Happy President's Day!

Since I mentioned Barbara's Bake Shoppe in the last post, I thought we'd take a little trip down Memory Lane.

Barbara's Bake Shoppe was located on Washington Street in Iowa City, roughly two blocks from Schaeffer Hall where my father had his office. Every morning when I was in college, Dad would give me money and send me to Barbara's. There I bought him a plain cake doughnut and a black coffee, and I would get a half pint of milk and some delectable pastry. I think maple snails were my favorite, with thick maple flavored icing. Running a close second were the raspberry jelly sticks, which were made of puff pastry about a foot long, criss-crossed with white icing, and which would disintegrate after one bite into a pile of crumbs on your lap. You also couldn't beat their chocolate covered cake doughnuts. In February Barbara's celebrated Valentine's Day and President's Day with everything cherry flavored: snails were covered with cherry icing, the jelly sticks had cherry filling, etc. I would then trudge back to Dad's office carrying a little white bag of goodies and we'd have breakfast using his big Steelcase desk as a table. Only after we had completed this ritual could the day begin.

Try as I might, I can't find any pictures to accompany this post. You'll just have to use your imagination, and leave further Iowa City reminiscences in the comments!