The Field of Dreams

We watched the movie 30 years ago and it instantly became a lifelong favorite. Scenes and lines are ingrained in us, almost as if we were there.

Well, last week we were there. We are fairly convinced they got it wrong in the movie with the famous lines, “Hey, is this heaven? No – it’s Iowa.” It might be heaven, or at least very close. Iowa is amazing. Endless cornfields, beautiful skies, and some of the nicest people ever.

The drive from Iowa City to Dyersville is an hour and a half through God’s country. Beautiful white farm houses, red barns and endless cornfields. We thought it was going to seem like a long drive but we were so wrong about that. Every now and then we would slow down to go through a small Iowa town, each one more charming than the last.

The Field of Dreams is a short drive out of Dyersville, long enough for anticipation and excitement to build. We stopped the car as we pulled onto the lane that leads up to Ray and Annie’s house, the barn, the field. Being there gave us chills. We can only compare the nostalgia to visiting Fenway Park or Wrigley Field, baseball icons. As Kevin Costner said in the 25th anniversary tv special, “It is perfect”. Since we’ve been home, we have watched the movie, the 30 year anniversary special and also the 25th anniversary from 2016. Our experience at the Field of Dreams lends a whole new feeling to the movie and the television specials.

As soon as we parked, we went out on the field. It was early morning and only one other couple was there. The corn was still up, we found out they leave it until mid-November. We walked through the corn and toward the MLB field. Imagine only a couple months ago, the Yankees and the White Sox were in that same corn field!

The Field of Dreams is magical. The ghosts are there. The dreams are real. We could almost hear the voice.

Our tour guide was a wealth of knowledge. She talked nonstop for over thirty minutes, telling us behind the scenes facts that we had never heard before. How the movie was filmed the summer of 1988 during one of the worst droughts in Iowa history. The corn stopped growing at about a foot tall and started to turn brown. The movie needed corn! With the help of three local fire departments, water was brought in and the fields were irrigated. Within a few weeks, the corn was too tall. Kevin Costner had to walk on a platform built of apple crates in order to be shoulder high to the corn.

The inside of the house is almost identical to the movie. Some items were left in the house after filming, like the thousand dollar iron range/oven. Others were replaced with look alikes. The china cabinet in the dining room is full of souvenirs: a signed copy of Shoeless Joe (the book the movie is based on), several autographed baseballs including one that Kevin Costner signed , “See you at the movies”, a framed photo of Dwier Brown (Ray’s dad), and one of the eight homerun balls hit during the major league game this summer.

Looking out the living room window at the field is an incomparable experience. We were inside the house where Ray stood as he looked out and saw the ghost of Shoeless Joe. Once again, we felt chills. Kevin Costner says being at the Field of Dreams makes the hair on the back of your neck and your arms stand up. He is absolutely right about that!

We stood on the bleachers that were built during the film. The bleachers were “vandalized” by Kevin Costner when he carved Ray loves Annie inside a heart. That piece of the bleachers was moved to the very top in order to help preserve the carving.

By the time our tour was over and we looked through the gift shop, there were at least fifty people on the field. Lots of kids having a catch with their dads. The sounds of bats hitting balls, gloves catching balls, laughter. The Field of Dreams has to be pretty close to heaven.