Jack Krusenstjerna said, "Well, Phyll and I were all over the
country. Various businesses. We lived in Spencer and I was taking care
of my stepmother in Odebolt. She had no children, and so I came back
here and took care of her properties for her. Her sister's husband had
died, so I was taking care of those ladies' finances, paying their bills
and all that kind of stuff."
Later, his stepmother became ill and moved into the nursing home.
When Jack's cousin moved out of his house in Odebolt, the Krusenstjernas
rented it from him. "We said we'd better go down for a few months; we
rented this house, then bought it, and just stayed here ever since, it
seems like."
"It was a lot easier to live here because I'd sold out my businesses
up there. See, I'd hit 65, it was time to move on, so we just moved over
here. That's how we got here. Old home week!
"I like small communities because, as you notice, I walk all the
time. I can walk around. I can get around well. I'm familiar with
people; you see people you know. You don't have to associate with all of
them, but at least you know who's around, and if you do have problems,
there are some telephone calls that you can make that somebody will help
you out. That type of thing."
And the Krusenstjernas have good neighbors who watch over their
property when they winter in Arizona. Jack said, "The young folks next
to us just take care of the place while we're gone."
He said of Arizona, "We're thinking of possibly making some changes
there too because, again, the population is just overwhelming in these
cities; I'm not very comfortable myself." He prefers the quiet of
Odebolt and its much smaller population.
"The people in the cities don't realize this, but we have excellent
medical facilities around here; we're close--we're within 15 minutes of
any hospital. We have doctors around here that we know, and if
necessary, they'll even stop and come and see you. We've had that
happen."
"We have the lady down here, and she does excellent work with people.
It's kind of like a nurse, you know, a little tender loving care; you
know who they are and you can talk to people about their personal
affairs a little bit and get them relaxed, and if it's something they
can't take care of, they know who to send you to, and you don't have to
wait to see somebody."
He says they find it necessary to shop elsewhere for some
necessities. "We don't have access to things as such, you know. At one
time these little towns had grocery stores, they had clothing stores,
shoe stores, and it may come back to that someday, with the way the
world's changing. Who knows?"
But what there is in town is convenient. "The grocery store is a
block; the post office is two blocks; go to church, we walk over here
across the street; the funeral parlor's two blocks up the street. We
have good fire protection a block away from this property, and things of
that nature."
Phyllis is a social person, and enjoys a morning coffee at a café
with friends once a week. The café is just over two blocks away from
their home. She also belongs to several organizations, some at the
church just across the street.
But people who live in small towns are a bit more wary than they used
to be. "Things have changed a great deal. We no longer walk out and
leave our house unlocked; that type of thing. Or cars. You don't see
people out on the streets walking places anymore. At one time everybody
would walk to where you're going in the community; but now it's a little
different."
"When we moved here fifteen years ago the taxes on this property were
$80 a year--can you believe that?--because it was valued at $1,500 on
the tax assessment. Now our taxes are $600 and something. I built a home
in Spencer in 1975, and it was assessed at maybe $35,000. My taxes up
there at that time were $1,400 a year. My daughter had an old brick
house in Des Moines--it was built in the 1920's, nice old brick house--and
her taxes were $4,000 a year. I have friends in Arizona that left
Chicago because their taxes got up to $8,000 a year on a house that they
probably had 30-40 years ago for little or nothing.
"People complain that live around here--prices are high, gasoline is
high, utilities are high, and the groceries are high, but they are not.
Our telephone bills are low. We have a good deal with the Iowa Public
Service [MidAmerican Energy Company]. They have good service--they keep
our lights going. It costs us, sure, but it's comparable to what you're
going to pay for utilities anyplace else. We have good water--a good
water system. Granted, it may not taste the best at times, but it's
there all the time, and if you've got a problem you know who to call and
in twenty minutes somebody's here to shut it off for you. We have an
excellent little grocery store--may not have all the variety of
everything, but what we've got is adequate, and price-wise we're better
than [a major grocery chain]. And an excellent meat-cutter--we get good
meats, so we're very, very satisfied. The only thing is, I can't get a
guy to cut my hair anymore. I go to one of the beauty shops. When Harvey
quit it was all over!"
Charles and Arwanna Hanson moved back to Odebolt after being away for
fifty years. Charles enjoys the many golf courses within a short drive
of Odebolt, the closest being the Sac County Spring Lake Golf Course
just five miles west of town.
The Hansons are impressed with the hospitals close to Odebolt, and
are very pleased with the excellent medical care they offer.
Both Arwanna and Charles graduated from Odebolt High School in 1940.
They married in 1944 just after Charles had received his commission in
the Navy. After he was released from active duty they lived in
Galesburg, Illinois and in Denison, Iowa, before moving to a
southwestern Iowa town, where they lived for thirty years, raised their
family and built a new home. Charles said, "And in that thirty years'
time I served on the town council, the library board, the planning
board, was involved in the town. But you know, we were never accepted.
They were going to have some kind of a special observance, but it was
just for the old established families in town. We newcomers didn't
count; we'd only been there twenty-five years at the time. So, I say we
were never accepted."
Arwanna interjected, "Although I played in bridge clubs," to which
her "established" neighbor was not invited.
"I know", Charles agreed. "We had a circle of friends."
"This three-bedroom home that we built in 1965 was a nice home." The
southwestern Iowa county where they lived has loess hills on the western
side, and the Missouri River is the western boundary. A state
institution in the county "covers a lot of ground, so there's not a lot
of taxable land along the west side of the county; they really lay it on
everybody else. That home that we built, the taxes were $1,860 a year. I
think when we started out we were paying about $1,200, but it got up to
be $1,800; in other words, our tax bill increased by fifty per cent, or
nearly so.
"Then I found out that decent homes here in the little old hometown
of Odebolt, the tax bill was in the $500 and $600 range, you know. And
Arwanna's only sister lived here, and my only sister lived here, and we
were both graduates of Odebolt." Three of their four children had moved
away, and the one remaining in the southwest Iowa town has since moved
elsewhere. "We had the opportunity to buy this house and come back here
in 1991. I left here in 1941 to go to work in an airplane factory in St.
Louis, and we moved back Memorial Day weekend of 1991."
"So the reasons were to get away from those high taxes, and the fact
that we'd never really felt like we were accepted."
The Hansons and the Krusenstjernas gave me many insights into their
reasons for retiring in Odebolt. Retirement is a time of life when many
people consider moving to a different community. Both couples had family
in Odebolt to welcome them, and Jack had relatives who needed his help.
Low real estate taxes were a major inducement; Odebolt has well-built
and well-maintained homes that are very affordable.
The slower pace of life, caring and friendly neighbors, the
convenience of churches, stores and services located within a short walk
from home---all are characteristics of a small town. This small-town
convenience is also valuable when you have a problem--the fire department
and utilities repair service people are only a few blocks away, and help
is available within minutes. Utilities are reliable and reasonably
priced; the service is good. Quality medical care is available in town,
and there are excellent hospitals just minutes away.
And finally, there's that ineffable sense of belonging and acceptance
in your hometown. After you've lived for years in other places, what can
be better than to come home?
