Summer vacations when I was a kid meant Lake Okoboji and Spirit Lake. The Iowa Great Lakes were only a few hours from where my parents lived. We had a 1952 Buick in which all the essentials were stuffed. My place was in the back seat with a box of comics. I wore US Keds high tops, Levi jeans and striped t-shirts.

We went to the same resort every year and stayed in Cabin #3 for a week. The cottage was rustic but comfortable and not too far from the fishing dock. Over and above fishing, there were a ton of things to do. From where we lived Iowa was a Lakeland state (ranked third after Minnesota and Wisconsin) with rolling hills and the awesome bluffs as well as the Loess shore line. Of course, it was surrounded by two great rivers.

Later, we would drive all day to a resort (Weigelwood) near Park Rapids, Minnesota.  After that, we had a winterized cabin that over looked the Missouri so we could see Iowa every day. Since the state has gone to”super red” we spent nearly a thousand dollars to place a filtration system in our home. When I worked on a sabbatical with the US Corps of Engineers, we had a nick name for bodies of water that smelled and were slurry. We called them industrial lakes. Another name was scum ponds.

Iowa is changing. A handful of people own land of which the” run off” is changing the state for the rest of us to pond scum. We can change it back and those polluters can still make a dollar or two. We are now growing trees and cleaning up from the durecho. We still live in the woods. Pollution need not be permanent. However, woodsy memories can be very pleasant for the rich and the poor. They also can remain with us for a long time, long time.

Joel Snell

joelsnell@hotmail.com/

3105 Alleghany Dr. NE

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

52402-3315