If all the story-tellers in the world should decide to live together in one place, they could call their town "Storyville" or "Storyburg" or "Storyview" or........."Story City"!!
Yes........by all means........WELCOME to Story City, Iowa, right along Interstate 35, north of Des Moines and Ames. On Saturday, I met my daughter there to give her a supply of sweet corn. We planned to meet at 1 p.m.; I was a bit early, so took a quick drive away from I-35 toward the center of Story City, to see what could be learned quickly about the town. Along with the "Velkommen" sign, this bright flag and flower display informed me that Story City was settled by Scandinavians!!
******
I'd heard of the antique carousel in Story City, but had never seen it, so that's where I headed. Its nestled inside a building between the Roland-Story High School and a large, lovely park and museum area.
******
There was a friendly volunteer couple there to answer questions and provide information about the town and carousel displays.
If you click the photo above, you should be able to read the history of the Story City Carousel.***
***
If you need a new career........this "Twisty Dip" ice cream trailer business is for sale near the Carousel area!
******
Besides peddling yummy ice cream treats, you could hang out your story-telling shingle! There's even Story-Telling Festival coming up soon!! How about that......all you story-telling bloggers!!
***
***
Story City is in Story County, Iowa. I was thinking perhaps it was the county seat, but when I searched the Iowa Courthouse link on my blog, I found out that the county seat of Story County is the town of Nevada. (That's pronounced "Nah-VAY-dah".) That's where Russell of Iowa Grasslands Blog is from! He can let me know if this post includes any erroneous info about his county! (I also want Russell to know that while zipping along on U.S. 20 on Saturday, a forgotten bit of info suddenly came to the surface in my mind: Russell gave out some awards a couple weeks ago, including one to my blog, and I need to accept and acknowledge that. Thanks, Russell!)
***
Story City and County's namesake is Joseph Story, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice from back in the mid-1800's. Here is the Wikipedia page for Story County, Iowa.
Story City and County's namesake is Joseph Story, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice from back in the mid-1800's. Here is the Wikipedia page for Story County, Iowa.
***
***
On the interstate side of Story City is a small outlet mall-----its not nearly as gargantuous as the Tanger Outlet on I-80 at Williamsburg, Iowa, but I enjoy browsing in the VF Outlet there. The pedal-pushers and clam-diggers were all on clearance, so, HEY, I'm all set now for NEXT summer!! I'll be a year behind in the fashion style, but WHO CARES?! My daughter and I also checked out the Van Heusen store........I bought a shirt for Husband, and found out----to my surprise----that Van Heusen carries ladies' clothing, too! I did not know that before, and found two nice shirts to wear to church.
***
On the interstate side of Story City is a small outlet mall-----its not nearly as gargantuous as the Tanger Outlet on I-80 at Williamsburg, Iowa, but I enjoy browsing in the VF Outlet there. The pedal-pushers and clam-diggers were all on clearance, so, HEY, I'm all set now for NEXT summer!! I'll be a year behind in the fashion style, but WHO CARES?! My daughter and I also checked out the Van Heusen store........I bought a shirt for Husband, and found out----to my surprise----that Van Heusen carries ladies' clothing, too! I did not know that before, and found two nice shirts to wear to church.
***
All in all, it was a really fun day!! I inadvertantly got caught up in a cool event along University Avenue in Cedarloo on the way home, and will tell about that soon. Haha........does anyone know where "Cedarloo" is?? You won't find it on a map!
All in all, it was a really fun day!! I inadvertantly got caught up in a cool event along University Avenue in Cedarloo on the way home, and will tell about that soon. Haha........does anyone know where "Cedarloo" is?? You won't find it on a map!
***
***
***
Have a safe and pleasant Labor Day!! That "holiday" is a joke around this farm........everyday is a "labor day" here.......even holidays!! (P.S. - Truly, I plan to "loaf" as much as possible on this "Labor Day", and I hope YOU DO THE SAME!!)
***
***
Oh, and while you're at it.......tell a good story today!!
Oh, and while you're at it.......tell a good story today!!
***
***
***
.jpg)
15 comments:
what a wonderful beautiful Carousel. Looks like a lovely day and the best part of course would be getting to spend time with your daughter :)
Happy Labor day (same here we LABOR )
It's like a step back into history, isn't it. Small-town America. The Music Man and all that. Great post about a little bit of the past that still exists.
But I was taken aback at the beginning by your choice of place names. The only "Storyville" I've ever heard of was the notorious red-light district of New Orleans. You can look it up on Wikipedia! Years ago I had a 33-1/3 vinyl record album named "Crescent City" that had an aerial view of the Mississippi River winding through New Orleans; the record inside featured the music of Paul Weston's orchestra, I think, and it was all about evoking the moods of New Orleans. One of the cuts on the record, I remember, was called "Storyville."
It's funny what one little word can dredge up.
I enjoyed your STORY about STORYVILLE (the carousel town).
Love carousels (or merry-go-rounds as we used to call them) and I love the music they play. A unique sound.
Lovely photo-journalism, Miss J.!
I am glad you had a chance to visit Story City!! It is a GREAT town!
It reminds me a lot of Pella (Iowa - for people not from our part of the world!) in that it is so clean. It's neighbor, Roland, is very much like Story City and those two towns have one of Iowa's hall of fame schools - Roland Story.
Back in the 1960s when I was in school, Roland Story had some of the very best girls' basketball teams -- and that was when girls basketball was the #1 high school sport in the state. There was no close second!
Roland Story and South Hamilton (out of Jewell and not too far from Story City) had some legendary games as both were really, really good.
I am glad you enjoyed Story City and, yes, you have one of the best blogs to visit week in and week out!!
Take care.
Thank you for visiting Story City. I have lived here for the past 6 years after living in Des Moines and outside of Denver. It is a great place and a well-hidden gem in the fields north of Ames. Please come back and visit again soon and try out some of our great restaurants, hiking and water trails!
Hi, Laura!
Yes, it was great to spend time with my daughter.....she amazes me.....she's quite motivated, unlike her mother!
Happy Labor Day to you, too! Please do some loafing!
**********
Hi, rhymsie!
Oh, my.......I can't win for losing.....my first sentence somehow manages to conjure up thoughts of a red-light district in your mind! Yes, it is amazing sometimes what one word can pull out of our memory banks!
Happy Labor Day!
************
Hi, Pat!
Oh, yes, we call them merry-go-rounds, too. I can't ride them, though.......going around in circles slowly makes me feel ill. I prefer speed while going in circles.....I love centrifugal force; it makes me laugh uncontrollably!
**************
Hi, Russell!
Thank you for your kind words, and for the award. Yes, Story City is a very nice town. I wish I could have gotten to the downtown area.....there must be a town square there, like in Pella. And, funny you should even mention Pella, because I just wrote my blogpost for tomorrow and it includes a paragraph about Pella!!
I do remember when Roland-Story ahd those great girls' basketball teams!!
***********
Hi, 1210297288s12484 (whew)!
Thanks for stopping by! Actually, we did eat at the Pizza Ranch and it was very good! And the velocity of the hand-dryer in the ladies restroom nearly blew me to Polk County.....seriously, I couldn't even keep my hand under it! Other people were laughing about the dryer, too, out in the booths!
Sorry about the big name. TypeKey assigned it to me, and I don't know how to change it. If you thought Pizza Ranch was good, make sure to try some of the non corporate places like Old Hamburg German restaurant, the Bistro, Old Opera Cafe and the Cottage on Broad. I am always amazed at the huge number of great restaurants in a town this size.
Hi, again "1210....."!
Hey, those places sound really good! And, there's a German restaurant? In a Scandinavian town?? They must be downtown.....and I didn't get there, unfortunately. Is there a town square in Story City?
The German place is right across the street from the Pizza Ranch. It's connected to the viking hotel. The other restaurants are on Broad Street (Main Street) in the middle of town. There is a well established "four corner" at Pennsylvania and Broad, but not a square per se.
Great little travelogue. Back when you posted the carousel from Mall of America, I wondered if this was the carousel . . . till I saw photos. Maybe you should do a comparative essay. LOL
Your posts are so fun to read -- they always tell a 'story' (MOL) Glad your weekend was fun. Happy week to you!
Never heard of Cedarloo, is it near Hooville? You know, where Horton lives?
Beautiful story.
Oh, get it! Story?
Thanks for the interesting bit of trivia. Love it.
I declare, Jeannelle, you are going to end up with your own show on the Travel Channel. Yup. You heard it here first!
1210again, ruth, nonizamboni, country girl, maybelline, caution flag,
Thanks for visiting and commenting!
I still think a German restaurant in a Viking hotel seems not quite right!
Comparative sentence on the carousels: I will ride neither the one in Story City nor the one at the MegaMall.
Post a Comment