without ears or fodder
Iola grew into wild flowers
A mother and daughter baking up gossip
The father and son race classics and game
Iola is the veranda welcoming the house
Where old men sit and talk about the weather
The old women sit and talk about old men
Iola can sooth the heat off a summer day
With a high dive into the Municipal Pool
Iola is the grease and sweat in the filling station
A service bell that rings as folks come
and come again
Iola is a hand of goodwill
A mind of common ground
Where storms take hold and floods roll in
She is the hearth and home
Where you’ll learn to be gentle
Where you’ll learn to be tough
The flood put many people out of their homes. Homes that were full on Thanksgiving and Christmas, bursting with laughter, the delicious aroma of home cooking escaping each time the door opened. Homes that are now nothing but a pile of junk. A lot of people lost everything on that day.
Iola citizens reached out to help though. While families were working in dangerous conditions trying to retrieve what memories they could...some of the good people of Iola were serving them food and drinks, giving boxes to those who didn't have enough. It was awesome.
Why is Iola special? Because of the people. The every-day people willing to lend a hand during a time of need.