12 Things Only an Iowa Childhood Teaches You

At Kinnick Stadium, when the first quarter ends, fans turn and wave to the kids at the children’s hospital.

Iowans grow up with traditions like that and figure everyone does.

Here’s what only an Iowa childhood teaches you.

1. Detasseling

Detasseling means walking cornfield rows and pulling the top off each plant by hand.

Seed corn companies hire thousands of seasonal workers for it, since removing the tops produces hybrid varieties.

The minimum age to detassel in Iowa is 14, and the workers are mostly teenagers.

Nebraska lets 12-year-olds do it legally, according to a 2022 Nebraska Examiner report.

Sign on, and you’ll be in the rows for a season of about 20 days.

A seed company manager told Iowa Public Radio in 2018 that crews leave the field once the heat index hits 105.

That manager also has many crew leaders who started in their teens and are now in their 50s and 60s.

2. Gravel Roads

Gravel roads make up about 58 percent of Iowa’s road miles, out of more than 115,000 miles in all.

The Gazette traces the share to cost, since grading, paving and maintaining a road is expensive.

Less-traveled roads tend to stay gravel.

Many Iowans who grew up outside town can still name the gravel road that led home.

3. Driving at 14

Iowa lets you start driving with an instruction permit once you’re 14.

Georgia sets the bar a year higher, with a learner’s permit application at 15.

Your parent or guardian has to give written consent.

You can take the knowledge test at home, as long as a parent administers it.

With the permit, you can drive at any time with a supervising adult who holds a valid driver’s license.

That adult can be a parent or guardian, a family member at least 21, or a driver education instructor.

4. 4-H Clubs

Iowa 4-H Club is for kids in fourth grade through 12th grade.

Clover Kids covers kindergarten through third grade, so your younger siblings can join in.

Texas 4-H starts a grade earlier, with youth in 3rd through 12th grade, ages 8 to 18.

The state fair exhibit handbook lists project areas that include food and nutrition, photography, and science, mechanics and technology.

5. State Fair Contests

Little Hands on the Farm sends kids through a swine barn, a garden and other farm areas, then ends at a mini grocery store.

Kids under 10 can join the fair’s Blue Ribbon Kids’ Club.

The fair’s Ag Art Contest splits entries into four age groups, from 3-4 years old up to 9-12, so you can enter anywhere from age 3 to 12.

The first butter cow was sculpted in 1911, and the current one comes in around 600 pounds of butter.

The fair ends on the Sunday two weeks before Labor Day.

That dates to 1994, when the fair board moved the dates up a week to avoid earlier school start dates.

Iowa’s 2027 fair runs August 12-22.

Wisconsin’s State Fair opens a week earlier, on August 5.

6. Hunter Education

Iowa kids can enroll in a state hunter education course at 11.

Eleven is the floor.

Finish at 11, and the certificate becomes valid on your 12th birthday.

Students ages 11 to 17 can take an online course plus a field day.

Anyone born after January 1, 1972 must be certified before buying an Iowa hunting license.

Wisconsin sets no age floor for its traditional course, since its natural resources department says students of any age may take one.

7. Late-August School Starts

In a traditional-calendar district, your first day of school in Iowa can't come before August 23.

School boards set the exact date from there.

Year-round calendars don't have to follow the start date.

Minnesota's statute is stricter, saying a district must not start the school year before Labor Day, with exceptions such as certain construction projects.

8. School Tornado Drills

If you went to school in Iowa, your school had to run at least four tornado drills a year, two between July and December and two between January and June.

Illinois asks schools for a minimum of one severe weather and shelter-in-place drill under its School Safety Drill Act.

Every March, the state adds a statewide drill during Severe Weather Awareness Week.

The 2026 drill was on the calendar for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 25.

The week included a special statewide test of the outdoor warning sirens, TV station KTTC reported.

Neighboring Nebraska held a statewide drill that same morning, so Iowa wasn't the only state running one.

The National Weather Service in the Quad Cities called it a chance for families, schools, hospitals and businesses to test their severe weather plans.

9. Six-on-Six Basketball

Starting in 1934, Iowa girls played a two-court, six-on-six version of basketball.

Teams had three forwards and three guards, and nobody crossed the center-court line.

Players got two dribbles.

Out of several hundred teams statewide, just 16 made the trip to the state tournament in Des Moines.

Tune in during the late 1960s or early 1970s, and you were one of an estimated five million viewers across nine Midwestern states, Iowa PBS says.

The first five-on-five state championship came in 1985, alongside a separate six-player tournament.

The Iowa Girls' High School Athletic Union voted unanimously to end six-on-six in 1993.

10. Hawkeye Wave

If you're at Kinnick Stadium when the first quarter ends, you'll see fans turn toward the children's hospital and wave.

The University of Iowa Health Stead Family Children's Hospital opened across the street in early 2017, and its 12th-floor windows looked into the stadium.

A Hawkeye fan posted the idea on Facebook before the 2017 season opener, and the first wave came that year.

Pediatric patients from the same hospital serve as Kid Captains, a program that began in 2009.

They're honored on the field at home games, and they pick a song for the Hawkeye Wave.

11. Caucus Night

Iowa Republicans caucused in precincts across the state on January 15, 2024.

Democrats took a different route.

They ran their 2024 presidential preference by mail.

Caucus sites were normally places such as churches, community centers, schools or libraries.

At 17, you could take part in 2024 as long as you would turn 18 by Election Day, November 5.

Education Week reported in January 2020 that Iowa high school civics teachers were using the Secretary of State's free "Caucus 101" lessons, including mock caucus exercises.

12. First Fish

Iowa residents under 16 can fish without a license.

Trout are the exception, since you either share a licensed adult's limit or buy a trout fee.