Knee high by the Fourth of July?
Published 9:35 am Friday, July 6, 2012
By Mark Steil, Minnesota Public Radio News
JACKSON — The growing season so far in many Minnesota corn fields has been almost poetic. Some stalks are nearly as high as an elephant’s eye, but you won’t hear many people use that song lyric to describe them.
Instead they seem to prefer an old rhyme.
“Knee high by the Fourth of July,” said Rachel Hollerich, a southern Minnesota farmer.
On the day before the Fourth, Hollerich repeated the well-known words while standing in corn nearly six feet high – taller than she is.
There’s no clear explanation when, where or why the phrase started. But even with its uncertain origins, it sticks around as a simple rhyme that people love to say.