By Jack Corby
Posted: January 11th, 2020. Edited: January 14th, 2020.
As I type this blog out, I sit on a dead bus in Ottumwa, Iowa with 11 of my classmates, discussing pie, the rally we had just gone to, and the snow that was starting to pile up outside. Thank god the heat on the bus was still working. I look back on Day 2 of my Iowa trip and, once again, cannot help but smile.
Last night my class was given the chance to skip our ‘internships’ and attend, along with half the media team, an Amy Klobuchar rally in Ottumwa, a small manufacturing town about an hour and half south east of Des Moines. Her rally was scheduled for 2:30, but the bus left at 11am, giving us plenty of time to not just sleep in, but also explore Ottumwa when we got down there.
At first glance, this small Iowan town looked deserted and very run down, with the cloudy skies not helping the image. With a population of about 25,000 in the total area, the city houses major food processing for the state, creating just over 3,000 jobs for the town. When walking the streets, we stumbled into what I would now consider a hidden gem in the great state of Iowa. Maybe even the entire Mid-West.
Founded in 1936, The Canteen, pictured above, is a modest place, not even large enough to be called a restaurant. It is about 10 x 20 feet total’ and is actually so old that the parking garage downtown was built around it! It is a simple layout with a giant horseshoe bar, sitting only 16 people at a time. It is run by four older women, all of whom are born and raised Ottumwians. When you walk in, you notice the pictures on the wall that surrounding the countertop. Everything from a pin map of customers’ homes to a picture of the Flood of 1947 to pictures of FDR and JFK. Inside of the horseshoe stands the four old women next to a giant metal box filled with streaming ground beef, as seen below. On a nearby countertop sits ingredients, everything from melted cheese to a fried egg. The Canteen serves their famous “Scrambled Hamburger”, which is just ground beef that is piled into a hamburger bun. I had mine “the Classic Way”, which is melted American cheese and mustard on the bun. Once you got past the fact that the meat you were eating was served out of a giant trey and you really had no idea where it was coming from, the sandwich was very, very delicious.
When talking with local Iowans about The Canteen, they said it is “World Redound”. When asked why, they pointed to June 1st, 2018 when Joey Chestnut, the hot dog eating champion of the world, came to town and managed to eat 28.5 Classics in 10 minutes. They said that the crowd at the event hit the 1000s and that even the Des Moines news picked up the event, revealing just how small-town Ottumwa really is and how much pride these women and Iowans have in their Canteen.
Ottumwa even houses the 201st best news market in the country (out of 210 for those who are keeping count). But, what they lack in ratings they make up for in heart and grit. The small station is only about 30 x 40 feet of a space, with the small production studio crammed right next to the news desk. They only have five employees, no in-house camera-people and no producers. The news anchor does her own editing and producing, all of it in house.
After poking around the little town, we finally entered the building we had driven almost two hours to tour: The Bridge View Center, or the location of Amy Klobuchar’s Ottumwa rally. Per my last post, Amy is my favorite candidate. Even though she is perceived as a simple soccer mom from Minnesota, she is so much more than that. With strong beliefs on a healthcare overhaul and helping reduce the cost of education, she combines a law background with experience in many committees within the US Senate to present a track record that not only speaks for itself, but distinguishes herself and reveals why she is more than qualified to serve the country from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
She started her rally with small jabs at Senator Sanders that escalated to large, knocking blows at the current President. She brought up Trump’s two-sided politics, stealing from the poor but lying to the poor at the same time. She described how this election cycle is not about policies or how tall someone is (the Senator stands at a modest 5’4, without her heels), rather it’s about how everyone, both democrats and republicans, needed to return to “sanity” and “reliability” within the oval office. How the office is missing justice and accountability. How it has no decency or even a plan, instead just typing away at Twitter to defend any moves that are made, everything from policy changes to missile strikes.
As I sat there and listened to my favorite candidate, watching her move around on a stage that was no more than 10 feet away, I thought of someone I met while canvasing the day before. The man, whose name I never caught, described that he would caucus for, and eventually vote for, any candidate that he felt could stand up to Trump and fight back. He is a retired fire fighter that needed more health care coverage than what was currently being offered to him, but he said that the most important thing for his candidate will be the ability to be tough and not only throw punches, but take them as well. When I thought of this, something inside of me flipped. I realized now, more than ever, that Amy had ‘It’. Whatever it was, she had it. I was never old enough to see Obama and really not old enough to see JFK, but both men were described in having “It” and being able to change the world they were in. But listening to her and hearing her speak, I knew, more than ever that this short Senator from Wayzata, MN (shoutout Uncle Rich) had it, plain and simple. And once the rest of America realized that, the campaign pool was in trouble. Big trouble.
So now, I sit on this bus in Ottumwa, broken down because of a computer failure (probably from sitting in freezing rain all day). As the snow starts to pile up around us and we wait for a new bus, I cannot help but smile on today, another great day. I look down at my phone and see me, a 6’2 college student standing next to the future President of the United States. Iowa may not be so bad after all.
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