Rocking in Griswold

I'm helping teach the "Farm Tax School" for the ISU Center for Ag Law and Taxation. It's not really farm-specific, and we cover a big range of topics. I'm getting to see towns I've never visited, or, in the case of Griswold, I've never even heard of.



I tend to think of Mt. Vernon as the small-town prototype, but there are lots of Griswolds for every Mt. Vernon. These pictures were taken on the main street at 8:30 in the morning on Monday. Not much of a traffic problem. Nor are high downtown rents a hindrance to growth.





You only have to look at the buildings to see that the glory days were about 100 years ago here. Still, there's obvious pride, like this pretty old building fixed up as a cafe. The classes were held in a nice new community center built with a resident's bequest. The 130 people in the classroom must have doubled the downtown population, at least, for the day.




Still, there's lots of work to do. The Arlington Hotel doesn't look like it's had a traveler for some time.



I love doing the classes, and it's nice that the weather is still nice enough to see all the little towns.