Storytorch

Though I moved to the Winterset community at age 21 and have lived here ever since, I will never be a local.

My daughters were born at Madison County Memorial Hospital, but that doesn't make them locals, either. Actor John Wayne came into the world in Winterset, too, in 1907, but his folks moved away, taking Marion Morrison with them, when he was a few months old. Native son? Yes. Local? No.

You must graduate from high school here to be a true Wintersetian. Nothing else does it.

My three girls (Mary, Hannah, Rebecca Fons, at right circa 2000) disliked a lot about growing up in a town of 5,000, each in an entire school class of just over 100 kids. The lack of diversity—a couple of AFS and Rotary exchange students each year was all we had—the social emphasis on football rather than the arts, and the flak they got for their innovative fashion styling, among other issues, created a lot of enthusiasm for getting out of town as soon as possible. They all found happiness (as moderates, actually) in ultra liberal Iowa City, where each earned a BA at the University of Iowa. They moved on to even wider cultural diversity in New York and Chicago.

As adults, the Fons women now appreciate the small town of their birth. They love to show points of interest (historic covered bridges, quaint downtown area, beautiful historical museum, elementary, middle, and high school buildings) to the guests and sweethearts they bring home from time to time.

Always during the Christmas holidays, when all three are here, we have coffee at the little shop on the west side of the town square, and, always, we bump into a former teacher, classmate, or classmate's parent. Pleasantries and hugs are exchanged. Back at our house, the conversation that ensues is a phenomenon to me, a 1967 graduate of Bellaire High School, Houston, Texas, in a class of 800 students.

Hannah: Lisa Johnson's mother always thinks I'm you or Beck.
Mary: You guys were in the same class, right?
Hannah: Huh-uh. One behind. Omigod, get this, Tiffany Brown sent me a Facebook request. Her whole crowd were such jerks to me all through school. Merciless! Now I'm this cool editor in New York, so . . .
Rebecca: Did you accept?
Hannah: The Facebook request? Why not? Give 'em a thrill.
Rebecca: I saw Tim at the store yesterday. He's got four kids! I had a crush on him for, like, five years.
Mary: Tim Henderson has four children?! Wow. Did he recognize you?
Rebecca: I think he thought I was you.

Today's Fortune Cookie Fortune:
You will remember olden days.