Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

     Birthdays can sometimes be a delicate subject.  When we are young we look forward to them; count the half ones and tick them off on a calendar as a source of pride as we reach one milestone after another.  From a drivers license to the first sip of a beverage made of hops legally birthdays for the young are ones to be reveled in and looked forward to.   
     Further on in our lives birthdays become something we hide from and skip over, or tend to celebrate in an entire week or month (for those narcissists out there) and we count age based on the last time we had a birthday that ended in a “9”.  
     Then your reach the age where your children start throwing you birthday parties because they realize that they have neglected yours for so many years, and also start to worry that you won’t have any more.  That’s how birthdays work and like death and taxes it tends to be the one thing we all have that we can’t escape from.
     Satchel Page once asked us, “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”  I think there are a few people I know that understand that question and live life not based on age, but on living with a purpose.  It was just last weekend that we were given the opportunity to celebrate that with someone dear to many of us.  
     I was very small when I met Dorothy Sanborn for the first time.  When you’re related to someone, even distantly, there’s a connection there, but having them for a neighbor makes that bond especially strong.  As I was standing in line on Saturday waiting to fill out my name tag, I noticed there were sheets on the counter where we were given the chance to write memories down to share.  I love to write, but felt that I had more to say than I had time to spend standing at the counter, and who better to share my memories than with my weekly friends here who probably have some of the same memories of her.
     We lived just down the gravel road from her.  Growing up we had this group of neighbors who were more family than friends.  From the Athertons, to the Walkers, to the Sanborns we boys always knew we weren’t too far away from someone who we could go to for help, and would tell our folks in a minute if we got in trouble.
     I had my first dance with a girl in her front yard when her daughter got married.  To this day I don’t know who that girl is, but remember being embarrassed and hoping no one saw me as I learned to waltz.
     Dorothy was a great teacher.  I was extra lucky because I had her for Sunday School and regular school, which really meant that I couldn’t get in trouble at all because I knew that it would make it home to my folks.  It was in her class that I found an assignment that I enjoyed more than any others when we began to learn about Iowa History.  Since that day my children and friends have been forever cursed to put up with my cluttered office full of historical “stuff” and now they know who is to truly blame for all the times I have to stop on the side of a gravel road reading the historical markers.
      In my youth I was active in 4-H.  In those days Union township had two 4-H club.  The Union Pride was the “boys” club and the gals were in the Union Farmerettes.   Dorothy lead the girls club for years and they always showed us up at any county fair, and 4-H became yet another place that I knew if I got in trouble word would get home to my folks.  She built tradition in that club, but also knew that times change and soon the name was changed to “Best of Union”  which then made us boys wonder just what we were so proud of…when it was obvious they were the best.
      Staying in the area and starting my family here gave me many opportunities to cross paths with her.  At church or stopping by to mow her ditch when she would get her lawn mower stuck in a hole in her yard I have always been greeted with a hug and the “Hello neighbor” that I’ve come to enjoy so much.  As my boyhood neighbors have slowly moved south of town it had always been comforting knowing that she was still there, and we all watch out for each other in a way that somewhere along the line country people have forgotten how to.
     So to my neighbor, my teacher, my cousin, my friend:  Happy 29th birthday.  Thank you for helping to form who I am, giving me an appreciation for history and always being there to keep me from getting into trouble.
     See you next week…Remember, we’re all in this together.