Last Saturday night found me where I seem to end up once or twice a month – tending bar at the Warren Cultural Center in nearby Greenfield. It’s a volunteer gig. My contribution to the center, a wonderful addition to the local arts scene.

According to the State of Iowa, I am officially qualified to serve liquor. I have a certificate to prove it and everything. Friends and family have suggested I hang it in my kitchen near the island where the drinkers hover during gatherings.

Saturday’s event was the Annual Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame Banquet. It’s a major affair. The Hall of Fame is housed at the Iowa Aviation Museum north of Greenfield, one of the area’s many attractions. For several years I volunteered to write the induction copy, and the stories are fascinating.

This year’s inductees were the three Iowa members of the Doolittle Raiders. On April 18, 1942, 80 men flew the dangerous mission to bomb Tokyo. Sixteen B-25 bombers made the flight. Most did not return.

The mission was a turning point in the Pacific Theater, proving to the Japanese high command the islands were not impenetrable, and giving the American forces a morale boost that set the stage for the Battle of Midway.

The Doolittle Raiders volunteered for the mission, showing bravery in the face of what was most certainly a suicide mission.

The Iowans in the squad were Sgt. William Dieter, Cpl. Leland Faktor and Col. Charles Greening. The awards were presented to several of their family members present for the event, as were military and civilian dignitaries.

Guests mingled in the gallery, then heard the tale and honored the brave men while dining on Iowa beef and chicken and drinking Iowa wines in the beautifully restored Cultural Center auditorium. It was a wonderful night.

This Saturday I will be back at the center, participating as one of the artists in an Artist Showcase. The center includes Ed & Eva’s, one of the outlets for my photos. The store features the work of nearly 100 Iowa artists.

Several Greenfield businesses will hold open houses that day, ending with dancing to the Waukee Big Band at the Cultural Center. (You can even take dancing lessons prior to the main show.)

The weekend will also include a Holiday Boutique at the Henry A. Wallace Country Life Center (out of town the other direction.) The center is home to the quickly-becoming-well-known Gathering Table Restaurant that features food grown on-site in the acres of vegetable gardens.

That’s just this weekend.

Thanksgiving weekend there will be a lighted parade, and then I will join several other locals on the Cultural Center’s stage for a local Christmas talent show. Saturday there will be a craft show at the fair grounds.

The next weekend, chocolate rules with the Chocolate Affair and “Death by Chocolate,” a dinner theater production by the local theater group, the Cumberland Rose Players.

There is a point to all this promotional rambling, besides pointing out all the opportunities for local Christmas shopping. This is four consecutive weekends 10 miles from my home.

And this doesn’t account for school events, other restaurants and bars, the bowling alley or the movie theater – all in a county of 8,000 people.

Someone said to me not long ago they couldn’t live in a small town because there is nothing to do.

That, my friends, is simply not true.