If you’re all the way to the mermaid tank at the Des Moines Renaissance Faire, you’ve gone too far.  This is understandable, because you were probably distracted and beguiled by the smiles and colors and beauty of the sights when you walked in the gate.  How could you not be?  And, in fact, how will this orange-hatted baby ever reach for the dull black-and-grays of adulthood after this experience?

But here you are at the mermaid tank.  A red-headed siren to be sure.  But her pool is just a wee bit further than we are going right now.  So, first let’s take a left down near those stalls.  There you go.  We are here at last.  A jousting tournament, with knights and squires and decorated horses.

“I’m 23.  I’ve been doing this for about 8 years now.  I’m head squire.  I set the field and deal with everything field-related.  Making sure that everything we need on the field is on the field the way it’s needed to be.”

Alex Lundy is our squire.  Yup, to a knight.  Although, there’s always more to the story of a squire.  He’s also a car detailer for Adesa in Grimes.  His full-time job.

“That’s how I pay for the apartment, pay for my internet, pay for my phone, pay for my water, pay for my car, pay for every single thing.”

But these mundane worries are not for today.  Today he is impish and laughing and entertaining.  Unsurprisingly, his stage name is “Happy.”

And, no, he’s not happy because he just got done cleaning up horse poop from the last jousting match.  He’s happy to just be out in the mix of things.  To be with his friends.  To play a character from another time and another place.  To be himself and to have fun.

“Getting to be able to fight my friends is the most fun.  I don’t know if you saw the first show, but me and my friend Grayson did a squire fight.  I love doing the fights.  Coming up with new ways to hit each other and not hurt each other is always exciting.  We have a spring run of shows and a fall run of shows.  We travel around the Midwest.  As far down as Wichita, and as far east as St. Charles, next to Chicago.  We practice whenever we can.”

Grayson Gambrall, his buddy, readily agrees.

“I play Grumpy.  He’s a squire for either Sir Daniel or Sir Joseph.  He wears a mask to disguise his face and identity.  He’s kind of mischievous.  I’m back and forth between good and evil.”

  So, Grumpy, what’s in this for you?

“This is something very unique.  It is very fun.”

Is that so?  What do you do for your full-time job?

I’m a senior in high school this year.  Dallas Center-Grimes.  I’m only 17.”

My goodness.  And what do your classmates think of all this?

“They think it’s cool that I do this.”

I am struck with wonder.  Knights, squires, minstrels, jugglers, fairies, yeomen, pirates, Scottish golfers, gypsy dancers, a king and a queen, and even you and me.  All exist together at the Renaissance Faire.  Young and old.  Happy and grumpy.  Kilted and unkilted.  All are accepted.  All support each other.  All coexist.

Even the mermaid.

It makes you wonder about things — after a summer of political wrangling of who’s in and who’s out, who’s a refugee and who’s not, who can stay and who has to go — if there’s room at the table for a mermaid, there must be room at the table for everyone.  It seems simple enough on a warm fall day in Iowa as the leaves turn towards winter.

Joe

“I don’t have any trinkets under the counter,” the man looks at me, cheekbones smiling, eyes soft, freckles splattered across his face, “I only have service.”

He stands in front of a rack of clothes that have been tailored and cleaned and are waiting for pick-up.  His sharply pressed shirt, well-fitted slacks, and a tape measure draped around his shoulders all speak of a different time — a time of sleek black cars, long dresses with feathered hats, and pocket squares with dark suits.  An elegant time.

“I do major to minor alterations.  Everything from silk to leather.  Dry cleaning.  I do everything in dry cleaning from slacks to bridal gowns.”

And so the day begins with J.D. Daniels, Jr., owner and manager of Frederick’s Tailoring and Quality Cleaners in West Des Moines.

“I’ve always had to work.  I’ve never had my hand out expecting people to give me anything.  I believe you have to put something in to get something out.”

His voice is buttery and smooth.  The slight cadence of a preacher without the drama.  Honeyed tones.  The calming voice you want by your sick-bed when your mom is not around.

“I’m only as good as my last job.  Okay?  And I also maintain that each time I see a customer, it is the last time I see them until they come back again.  I never take anybody for granted.”

Daniels never has.  He got off the bus in downtown Des Moines on September 19, 1965.  Seventeen-year-old Daniels looked around at the rough crowd milling about the station and decided this was a bad idea.  But with encouragement from his mother back in Tennessee, he decided to give it a shot.

And fifty years later, here he is.  Of course, it was not a straight path.  He tried being a masseur, a car salesman, a construction worker, a furniture salesman, an office worker, a warehouse man.  You name it, Daniels gave it a whirl.  But it was clothing that drove his passion.  Selling it, buying it, fitting it, cleaning it.  He loved it all.

Daniels worked at various clothing stores around Des Moines.  Became the top salesman at every one.  “Made top book there,” he says.

“I sold more furnishings — shirt, ties, and slacks — than the furnishings people. Clothing, you see, is sports coats and suits.  When the garment came in, I’d take time to put it together with shirts and ties.  The objections I had to overcome were always the same, ‘Well, we already have some ties at home.’  ‘Yes ma’am, but when you bought those ties, they went with something you already had.  So if you put an old tie with a new suit it makes it an old suit.’”

A deep, melodious laugh echoes around the room.  The salesman at work.

“The only month I didn’t outsell was the month I lost my brother.  I named my shop for him.  Fred.  Frederick.  Fred had character.  It is difficult for me to pack up and leave this store because, as you noticed in the phone calls I’ve had, his name is mentioned every single time, every single day.  Every time my phone rings.”

“Thank you for calling Frederick’s Tailoring and Quality Cleaners.”

At 68 years old, however, Daniels is feeling his bones.  He can see the end in sight.  But, the good days are still awfully good.

“When I can bring happiness to someone based on something I have personally done for them, that they didn’t think could be done, it is very fulfilling to me.  It just happened a week ago.  Young lady with a wedding in Dallas, Texas.  A bridesmaid dress was way to small for her.  I turned it around in one day.  She came in, she couldn’t sleep the night before.  There was no material to make it larger.  But we work small miracles.  Magic is one thing, but a miracle is something else.  Magic is making something appear that wasn’t there.  A miracle is just making it happen.   She cried because I saved that dress for her.”

This is all fine and good today, but wasn’t it unnerving back in 1965 to come to Des Moines, alone and only 17, to try to start this new life, and then struggle through job after job?

“I wasn’t nervous.  I had seen a lot of different things in the past.”  Daniels looks off, remembering.

And then this successful, mature businessman, operating a tailor and cleaning shop in a strip mall in West Des Moines, told me of a different time and a different place.

Back in 1963, Daniels, seated on the far left, was involved in the civil rights movement.  It was a heated time, a time of change, a time of protest.  In one protest in which he participated, he and two high school buddies were refused admittance to the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee, Daniels’ home town.  Separate but equal was the rule back then.  Each young teenager had the dollar admission raised in his hand.  Refusing to move.  This image was captured by a fellow schoolmate, Charles Howell, just before the teens were arrested by the group of white police officers.

“I am not bitter because of growing up with racism and segregation.  I have always looked at people as just being people.  Not being better than, more than, or less than me.  I respect people for what they’ve accomplished.  I don’t hold anyone in awe for what they do, or where they live, or what their last name is, or what their profession is.  With the support of my wife of 42 years, I’m able to continue to do what I do.  I am truly blessed.”

And Daniels laughs softly, adjusts his shirt, and gently touches the rack of clothes behind him, his life work.

“I take pride in what I do.”

Joe

“Do you know how many stories are in these old barns?”

I shake my head no.

“Well, the frost comes into the barn, and everything that happens that winter freezes along the inside walls.”

He pauses.  Lost momentarily in the high timber of an imagined barn.  He eventually  continues . . .

“You can be there in the spring when it thaws and you can hear and sense what’s happened in that barn all winter long.  So there are stories there.”

The traveling salesman.

A traveling salesman, miles from home and jittery from driving the Iowa gravel roads, pulls up the lane to a farmhouse.  The big trees cast a wide shade that wraps around the front porch, beckoning after the heat of the day.  To the side of the porch is a low-slung Adirondack chair directly in the shade.  The busy farm wife stops her chores to offer a piece of pie.  Unfortunately, the farmer is still off working in the barns.   But go ahead.  Take a rest.  Pull up your feet.  Dig into that pie.

Sorry, Tim Florer, our traveling salesman, did not take the invited rest.  Don’t get me wrong, Florer will not pass up the pie.  He appreciates good food.  But sit around while the farmer is working?  Please.

“I’m an old farm kid.  I love rural people.  I would drive out to Greenfield, Guthrie Center, Lamoni, Adair, and if the farmer was out there feeding the cattle or the hogs, I’d slip my rubber boots on and go out and help.  Why?  Cause you gotta.”

A life insurance salesman by trade, the patter rolls off Florer’s tongue as a warm embrace.  You are the center of his universe and he’s going to tell you stories and give you information and make you laugh, if by nothing else than his own beefy guffaws.  He’ll listen well, and then respond with vowels buttery to city ears.

“Aaaa’m here for you,” he says.

Of course he is.

“The kitchen table.  That’s where 99% of the life insurance business is done.  At the kitchen table.”

His big arms balance on the table.  His large frame blocks any other view.  You can sit back and relax.  He’s going to take care of you and the conversation.  Both.

“When I sell life insurance, I ask them to give me their dreams, give me their goals.  And I try to take care of them.  It’s not real fancy.  It’s about honesty and integrity.  It’s simple.”

Of course it’s not simple.  But Tim Florer is a born salesman.  Perhaps serendipitously so, but a born salesman he is.

“I was 20 years old when I was working at a bank and got a letter in the mail saying you were recommended by someone saying that you would be good at life insurance sales.  So I went and took the aptitude test.  Passed it, and I went into the training program.  Three weeks into the training, I asked the trainer who it was that recommended me.  He starts laughing.  He says, ‘We go back and find old marriage licenses from the past year, and everybody gets the damn letter.’”

His large laugh erupts causing all around him to laugh.

“I’ve been doing this for 42 years.  I’ll do this until they put me in a hole.  I mean retirement?  What is that?”

The artist.

Our salesman was traveling the back roads of Iowa selling insurance as he is supposed to do.  He noticed, however, that the farmhouses and barns were vanishing before his eyes.   He started looking more closely.  With a camera.

“Atlantic, Iowa.  I’m on the way to an appointment.  Gravel road.  I hear a voice, ‘Turn right.’  I’m the only person in the car.  But I’ve learned enough over these years, you hear something, you do it.  I turn right.  Go up a hill.  To my left is this stunning old windmill.  A fence post with the wire wrapped around it.  It became the covers of one of my books.”

A lot of photographs are taken by Tim Florer.  Many backroads are traveled.  He soon compiles several photography books.  All beautiful.  All published in large formats.  All in black and white.  A passion is born.  Capturing moments in time.

Of course, photography is just the beginning.  Florer starts writing fiction and poetry that echo his life philosophy.  In fact, his most recent book, Full Circle, will be available at a book signing on September 24th, at St. Mark Center, 1105 Grand Ave., West Des Moines, 6:30-8:30 p.m.  He promises — in his best salesman voice — a unique experience.

“When you come to one of my book signings, they’re like something you’ve never been to before.  I greet you at the door.  You go over and get wine and a full spread from Gateway.  In the back, I’ve got two cellist.  People come, eat, buy a book, and they stay.  No texting!  Simple communication.  It’s wonderful.”

No doubt.

The gifter.

Our traveling salesman developed a certain view of life: “Appreciate those slivers of time that we all have, let them soak into your soul so that you can recall them later as a comfort to yourself.  It’s those precious moments.”

Tim Florer has taken it as his mission to pass on unexpected kindnesses as a way of focusing our attention, of “soaking our soul” in the moment, and of giving back.  So every week, Florer anonymously buys lunch for some table at Trellis Cafe in the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden.  He hopes to bring a little joy to some customers.  And maybe they’ll pass it on.  That’s his hope.  He buys the meal and the server leaves a poem on yellow paper.  Simple enough.

Although, trust me, if you’re at Trellis, you won’t see Florer.  Only the poem delivered to some table.  And perhaps a smile of joy, or maybe a few tears, from those receiving the gift.  A moment, for sure.

And, of course, this creates another story that waits to be told at another time with a different cast of characters.  Barn stories work that way.

Joe

“I’ve had a good run on this kidney, but it’s about up.”

Really?  Who says that kind of thing?

The school building lies low in the afternoon shadow of the golden Capitol.  The Iowa State Fair is over.  The legislature is long gone.  The parking lots for the nearby government buildings are hushed after the late-summer hustle and bustle.    But all is not quiet for the school in the shadows.  New decorations are on the walls.  Desks and chairs are carefully aligned.  And over there are boxes and crayons and paper and class plans.  Check, check, check, and a final check.  At last!  The first day of school is about to begin at Capitol View Elementary School in Des Moines.  Today, everything is possible.

“I won’t lie, the first three days of kindergarten are the roughest.”

Tim Robinson shakes his head and rolls his eyes and then groans for my comic relief.

“It’s not that they don’t know their letters or they can’t count, they just don’t know school.  Things like — this is how we line up, this is how we sit still, this is how you raise your hand if you have a question, this is how you wait your turn, this is bathroom expectations.”

Perhaps you didn’t talk about bathroom expectations last week at Principal or John Deere or the Public Defender’s Office, but, for Mr. Robinson, this is meat and potatoes.

“I think the two biggest academic transitions that students make are kindergarten and college.  Kindergarten is a huge step.  You’re stepping into another world.  You’ve been with mom, or dad, or whomever, for five years.  Then you’re expected to spend a whole day with not only a complete stranger adult — who might be a big, loud man — but also with a bunch of strange kids.”

Mr. Robinson is a big, loud man.  Slim and muscled, with a tightly trimmed beard, short red hair, arched eyebrows, and a wide smiling mouth.  A man that is certainly up for fun.  You gotta a story?  Let’s hear it.

“One of the kids the other day, a really sweet kid, was talking to me.   I said, ‘Do you know what this color is?’  He didn’t.  I tell him, ‘Well this is a yellow crayon and it’s yellow.  What else is yellow?’  He said, ‘Bananas.’  Great.  ‘Okay, find the flower that is this color.’  He pointed to some yellow flowers.  ‘Wonderful,’ I said. ‘What’s the color of the flower?’  He said, ‘Banana.’”

Laughter all around.

Ah, but there is also a more solemn side to this young teacher.

“I had a little boy that screamed for the first half hour of every day for eight solid days.  We could not figure out what it was.  Come to find out he had a terrible past with his dad and was deathly afraid of men and that’s what the issue was.  We put him with a female teacher. That was really hard for me.  It broke my heart.  That was one of my kids.  I’ve had rough kids every year.  You’re never going to have an easy class.  This job would be boring otherwise.”

Mr. Robinson has goals and plans and projects and fun and play for all his kids.  Teaching is a love.

“This is going to be my 8th year teaching kindergarten and my 9th year at Capital View — I taught one year of 2nd grade.  I’ve loved it all.  This is my career.  This is what I want to do.”  Mr. Robinson pauses.  “And there won’t be any social security left anyway, so I’ll be doing this until I die.”  Mr. Robinson smiles.  “That’s okay.”

But there is a little bump on his road to glory.  A small one.  In the shape of a kidney.

“The kidney thing started about five years ago.  I woke up one morning and had a low-grade fever and both my ankles were swollen.  I knew that wasn’t good.  I didn’t know why.  They informed me I was in end-stage renal failure.  I didn’t know what renal failure was.  I asked him what that meant.  He said your kidneys have shut down.  That wasn’t fun.”

Both of his kidneys failed.  But he had some good fortune.  After a painful five-plus months, Mr. Robinson got a new kidney.  A cousin was a close match and she agreed to give up a kidney.  An angel on earth.

“I would not have said yes to talking to you unless there was a chance it could get word out for organ donation.  I will do anything to get word out.  I was part of the 17% of people who needed kidneys that year that got them.  People wait years to get even a cadaver kidney.  It is so important to be an organ donor.  To even consider saving a life.”

But now his new kidney is going south.  He is thrilled with the five years from his cousin’s kidney and feels it was a wonderful gift.  But at 33 years old, he’s not done and wonders about the next step.

“I don’t think about this all the time.  Whenever I do have a thought about what I potentially have to face, these kids are a huge part of what I have.  A day without the kids is a day wasted.  Every day I get up knowing that these kids expect to see me here.  And if I have expectations of them, I should be here for that.”

He looks down.  Quiet.  Thinking.

“The kids and I have stuff to do.”

Of course.  The day’s a-wasting.

Joe

Wet with dew in the morning, dry and dusty by noon, the August grass is course and thin and dying.  Even before each day gets too far along, the heat presses everything into the shade.  Hot and heavy.  Only the cicadas give voice as the birds and squirrels hide in cover.  Sadly enough, it’s time to face the facts.  School looms on the horizon.  Vacations are coming to an end.  Work awaits.  Only one last gasp of summer remains.

It’s the cow days of August. 

The first bull comes out, scared and stubborn.  Can you blame him?  The Red Angus is clearly not liking how his day is going.  He is a hot mess even with the air conditioners roaring.  The arena is packed with spectators.  People are yelling and clapping.  The announcer voice crackles over the loudspeaker.  The smell of corn dogs and nachos and ripe manure drifts around the sanded ring.  The bearded large man in the feed cap, and the tough wiry woman in a white t-shirt, push and nudge and push and nudge to get the reluctant bull onto the scales.  At last we get a weight.

Ahhhh . . . pretty darn big, but not big enough to win the Super Bull contest at the Iowa State Fair.

Meanwhile, at the dairy barn . . . .

“Cows like to be milked.  It really relaxes them.  Most farmers milk twice a day.  Some milk three times a day.  The average dairy cow produces 8 to 10 gallons of milk every single day.”

Celina Young, a student from Iowa State University, smiles.  She is a fountain of knowledge as she lectures outside the milking parlor at the Iowa State Fair.  Even with her microphone on the fritz, she hikes up her voice and carries on.

“She’s going to dip that teat in iodine and let it sit there about 30 seconds.   Then she’ll use a rag to wipe it off.  After that she’s going to take two strips of milk out of the teat and this is going to serve two purposes.  She gets a visual assessment of the milk, she wants to be sure it is the right color and nothing in the milk that might be wrong.  The other thing is, it stimulates milk let down.  We can’t just expect to put a milking machine on her right away and let her milk go.”

The crowd and I all shake our heads in agreement, “No, we certainly can’t expect that.”

Back at the Super Bull competition . . . .

The trailer backs up to the opening into the arena.  The loud and raucous spectators are ready for the second bull.  Heck, we are all old hands now.  We see how it’s done.  Get the bull out of the trailer, guide him to the scales, get him weighed, and whisk him back home.  Simple.  Come on.  Let’s go.

Oh my lord!  What is that?

The crowd stops breathing.  We all stop breathing.  Out of the chute of the trailer comes a massive, white, muscled monster.  On it’s toes.  Rippling, snorting, prancing, invincible.  It roars onto the sand.  And the crowd gasps with delight and fear at the rawness and power spinning off this Charolais bull.

“To milk a cow by hand, It is pretty similar to the machines.  We still want to go through all the hygiene.”  Celina smiles after her group presentation, happy to be talking about milking and farmers and a way of life that she loves.  She comes from a long line of dairy farmers and wants to make a career of informing people about the important role of farmers in our lives.

“Okay, so what I always tell beginners, you want to start by pinching these fingers, like that, and then pulling straight down.  When you get more advanced you can do a rolling technique with the fingers.  When I get going with both hands . . . just like that.”

And a stream of milk shoots from the cow, who continues to chew, nonplussed.

Meanwhile, the monster Charolais stands on the scales.  He barely fits.  Muscles dance under his skin.  Listen, there is no doubt to any of us watching that this bull is doing exactly what he wants to do.  He’s willing to get weighed, he’s willing to get fussed over and have his picture taken, and he’s willing to not jump the barrier and crush us.  For this we are all thankful.  Unless, of course, he changes his mind.

“Dairy cows eat about 100 pounds of feed every day and a bathtub full of water,” explains Celina.  “Why are dairy cows so skinny?  Dairy cows are like Olympic athletes.  They are high performance animals.  They eat all that feed and drink all that water and all that energy goes into making milk.  Other cows are like body builders.  They are meant to put on lots and lots of muscles.”

The Charolais bull, owned by Gene Bedwell of Osceola, does not win this day.   With a weight of 2,726 pounds, the Charolais was 167 pounds short of the title.  As for the milk, it keeps flowing from the dairy cows into large containers.  Splashing and rolling in a stream stronger than the flow from a garden hose.  And then it’s suddenly over.  The cow is meekly led away.  Show is done.  End of the night.

So we all start to drift home.  School, work, no fun, all await at the other side of the fair.  September is pulling us forward with an unwelcomely firm grip.

Ah, but what’s this?  In the birthing barn.   A new calf is born.

Hah!  It’s still the cow days of August.

Joe

Children should not die before their parents.  Parents should not die before their grandparents.  And husbands should die long before their wives.  This is not complicated, right?  There is an order to the universe.  This domino has to fall before that one falls and the next one and the next one.  “To everything there is a season . . . .”  Get with the program.  It’s either your turn to die or it’s not.  Rules are rules.

And, by the way, doctors should not die before their patients.  Ever.

But Doctor Charles R. Caughlan did die the other day.  Most of you didn’t know him.  He was a thoughtful man, who listened well to complaints, and had a deep competence.  A rare thing, that.   Doctor Caughlan’s job at his office on Mills Civic Parkway was the stuff of life and death.  With his stethoscope placed gently at your back, he would listen to the workings of your body, looking for anything amiss, anything not behaving as it should, anything that might foretell the end.  There was no room in this doctor-patient relationship for his own ending, his own death.  But die he did on the first day of July, when children’s laughter echoed in neighborhood parks and the orange day lilies blossomed in Iowa yards.  He was 66 years old.

Don’t worry, I get it.  A relationship with a doctor is always intimate.  Doctors look at every wrinkle and spot and discomfort that you hide from even yourself.  Especially from yourself.  They will tap your knee, listen to your insides, have you cough and move around, and then discreetly probe even further.  Yup, count on it.   Samples will be taken, and blood drawn, and scrapings taken here and there for even further examinations long after you’ve left the office and are waiting in some drive-thru for your large order of fries.  It’s exhausting work to keep you alive.  And some guy or gal has agreed to the challenge.  But Dr. Caughlan was unique even among these special folks.

“Call me Charlie.”

The fit man, with meticulously combed grey hair, a back that was ramrod straight, looked at me with a professional appraisal.  Not exactly a father figure, but a man of authority, a man to rely upon in a tight spot.

“Call me Charlie.”

“Well, Charlie, I don’t feel so hot.”

And Charlie would figure it out.  Tie pulled tight against his neck.  Two pens properly aligned in his white doctor’s coat. He would go to work on your body.  Sickness would be banished.  Aches and pains diminished.  Tests and probes would conquer ill-founded fears.

“You’ll never die of a heart attack.”

Really?

“Brain tumors are not contagious.”

Are you sure?

“Pain is not acceptable as a way of life.”

My oh my.

No matter the problem, no matter the issue, Charlie diagnosed, treated, and solved the puzzle.  A miracle man.

Several eulogies were given at Charlie’s funeral.  Beautiful eulogies.  Come to find out that Charlie was a man of humor and joy, who loved his family, his children and grandchildren and above all his wife, and took care of his friends.  He talked with others about religion and grace and golf and accepted all that they were, just as they were.  I loved that he sometimes had a wicked temper on the golf course and he had a real joy in cooking.  Who knew?

“You should retire,” Charlie said to me one day with a serious tone.

What??????  I’m too young.  I have a career.  I have work to do.

“You should retire,” he repeated doggedly.

Why, Charlie, why, after all these years, are you giving me this unsolicited advice?

“You have a stressful job.  You had a bad accident that surely didn’t lengthen your life.   It is a good time to retire.”

I sat dumbstruck.  But it was Charlie, so I listened.

And retire I did.

Then Charlie died.

What is going on here?  My expectation was that he would usher me into my own death.    Didn’t I make that clear from the get-go?

More than several years ago, I lay in a hospital bed, paralyzed, breathing out of a hole in my throat, unable to talk.  Charlie picked up my file.  Looked it over slowly.  Straightening up he gave me a small smile, tight and serious above the mouth.

“You’ll make a full recovery,” he said to my silent shock.

“He’ll make a full recovery,”  he assured my ever-present wife.

“You’ll live forever,” he summed up to both of us with conviction.

And Charlie went off to take care of his other patients.  Making the rounds.  Reassuring us all.  And we all breathed easier at his light step and steady hand.

Listen, none of us believed that we would live forever.  Of course not.  And none of us believed that we would make a full recovery.  Nobody makes a full recovery.  Rather, we all expected that Charlie would be there to reassure us through the next catastrophe.  And the next.  And the next.

I have no reassurances to give those touched by Charlie.  It’s not fair.  Life is out of sync.  Your doctor should not die before you.  Charlie was a good man who should be here today.  But I will take to my own grave the picture of him casually leaning against the examining table, his small smile as he looked at me, scared and unsure, and his gentle reassurance that all would be right.  And it was.

May he rest in peace.

Joe

The trainer sits large at his desk.  Clothing loosely draped.  Arms and legs wide and open. Hair pulled back in a tight pony tail.  He seems too meaty to be your typical trainer.  Too much bulk.  Picturing him doing a downward dog seems like a stretch.  It’s much easier imagining him driving rivets on a steel girder.  Yup, a hard man doing hard work.

But the truth is that yoga and kettlebells and free weights and weight machines and bosu balls and rubber bands and TRX straps are all the tools of this man’s trade.  Justin LeHew is a certified trainer at Anytime Fitness in Beaverdale.  A good one.  But at night?  Mmmmmm . . . .

“All right.  Ladies and Gentleman, here to defend his IPW Heavyweight Title, is Juuuuuustin Decent.”

Rock music thunders.

Boos and hisses and catcalls reverberate around the room.  A giant of a man at 260 pounds jumps up into the ring.  The boos only get louder as he flexes to the four corners.  Then the young men in front of me, one with an iconic mullet, begin a chant:  “We want Ryan.  We want Ryan.  We want Ryan.” Ryan Slade is Justin Decent’s opponent for the night.  The crowd takes up the chant, stomping and screaming.

Justin stops his posing.  He points a furious finger at the crowd.  The scowl permanently etched on his face becomes only more menacing.  And he bellows:

“I don’t care what you want.”

With a  roar of defiance, he jumps out of the ring to confront the hecklers.  And the audience screams back at him with delight.

A typical night of professional wrestling.  Impact Pro Wrestling.  The main event for the IPW Heavyweight Title is Justin Decent, the current champion, versus Ryan Slade, the challenger.  A match for the history books.

“When I was 10 years old, my dad owned the Country Kitchen in Grinnell.  Several of the WWF wrestlers at that time had done a show in Des Moines and were on the way to the next town and had stopped at our restaurant.  It was late, the buffet was just closing.  They came in and asked my dad if they could have the buffet.  My dad said, ‘If you don’t mind signing a placemat for my kid, you can have the run of the buffet.’  I spent the night with the Junkyard Dog, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Hercules, some of these older named guys who I loved and still love.”

Justin LeHew wanted to be a professional wrestler.  But this desire had to go on hiatus for awhile.

“Two things I wanted in my life.  I wanted to be a pro wrestler and I wanted to be in the army.  So no one was surprised when I enlisted.”

After several years in the army, he went back to civilian life and began the extensive training to become a pro wrestler.    As life will have it, he was then recalled to go to Iraq.

“I was very proud to be doing what I was doing in Iraq — doing security and road clearing missions for explosives.  I finally felt I’d fulfilled the oath I had sworn to.  I was very scared during that time.  Anybody who says otherwise in that situation, I’d call baloney.”

But safely home he returned, back to becoming a pro wrestler.

And the fight begins.

It is out of control.  A Street Fight, they call it.  No Holds Barred.  Ryan throws Justin out of the ring onto the hard floor.  Justin flips Ryan up in the air and then throws him into a large trash can that then careens into the concessions.  Ryan lifts Justin and throws him into the chairs and then climbs up on the ring and jumps off the top to land on Justin’s prone body.  Justin tries to bash Ryan with a metal chair only to have Ryan grab the chair and crack Justin over the head.  Kicks and punches and eye gouges and elbow throws.  All in a days work.

“I was very active in theater and speech and debate in high school.  I thought I’d become a theater teacher when I left the army.  I did one semester of that.  I helped coach the debate club at Osceola.  But professional wrestling soon took care of my theater urge.”

Justin LeHew, the Iraq vet, trained hard and became a professional wrestler.  And once he’d achieved that goal, he was looking around for a day job.  With the advice of his wife, who reminded him of his love for the gym, he became a certified trainer.  A match made in heaven.

“I get to teach other people to exercise.  I get to help them lose weight, gain muscle, whatever their goals are, doing what I love doing.”

But few of his clients know him as Justin Decent.

“I started out with tights that had a parental advisory label on them and I went and bought an inflatable doll and carried it around as my manager for about five years.  I proposed to it in the ring.  It was a popular character with the crowds.  So I became Justin Decent.”

I didn’t get it.  Seeing my befuddlement, Justin said the names slowly again — Just-in-Decent.  Ooooh.

“To this day I still have a rewards point card for an adult novelty shop because in five years I bought 13 of those dolls because inevitably someone would fall on it and it would pop during the match.  I’d freak out like my wife just died.”

And what do you think of your career choices today?

“When I’m in the ring, the middle of the show, the crowd is having a good time and I’m having a good time, I’m right where I’m supposed to be.  And the kids that come are really part of that.  I feel a kinship with them.  I look at them, they’re having a blast, they’re cheering, they’re booing, and I think back to that kid at my dad’s restaurant, hanging out with those guys having dinner.”

Mmmm . . . Justin LeHew, aka Justin Decent.  Perhaps Just Decent.  A good man to tag team with when life hits you with a metal chair.

Joe

“A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead.”  So begins the story of the Good Samaritan, who stopped to give aid when those more upstanding in the community, the Levite and the priest, had no time in their busy lives.  Of course, this is just an old story.  A parable at best.  And even if it was a true story, the Good Samaritan is long dead.  If you stopped to give aid today, you’d probably get mugged by the victim.  Or at least get sued.

Right?

The dangerous road between Jerusalem and Jericho is not the same as Robert D, Ray Drive.  Trust me.   You should not plan on getting beaten or robbed or stripped of your clothes as you make your way down that road to Trellis cafe.  As for being left half dead on the side of the road, ignored by both a Levite and a priest?  I only saw joggers pass, a friendly, waving group.  Not a single Levite in sight.

Trellis cafe sits in the midst of plants, and trees, and ponds, and windows so large you don’t know whether you’re dining in or out.  Murmuring voices cover the room like a soft blanket.  The muted clink of dishes and silverware and wine glasses and the occasional high-pitched laugh make you wonder what you’re missing.   You want to be a part of this scene.  You want to raise your glass.  You want to exclaim over the desserts and soups and entrees.  This is an experience and you want in.

Ah, here comes the waitress.

Jeannie Punelli is in motion.  She flits gracefully from table to table, to kitchen to bar, and back to the tables.  Dipping in and dipping out.  Quick, concise movements.  Her lean form and slight stature evoke a fairy out of some ancient book.  A 60-year-old sprite right there among the lilies in the outdoor water garden.

“I’ve been a server for about 15 years.  Before that I was mostly a mom.  I love doing this, I have to say.  I really love doing this.”

Jeannie has three kids and eight grandkids.  She started serving food for Lisa LaValle years ago at the Des Moines Art Center, while her daughter, Rose, worked for LaValle as a chef.  And when LaValle moved to Trellis at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, Jeannie and her daughter were part of the easterly migration.

“I get to be with my daughter every day at work.  My daughter’s daughter comes in and helps us bus tables.  We are just a big family here.  I see myself doing this as long as I can.  My mom is 84 and still works.”

And the customers?

“I’ve built a relationship with so many of these people, they’re my friends.  I’ve watched people have babies, I’ve watched people die.”

But more is going on here.  Jeannie loves the restaurant, loves the food, loves her coworkers, but she has a plan for her customers.  Even when they are a little grumpy.

“I love to have fun with my customers.  Some are more fun than others.  Sometimes we have customers come in and they are just grouchy.  But a lot of times I have found they are just really hungry.  So once you get them some good food, it can be a whole new thing.  It’s kind of a challenge for me.  See if you can make them smile.”

“See if you can make them smile”?  This is your goal?  This is part of why you come to work each day?  This is meaningful?  Really?

And Jeannie’s smiling eyes tell it all.

But naturally that’s not the only story floating around at Trellis.

Jeannie tells me of a person who appears about once a week.  An anonymous person.  This anonymous person picks a table.  When it is time for the bill, that table is given a sheet of paper.

Our paths have crossed at one time or another

Maybe a hand shake

Or a short conversation

Eye to eye contact

A nod to each other that confirmed respect

You are a part of my life history

As I am of yours . . .

So today, I bought your lunch

As an unexpected kindness.

“We just give them that poem and say this is your bill today,” Jeannie says with a twinkle.

How does the anonymous person pick the table?

“The person just gets a feeling or a vibe about what table to pick.  Sometimes I’ll tell the person about somebody I think is deserving.  For example, there’s a couple I’ve waited on for about 15 years.  He passed away last year after having Parkinson’s.  She was in with a friend and I told the anonymous person a little about her.  See, I’ve been through cancer with a three-year-old grandson, and she and her husband were good to me throughout that.  They came in every week and checked on me. . . .   The bill at her table was picked up.”

Jeannie tells me that these random acts have trickled down to all of them working at Trellis.  “It’s really cool how it’s affected so many people.  It’s a neat thing to be part of.”

I smile at the thought.

And that’s enough for her.  A smile collected.  A poem delivered.  And Jeannie is off to serve another slice of chocolate zucchini cake.

Joe

The nasal, clipped tone of the August 1945 radio broadcast reaches across 70 years.  It is up-to-the-minute coverage of the loud celebration in downtown Des Moines after the announcement that Japan would surrender.  WHO Radio is reporting:

“Des Moines tonight personifies the State of Iowa at the end of the war.  You can hear the noise.  Thousands of persons of all ages appeared from nowhere as soon as the news was flashed.  They’ve jammed the business district with noise makers and confetti, to say nothing of fireworks and bombs.  It gives the Des Moines loop the appearance of a thousand state fairs.”

World events caused this mob scene in downtown Des Moines.  August 6th, 1945, Hiroshima was struck with the first atomic bomb.  August 9th, 1945, Nagasaki was hit with the second.  August 15th, 1945, Japan announces it will surrender.

Almost exactly 70 years ago.

The late July heat dances with puffs of wind, dosey-doeing down the nearly empty main street of this small Nebraska town. The road is wide enough to be a six-lane beltway around some grand big city, but the tractor hauling a trailer of hay does not have to worry  about merging traffic or restricted taxi-only lanes.  The farmer in his air-conditioned cab lifts one finger from the steering wheel as he passes.  The old man and I wave back from our spot on the wooden bench, where we are taking a break from being guests at a wedding.

The old man continues his story.

“I was young and a patriot during that time.  The Second World War was not like any other war.  That was a just war.  If it wasn’t for that war, you and I would be under Hitler.” The words come slowly, thoughtfully, and with precision.

“When the war started, I had my basic training in the army.  They made a radio operator out of me.  Morse code, you know.  Then they sent me to a little island off the coast after that.  There were 25 soldiers there.  All morons.  I was the only radio operator there.”

Clearly, Russell Tershy does not suffer fools.  His first job, at the age of seven, was to gather the plums his father shook from the trees in the fields of California.  And that was just the beginning of years of harvesting, selling, managing, and ultimately founding a successful job training program throughout California. He has no time to waste on those who don’t want to work.

“I was asked by the military if I wanted to go to a university to study a foreign language.  Chinese is what it turned out to be.  So I was sent to Stanford University for 12 full months at the start of World War II.”

Tershy’s mother and father did not have the luxury of such an education after they immigrated from Lebanon.  In fact, Tershy’s mother never did learn to read and write.  The family ended up in Oklahoma in the ’20’s running a successful grocery business.  Good for several years, but like many Americans, they lost everything in the dust and depression.  When Tershy was five, they moved to California.

“There were 65 students in the Chinese class at Stanford.  The military kept knocking them out.   Finally there were 25 of us left.  Three of us were sent in the middle of winter to Texas and we were trained to ride and pack and take care of horses with the 1st Cavalry Division.”

Tershy’s family set up shop in California as soon as they arrived from Oklahoma.  They sold vegetables, worked in the fields, did whatever needed to be done to survive.  Tershy was there with his family when war broke out across Europe and the Pacific.  And now as a member of the U.S. Army, he had learned Chinese and was training with the cavalry in Texas.  Go figure.

“Then we were sent from San Francisco on a troop ship.  It was destined for India.  They were building the China-Burma Road and I believe we were supposed to be assigned there using our Chinese.”

Of course, this made sense, but life is never a straight line.

“So we were on the troop ship headed for India.  The troop ship stopped off of New Guinea.  We languished there.  We couldn’t understand what was happening.  It is my belief that they changed the orders of the troop ship right then.  To our great chagrin, we landed in the Philippines.  So, we became infantrymen with the 1st Cavalry for the rest of the war.”

Tershy was assigned to an eight-man squad that was sent out in the jungles of the Philippines for four months to ferret out resistant cells of Japanese.  His group was eventually brought back to prepare for the invasion of Japan.

“Two weeks before we were scheduled to hit the shores of Japan, the war ended.  The atomic bomb ended the war.  When we finally got to Japan, the 1st Calvary Division was the first to put their feet on Japanese ground.  The three of us who spoke Chinese did nothing with our Chinese.”

I ask for a picture.  So 93-year-old Russell Tershy takes me inside the air-conditioned community center, grabs his 92-year-old wife Ellie, and gives her a kiss.

Tershy turns from his wife:

“I discovered that the 12th Regiment of the 1st Calvary Division, my regiment, would have been the first regiment to hit the shores of Japan and they estimate we would have had 80 percent casualties.  I was chagrined about the atomic bomb when it happened, I had a lot of questions.  But I am convinced that was the only thing that saved my life.”

The live WHO radio broadcast from 1945 continues, reporting reactions to the Japanese surrender:

“Up in Waterloo, Iowa, Mrs. Thomas Sullivan, mother of the five brothers who perished in the sinking of the Juneau back in November of ’42, was unable to speak.  Her daughter, Genevieve, explained that Mrs. Sullivan was glad for the other boys returning, but her sons won’t be back.”

Russell Tershy shakes his head at the strangeness of life and war.  And he and his wife walk down the empty main street in this small Nebraska town, leaning together, 70 years later.

Joe