12 Unwritten Iowa Rules All in the Hawkeye State Know

Iowa is a state of many stereotypes. Some are inaccurate, some are maybe based in truth, and some are flat-out wrong (like anyone who says Iowa is totally flat). With that in mind, there are still "rules" that all Iowans know...

Call it a secret handshake of sorts, Iowans are all well aware of certain unwritten rules. There are 12 that I came up with, which you can see below.

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Before we get to the unwritten rules, a little background on where they came from. I am not a native Iowan (GASP!) I know, I know... and you betcha, I'm a native Minnesotan. So to be fair, I went around and asked people in the office who'd been in Iowa for their whole lives, or at least 25 years, to get their thoughts.

I asked about 8 coworkers, and found several that were similar enough, or flat out overlapped, that I'm satisfied this is a true, authentic list of 12 unwritten, but still known, Iowa rules.

If you have any to add at the end, I'd love to hear from you on the station's Facebook, or you can certainly call us up and let me know what else needs to be added to the list.

Shall we dive in? Let's go!

Now that we've established some unwritten rules, how about we break a stereotype: that Iowa is flat and boring. While portions certainly are flat and could be perceived as dull, that's far from being the MO of the entire state of Iowa.

These photos will help persuade you if you don't believe me.