SharivilleLife stories from Shari

WILLKOMMEN.  is welcome in German, and the Amana Colonies were started
by Germans from the old country in 1855. How can I even begin to put
into this chapter all that we have experienced today?

We started with breakfast at the Colony Village, family style and
highly recommended.  First came coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, a
bowl of fresh fruit and home made bread, toasted with strawberry
perserves.  Then came German style pancakes, 2 per plate and covered
the plate, lots of butter and thick real maple syrup, not that
imitation stuff.  Then a plate of 6 overeasy eggs, a plate of crisp
bacon and sausage patties, and a bowl of sliced fried potatoes.
Jerry’s favorite meal was not a dissapointment. Very reasonable prices
and as much as you wanted.  What can I say, we ate and then waddled
out to visit the other 6 villages in the Colonies.

We went to the visitor center for directions and did the drive route
of all the other 6 villages.  They are only minutes apart, 1 hour by
Ox cart in the old days.  The entire Amana Colonies are on 26,000,
acres.  The only housing is in the villages, the rest of the land is
used for farming,  The Colonies presently operate the largest farm in
Iowa,  and manage Iowa’s largest private forest. The Colonies are
located in the georgous Iowa River valley.  The River runs through.

From 1855 until 1932 the Amana Colonies lived a communal lifestyle.
Today they have a group of diverse business’.  There’s a furniture and
clock shop, woolen mill and calico works. Stone Hearth Bakery, where
we had apple struddle and coffee this afternoon.  There’s a General
Store, several restrauants, a few B and Bs, a book store, smoked meat,
cheese and condiment shop, and many other shops, including this huge
RV park where we are.  Theres also a winery, fruit wines and a brew
house where they make beer and old fashioned root beer.

The Amana Colonies are a Nationall Historic Landmark.  Remember the Amana
refrigerators and freezers, thats here. Some of the houses date back
into the 1800s.  They are make of brick, made here too, sandstone and
clapboard.  They were allowed to weather naturally as wood was
plentiful and paint expensive. Most of the private houses have their
own garden patches and fruit trees and grapes.

We spent a couple of delightful hrs at the basket and broom shope.  We met the most facinateing old fellow, 91 yrs old who is the
broommaker.  He kept us entertained and laughing while he worked on a
broom he was making for me.  I even had him sign it.  He was born in
the Colonies in 1918, and was only gone long enough to serve in WWII,
in Germany, as he was fluent in the German language.  There he met his
wife of 61 yrs. I got some great photo’s of him working on my broom
using a hand operated machine over 100 yrs old.   The local paper did
a story on him and I have a copy for my scrapbook.

Got a picture of Jerry in Iowa’s largest solid walnut rocking chair.
Without Jerry it weighs 670 lb, with Jerry………..well, after 3 days
here neither of us are weighing in.  Some of us may remember Edith Ann
in “Laugh In”, that’s what he looked like in that rocker.

Yes, we are extending one more day at least.  One reason there’s still
so much to see and eat and ST Louis is on flood alert, and the
Mississippi is on the rise. So we will have to see how long this storm
lasts there.  And I wanted to take the scenic river route down.  Will
I ever learn? I love scenic routes, Jerry loves interstates, but then
I’m not the trailer hauler either.  More tomorrow.          Hugs, S and J