Kalona 2

This is what I wrote about Kalona today:

Not far from Iowa city nestled under blue skies and fluffy white clouds is a quaint little village full of old world charm. To reach this lovely village whose inhabitants shun technology as a matter of choice you have to traverse vast expenses of green corn fields.

As you leave the corn fields behind you enter the simple village of kalona. At the entrance of the village is the kalona creamery. The creamery reminds you of all things wholesome and diary --cheese, yogurt and confectionaries. I have been to the kalona creamery where they show you how milk is processed and there is a store filled with all kinds of goodies made with milk. Yesterday, though, we did not go there.

If you continue driving you reach the kalona historical village. Here the major businesses are banks, car repair places, quilt stores, crafts and vintage stores and restaurants that sell old fashioned bakery items.

The kalona chamber of commerce has a spherical lamp on the wall outside and two empty benches made of wood panels.

A bank building with blinking lights invites you to open a checking account. The sidewalk has colorful patterns. A tall planter contains plants, succulents that hang down the sides of the planter and lots of flowers.

Other than an occasional group of teenagers or a family with little kids there are very few people walking down the streets. On the lamp posts are hanging planters with deep pink flowers. There are a lot of planters and all the planters contain flowers in the exact same shade of pink. The entire length of the street is lined with pink flowers hanging from planters hung on lamp posts. I did not unfortunately get a picture of the hanging planters.

The intentional choices made by this historical community is the subject of speculation and curiosity by onlookers. What makes this community special is its adherence to old fashioned values. Perhaps their strict rules about avoiding modern technology is based on love for tradition or perhaps it is based on a fear that the values they hold dear will be diluted if many aspects of modern civilisation are adopted. May be that is why they continue with a lifestyle that has been handed down to them for generations.