NOTEBOOK – One Good Read: Iowa Nice on display

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When Christopher Cadelago, a native of California and a reporter on the caucus trail for Politico, ran into a snowdrift during this past weekend’s blizzard, he also slid right into some good old-fashioned Iowa Nice that garnered the state some positive national press. Buckingham residents Janet and Mike Shock took in the stranded Cadelago for the day while he waited for the roads to clear. After 12 hours, a brief marital dispute about what type of sandwich (cheese or peanut butter) to pair with chili, some political talk and some tweets about the experience that got some attention, Cadelago, at the urging of the family, wrote about his experience. Here’s the end to the piece: “Janet was preparing a supper of goulash and corn when the Oscars came on. I told her about the tweets, and she urged me to write something about it. ‘I want people to know that there are good people in the world that would take a stranger in,’ she said. ‘We’re all people. We’re all human beings. God put us on this earth for a reason. We should all take care of each other.’ Before pulling out of their driveway at about 9 p.m., I told her it wasn’t my thing to write about myself. So she suggested we make it about her state. ‘I want people to understand,’ she said, ‘what Iowa is all about.’ ” Read the full piece