Column: Mail call

Two packages were on my desk when I arrived at work on Friday.

Two hefty pieces quite unlike the thin, pale envelopes that bring me boring business mail and the occasional letter that begins (in sentiment if not in fact): “Dear Stupid Idiot.” No, these definitely were along a different vein, but what? I tore the brown paper from the first.

Inside was the latest edition of the “Wapsipinicon Almanac,” my favorite homegrown periodical, cranked out in Anamosa on a Linotype machine - which means something to a nostalgic newspaper girl like me.

No infographics or full-color anything, just artwork and essays by college professors and retired postmen, poems by potters and book reviews by grocery store managers - mostly Iowans and many of them neighbors.

And what else was in that package? A lovely note from Priscilla Steele, of the Campbell Steele Gallery in Marion.

“Your ability to personalize and contextualize issues which shape our lives is the reason that I read your column,” she wrote. Flatterer. Tell me more.

She'd read about my Black Friday experience. Said that if I wanted a true shopping adventure, I should check out some of the “stalwart, imaginative” locally owned businesses outside the Corridor's malls.

“You'll also discover how truly ‘shopping locally' is sexy and fun, and totally eclipses the generic aspects of American consumerism and marketing,” she wrote. Sold.

Still smiling, I turned to the second package, which was stuffed with handmade thank you notes from Mrs. Sepulveda's Pierce Elementary School fifth graders. I'd had a lot of fun visiting with them earlier this fall as part of America Reads. I was glad to hear they'd enjoyed our visit, too.

“I thought you did an awesome job,” Zach D. wrote. “Your fluency is really good.”

More flattery.

We'd read a modern take on Aesop's “The Fox and the Grapes.” In this version, Fox's animal friends easily could have gotten the grapes down by using their various strengths, but Fox wouldn't let them. He was too stuck in his ways; too fixated on his plan. A good story.

And the children's thank you's were even more meaningful because they were so unique - from Moira's rainbow-hued bubble letters to Connor's monster clusters of grapes.

A rambling way to get at this column's point, maybe, but a surprising theme that made my day.

Now if you'll excuse me, my big head and I have exploring to do.

Jennifer Hemmingsen's column appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Contact the writer at (319) 339-3154 or jennifer.hemmingsen@gazcomm.com