WESTMARK, IOWApop. 1,847 · founded 1854 · elev. 1,114 ft
"Well folks, pull up a chair and grab yourself a cup of coffee, 'cause this week on Middle America we are headed deep into corn country to a little river-bend town that — I kid you not — has its own official anthem. Words AND music, town-council adopted, the whole works. And come summer, every soul in town turns out under the bandshell and sings it from the top."
The Bandshell — Linden Common
"You see that little half-shell up on the green? Built by the WPA boys in '37, painted a dozen times since — currently a color the town calls 'parsonage cream.' Every June 14th, Flag Day, the Westmark Community Choir steps up under there and sings the anthem from start to finish. Whole town in folding chairs. Dogs in the shade. Kids on shoulders."
The Composer — Miss Hattie Greb (1898–1971)
"Meet the lady responsible. Miss Hattie Greb — organist down at First Methodist for forty-one straight years, never missed a Sunday but one. Wrote both words and tune in the spring of 1927. The story goes she scratched the first verse on a brown grocery sack in pencil, waitin' on the streetcar at the corner of Eulalie and Cherry. Town council adopted it official two years later, by a vote of seven to zero."
Verse the First
The cottonwoods bow low —
Your iron bridge and quiet ends
Will never let us go.
"Now listen to that. Iron bridge — that's the Eulalie Street crossing over the Big Sioux, built 1891, still standin' and still rattles your fillings loose. Quiet ends — that's a true Westmark expression for the side streets that dead-end at the bluff. You won't hear it anywhere else, folks. Hattie put it in a song and now you know it too."
The Tune — Verse Melody (Key of D, 3/4)
"Hattie set it in 3/4 — a waltz, friends, which is mighty unusual for an anthem, most of 'em bein' marches. But Hattie said, and I quote from the '52 Westmark Star-Picayune: 'a town's anthem ought to feel like a slow dance with the place.' Can't argue with that, can ya."
The Chorus — Everyone Sings
Sing the prairie wide;
Wherever Iowa winds may roam,
You'll find us by your side.
"Now THIS is the part everybody knows. You can stop any kid in town, ages five to ninety-five, and they'll give you that chorus without a hitch. I tested it on the way in. Six for six, friends. Six for six."
Verse the Second
The hours keep gentle time;
And every face we meet down there
Is half a verse, half rhyme.
"That second verse — that's the one that gets folks. Half a verse, half rhyme. Pat Cernava who runs the diner on Main told me she has not made it through that verse dry-eyed in twenty-two years. And Pat does not dab easy, friends. Pat is a tough customer."
June 14th — The Annual Sing
"Comes Flag Day, the lawn fills up. Folding chairs from the Lions Club, a sheet cake from the bakery on Cherry Street, the mayor reads the proclamation, the choir steps up, and the whole common — maybe four hundred strong — joins in for the chorus. Last summer I caught the tail end on my drive through. Pulled the rig over and just sat in the cab and listened. That was a good twenty minutes, friends. A real good twenty."
The 1999 Sing-Along Roster
"Town clerk's been keepin' a roster of every voice that's stood up under that bandshell since 1934. They tell me it's near eleven thousand names by now. If you ever make it to Westmark this Flag Day — you sign in, friend. They will save you a folding chair."
Current entries on the 1999 roster: —Sign-Off
"That's our visit to Westmark, friends. A town with a tune, and the gumption to sing it every June regardless of weather, mosquitoes, or which way the news is goin'. Wherever the road takes you this week — keep an eye out for the small places. They are doin' fine. They are doin' just fine."
somewhere outside Sioux City
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