You never forget your hometown. There are the traditions you wish you could always continue and the stories nobody else could understand unless they lived there as well. Where is Knoxville, Iowa? Most people have never heard of it, or when you say Knoxville, they think Tennessee. Those that do know where Knoxville, Iowa is, are either from there or are sprint car fans. It is a hometown to some and we have our own strange traditions. Here are 12 things you only understand if you grew up in Knoxville, Iowa.
No matter how old you were, nothing was better than going outside to play with all the kids in the neighborhood. Whether it was four-square, hide-and-seek, or water balloon fights, they were there. Living in a small town with little to do encouraged you to use your imagination. The only negative was when the streetlights came on it was time to say goodbye. At least until tomorrow.
It was North versus East versus West. That is until the school board decided to combine them. Each school had their very own slogan, “West is best.”, “East is beast.”, “NorthSTAR” and you fought for your school to be the best. Of course, recently all the schools were combined to have kindergarten through second grade at West Elementary and third through fifth grade at North. Maybe East was the least? (I’m partial to North since that was the school I went to.)
There wasn’t much on the square downtown, maybe a restaurant or two and an old movie theater. But there was one night each year that you couldn’t miss heading to the square and that was the Thursday night the week before Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Living Windows. Each and every business opened their doors and had a Christmas display in their windows. School groups participated, there were cookies, hot chocolate, and apple cider, horse-drawn carriage rides, Santa and Mrs. Claus, and to top it all off, the lighted parade to end the night. There was no better way to get into the spirit of the holidays.
Knoxville, Iowa holds three parades each year: Nationals, Homecoming, and the lighted Christmas parade. The one float that you will see in every parade every year, is the Pirate bus. It is just a bus turned into a parade float that looks like a pirate ship. This float was known to break down. It broke down and was the cause for delay in numerous parades through the years. It was also seen quite often at prom. With prom walk-in being held outside, what you arrived in at prom was a big deal. Each year, some group always thought it would be funny to show up in the pirate bus. And each year it happens.
It’s not Rihanna’s song. It’s not a stress signal. If you’re from Knoxville, you know that SOS stands for Save Our Stadium. Our football stadium isn’t like most other schools. It is down in the ground and we don’t have metal bleachers. Instead, we have a cement version built into the ground. It is the historic Ken Locke Stadium. It was named after a Knoxville football player who had lost his life after some rough injuries during a football game. Around ten years ago, there was talk about “remodeling” the stadium. The town was desperate to save the stadium and had signs and multiple fundraisers. Needless to say, Ken Locke Stadium is still standing the same way it has for the last 80 years.
Across the Red Rock Lake is our neighboring town, Pella. They beat us every year at football, it’s not something we like to talk about. We have always been rivals and nobody is sure when or why it started. Both Knoxville and Pella have a canon on their town square, merely for decoration. However, Knoxville’s canon points at Pella and Pella’s canon points at Knoxville. Coincidence? Probably not.
Summer is the best time of the year. Not just because school was out, but the best ice cream joint was open. While it was a tad expensive, Kone Korner was always worth the trip. Whether you got an Indian taco, a chocolate malt, a cookie dough Siberian, or even their famous cheese balls. Most towns of our size have a local ice cream joint, but there is no one better than Kone Korner. Trust me, I’ve been to many others, and they do not compare. Knoxville, Iowa ice cream is where it’s at.
For a week in July Knoxville hosted the Marion County Fair. Also known as the week for the 4H and FFA students. There is never anything to do at the fair unless you have animals to show or Deyer Hudson projects. Our midway consisted of four or five rides, that were fairly small. (See what I did there?) But for some reason, you wanted to go when you were a kid. Sometimes even as a high school student, you would go. I think that may have just been to get out of the house, because there isn’t much to do in Knoxville, Iowa.
The ten days of the year when Knoxville triples in population. Ten days of sprint car racing. Knoxville, Iowa is home to the Knoxville Raceway and the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum. It is also known as the Sprint Car Capital of the World. Each year for ten days in August, people from all over the country, and all over the world even, come to watch the sprint car races. There are vendors set up all over the area, with food and different merchandise. Many organizations use this time of the year to fundraise. They sell programs, 50/50 tickets, park cars, and more. I did my fair share of selling 50/50 tickets, and chances are if you participated in anything growing up, you were at the raceway fundraising too. Nationals is one of those events where you either love it or you hate it. Growing up near the track, I wasn’t a fan. You couldn’t drive anywhere or even sit in your own yard. (We had people camped in our yard.)
We are known for our dedication to the American Cancer Society. Each year we dedicate a day and basketball game to this organization. There are alumni games in the morning and afternoon, a special dinner, and an all day silent auction. All the players wear pink, including the opposing team. Between the boys’ and girls’ games, they have the cancer circle, where they acknowledge those who have battled cancer and won, are battling cancer, and those who have battled cancer and did not make it. There are also numerous fundraisers throughout the year. During football season, we have the Cancer Relay where Knoxville citizens run around the town for 24 hours for donations and usually total up a few hundred miles. The last few years Knoxville has made donations over $75,000 to the American Cancer Society. Our most recent donation has put our cumulative donation total past the half a million mark. It’s probably the only Saturday you willingly spent at school.
The girl at the checkstand at the grocery store was probably also your babysitter. Your history teacher was also your track coach. Your parents went to high school with half of your teachers. Knoxville has a population of roughly 7,000 people. With that many, you probably know over half the people living there. When you were out, you may not have known it, but your parents were still watching you. They have connections all over the town and have people who will watch over you when they can’t. And with an average graduating class of 150, chances are you knew everyone you went to high school with. At least, you knew their name. As we grow, and some of us return, we will have these connections our parents had who will watch over our future children.
In high school, you heard everyone talk about how much they hate Knoxville, Iowa and that they can’t wait to get out and never return. While that may be the case for some people, quite a few of us will return. Sure, Knoxville doesn’t have much to offer, but for some people, it is enough. Sometimes for those who want to leave, it isn’t the town they don’t like, but perhaps some of the people they grew up with. They just want to leave them. So most of us who want to leave, we will return, even if just for a short while. You can never really leave your hometown.
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