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."

Doesn’t it always feel like Fall gets the short end of the stick? Merely a season that moves us from the warm days of summer to the joyous Holiday Season. I myself to a certain extent am guilty of overlooking the season. In a blink of an eye, here we are mid-season. Let us stop for a moment and truly appreciate the sights and sounds of the Fall season small town Iowa-style:

• It seems that the trees hang onto their green leaves for as long as they possibly can; then overnight, the vibrant green foliage changes to vivacious shades of burgundy, gold, bright red and orange.
• Only a true small town Iowan can appreciate the steady 24 hour humming sound of the dryer at the elevator. That sound that sometimes keeps the windows shut at night.
• The enormous globe of orange that peeks over the eastern horizon every night and then hangs over us like a huge pumpkin in the sky until the color fades to a golden yellow and it distances itself into the sky.
• The farmers who put their heart and soul into the harvest season working into the dark hours; awaking and returning in those same dark hours. The lights in the fields are there when we put our heads on our pillows and still out there when we wake in the morning.
• From a distance you can see the fields that are covered in little orange specs… You also see the slew of miniature adults swarming the fields searching for the perfect pumpkin.
• Ever look straight up on a clear Fall night??? Take time to do it… The insurmountable number of diamond like stars that sit above us every night is breath taking.

Of course, there are many, many more perks of living in small town Iowa, but the few that the Fall season brings here in Iowa are definitely striking and a lot of times go unnoticed.

Take time out from the daily grind… slow down… take it in… and remember, we’re all in this together.

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