The Kalona Fall Festival has become an annual international event for the extended Thirtle family. Eric Thirtle met wife Doris in 1966 when she was with a friend visiting her brother serving in England.She decided to stay a year and began working at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford.
Though Eric jokes he was evicted from his ancestral home, he returned with Doris to Kalona in 1967 and they were married.
His brother, Ian, lives in Birminghamshire about 40 miles northwest of London. He has been making a tradition of visiting twice a year during the spring and for Fall Festival. Of the last 12 years, he said, he has made the local event 10 times.
Sister Anne Williams also visited this year for her third visit.
Ian said small villages in England will have festival activities, but are smaller and mainly aimed for their own residents.