Editor’s Note: This column first published in the Aug. 13, 2015 edition of the Jasper County Tribune.
One of my first memories of the Iowa State Fair begins on the operation table in a small medical clinic at Southridge Mall. It sounds like a bleak way to remember one of Iowa’s great events, but I promise this gets better.
My dad and I were out shopping for suspenders to look more era-appropriate. Two weeks prior, I was selected by my kindergarten teacher at Stowe Elementary School to represent 5-year-olds statewide at the fair’s county school reenactment. It’s similar to civil war a reproduction but minus the cannons, Calvary charges and add arithmetic and poetry.
I was ready to experience how the rural community once practiced education. I had the flannel shirt, the denim and the little newsboy hat, but my attire lacked the accessory to keep my britches up. My 5-year-old self took this responsibility very seriously. So dad and I went to the mall to get the last necessary item. After nearly two hours walking from one end of the mall to the other — you’d be surprised how difficult it was to find suspenders to fit a 5-year-old in 1991 — my legs were tired. Dad, determined to find the item and keep me comfortable and quiet, put me up on his shoulders.
I’ve never been an athletic person, and that day I proved it at a young age. I lost my grip and fell from my dad’s 6-foot 2-inch frame, the back of my head the first part of my body to greet the floor. Dad was pretty shaken, as there was quite a lot of blood. He scooped me up and ran me over to the medical clinic based at the mall. Twenty sutures later, I was ready for country school.
The country school at the Iowa State Fairgrounds was originally North Lincoln School, built southeast of Indianola. The history of the country school on the ISF website details the progression of the building’s move to the Fairgrounds in 1969 by one the school’s graduates. Educational programs are still held in the school during the fair and it was renovated in 2009 with authentic-era furnishing, a wood stove and desks fixed to the floors.
Although I had a few stitches, I enjoyed every minute of the experience. The one-room school house became my home eight-hours per day for the week of the fair. Spectators came by and watched the K-5 students read from our grade-level books, write on the chalkboards and sit in the corner with the dunce cap.
The instructor drilled us on basic math problems and we learned about the importance of the county school system to rural and small town families.
As the ISF continues this week, I’ll go back to the old country school building as I do every year to reflect on that week 25 years ago. I was a little banged up, but it was an experience which adds to my love of the state fair.
Contact Mike Mendenhall
at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com