Field of dreams, Dyersville, Iowa, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in September 1999
After finding the big football game at the university's stadium, I walked back to Haug Heaven, dried out (from the humidity), and took off in the car for Dyersville, home of the "Field of Dreams" movie of ten years ago. My friends had assured me that it was worth the trip. Besides, they said, there was a corn maze near it. Now, my friends back east raise their eyebrows and insinuate that I haven't been getting out enough when I start to tell them of the pleasures of trying to navigate a corn maze. But that's their problem. I had fun there, and I don't care who knows it.
Dyersville lies about 50 miles north of Iowa City. I deliberately took the back roads to get there, resulting in those beautiful pictures of countryside corn shown in the previous section. These pictures are of the ball field itself. I had a grand time there, doing nothing more than watching fathers and sons (and some moms, too) having the time of their lives standing where Shoeless Joe Jackson stood along with the other Ghost Players. And you know what? I even bought the video.
Dyersville is a special place where special American families can come. Enjoy these photographs.
The All-American scene, with son batting and fathers and mothers looking on.
Pow!! Watch out, corn!
What a beautiful panorama, almost out of a storybook. The baseball field was literally carved from the corn fields. One of the farmers' houses is in the rear, together with the barn and a shed.
Isn't this a beautiful left and center field? Can't you just picture the Ghost Players emerging from the corn? Can you sense how those kids felt as they stood right by that very corn at the edge of the outfield?
A little boy taking his turn at bat. This experience may be the highlight of their baseball lives. A few appreciative Family members are sitting in the bleachers along the first-base line, just where Kevin Costner and his family sat as they watched Shoeless Joe and his friends.
Interested players anxiously awaiting their turns. On this day, fathers were kids, too.
One of the neat things about Iowa was the way that seed companies demonstrated their varieties of corn along the side of the road. In an adjoining field, several rows of each showcased variety were marked with big signs such as these near the Field of Dreams. This is big business, folks! I walked along the signs and found that there were considerable differences among the varieties.
The entrance to the corn maze behind left field. You pay $6 to charity for the privilege of getting lost. I didn't think I would get lost, but it happened after about the third turn.
A view of the corn maze from the inside. This path is one of the wider ones.
Some of the paths in the corn maze as seen from above. Looks easy, doesn't it?
The "rescuer," who kept watch from above. If you got hopelessly lost, you held up a big white pole like the one leaning against this rail, and he came and rescued you. I did NOT need to be rescued!
Home plate signals that you have found your way out of the maze.
Garst is the corn company that sponsored the maze. Get the joke in the sign?
Bring back the Burma-Shave signs! I hope that all your fields of dreams will come true, too!