I'm excited about the Iowa caucuses today. It's not just because of the tight races and the mystery (and possible importance) of the outcome. It's also because I'm from Iowa, way back. Both of my parents were raised in Hudson, Iowa, a small town where they were 2 out of 11 graduates in their high school class. My grandparents moved to Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and I could draw a detailed map of everything in a 2 block radius of their houses. Not how it looks today, but how it looked in 1960 of course.

The caucus process in Iowa is so  exciting: people meeting face to face; neighbors convincing each other on who should rule the country. I sometimes think my Grandma Evans would have supported Hillary Clinton. If Dorothy Evans were alive today she's be ready for a qualified woman to get control of the rudder. Dorothy graduated from Coe College--long before girls were expected to get an education. I believe Hillary would have won Dorothy over in a face to face meeting of the Sunday Women's Club, where Dorothy was President for years.

I think my Grandpa Evans would like Mike Huckabee. Grandpa taught agriculture to farmers, and shop to high schoolers. He didn't talk a lot and he liked to rest his eyes from time to time while kids ran around his big red chair. Maybe Grandpa would like Guliani since he was a Yankee baseball fan for 80 years. But somehow I think Rudy would be too hard, not human enough for Arthur Evans. Mike would appeal more.

Then there's always the Music Man, my favorite musical that showed the tough and tender side of Iowans. "We're so by gone stubborn we can stand touching noses for a week at a time and never see eye to eye.."says the song. Let's see if we get some agreement in Iowa today.