Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | fall 2007

FALL 2007
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Cover Story:
Romancing the grape

Feature Story:
Preserving your memories

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NOTES FROM THE FIELD

Sometimes – not often, but sometimes – I am ashamed to admit that I actually get paid for what I do.

A good example: Late last summer and early fall, when people asked me what stories I was working on, I’d tell them about our cover story on Iowa wineries. They’d roll their eyes a bit, then quickly offer to “help.”
It’s a tough job, as the old saying goes, but somebody’s gotta do it.

I’d like to tell you that I endured high heat and humidity, treacherous gravel roads, buzzing insects, and crappy wine in pursuit of the story, but really, none of that is true. Except for maybe a few bugs.
Life as an editor isn’t always so cushy as when you’re traveling across Iowa, sipping wine and strolling through vineyards. I highly recommend it.

Several years ago, I heard English professor Fern Kupfer talk to a group of Alumni Days participants about writing their memoirs. I thought at the time that it would make a great story for VISIONS. As so often happens, the story got pushed back, and back, and back to make way for other stories. I’m happy that we’re finally doing a feature on writing your memoirs in this issue – as part of a larger story on how to preserve your most precious memories.

Doesn’t it always seem like the last thing on your “to do” list: Putting pictures in a photo album? Or getting your mother’s wedding dress in a proper storage container? Or dubbing off those old VHS tapes to DVD?

I’m a sentimental person, when it comes to keeping things. Just ask my family: When the moving company packed us up to move us to Ames 10 years ago, one of the movers said he had never seen so much “basement storage” as we had. And, unfortunately, it’s just grown since then. I have a terrible time throwing things away. I have all my parent’s travel scrapbooks; all my kids’ old clothes, books, and toys; boxes of old family photos from my grandmother; letters my dad wrote home when he was in World War II; old 8 mm home movies (though I have no projector); every article I ever published; and all of my (highly incriminating and embarrassing) high school journals.

What I’m not particularly good at is storing all this stuff properly. I’ve tried, over the years, to move the things with the most sentimental value into plastic tubs and to put photos into albums. But I still have my dad’s old embalming kit for show-and-tell (yes, we were an odd family) in a cardboard box, and nearly everything is still stored in the basement, including my wedding dress.

This is a big no-no, according to our sources for this story. Basements and attics are no place to store your valuables. What I need is a big temperature-and-humidity-controlled storage unit in my backyard. Or a bigger house.

The whole state of Iowa has gotten involved in celebrating Iowa State’s sesquicentennial during the past few months. Each county planned at least one service project to benefit the community and promote ISU’s outreach statewide – things like planting trees, collecting food for local food pantries, community clean-ups, landscaping and garden projects, installing barn quilts, and constructing playground equipment.

I had the pleasure of being involved in one of the service projects in early June. I went over to Moville (near Sioux City), where the Woodbury County Extension office had organized a group of alumni, students, and other volunteers to scrape, prime, and paint the historic Sadler House on the Woodbury County fairgrounds.

It was 90 degrees and windy when I got there, but already there were a dozen volunteers pouring gray paint into buckets, climbing ladders to reach under the eaves, and trying to stay cool. Sherry McGill, Woodbury County Extension education director, arrived shortly after I did, bringing a cooler full of ice-cold water and a banner showing that the improvement project was part of Iowa State’s sesquicentennial.

The group was good-natured, ranging in age from teenagers (who I think purposely got more paint on themselves than was really necessary, but maybe that’s just me being a mom) to old-timers. I’m not sure how much I actually contributed to the project, but I liked being a part of their community, if just for an afternoon.

It’s cool to think that projects like this have been going on in every county in Iowa. Most of the adults I talked to in Woodbury County were Iowa State grads, so it just goes to show that Iowa State really does have an impact on people’s lives all over the state.

About the Writer | Carole Gieseke is the editor of VISIONS magazine.