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Poll: Do You Know What A Kybo Is?

Do you know what a kybo is?

  • Yes

    Votes: 207 84.1%

  • No

    Votes: 39 15.9%
  • Total voters
    246
I didn't know this was part of the Iowa regional dialect until now though.

Makes me curious what else are #JustIowaThings
 
I can't remember when I first heard the term Kybo. I can't think the last time I heard it but recognized it instantly when I saw this thread. I usually just say Porta Potty
 
Grew up in the CR area and was a boy scout. Never have I heard of this until now.

On a white water trip in Utah I did learn groover though. The "toilet" (brown only) was a glorified ammo case with a toilet seat on it. Well they didn't always have the toilet seat so you got grooves...
 
cyhiphopp said:
I didn't know this was part of the Iowa regional dialect until now though.

Makes me curious what else are #JustIowaThings
Click to expand...

They have pork tenderloin sandwiches other places, but they are ubiquitous in Iowa.

Most non-Iowans I have met have never had a pickle wrap. If you don't know what that is you need to turn in your card.
 
rdtindsm said:
Be careful what you ask for. This will be absolutely more than you want to know. This is after some idle web surfing off and on over several years and is more of an over view than an academic research project. Some bits and pieces may be considered apocryphal, but seem to ring true.

The term “kybo” seems to originate from summer camps, both in scouting or other private camps and more in the northeast referring to a brand of flour that came in cans that were repurposed to store the lye used to control odor in outhouses.

I first heard the term on Tagbrai (Third annual bike ride across Iowa, IIRC) I don’t know if the first RAGBRAI actually had an acronym.
Kaul and Karras in a column just sort of invited people to ride across the state with them and woke to find several hundred people waiting outside their motel. The second ride was SAGBRAI (Second Annual Great …) and the third one was TAGBRAI (Third annual ...). At that point, it was evidently an unsustainable naming convention and became RAGBRAI.

For that year and several years after, the porta-potties were actually branded “KYBO”. This should actually be a case study in a marketing course. They had “Kybo” branded tank tops and sweatbands. Even an unofficial and ad hoc Kybo queen was nominated. The war cry “Kybo” was yelled at the top of besotted lungs during all hours of the night. That no longer happens; you just hear doors slamming into the morning.

One of my sources suggested the word is endemic to two subcultures, those of summer camps of the northeast and RAGBRAI. Given the place the bike ride has in Iowa culture, I would accuse you of not being a true Iowan if you don’t know what the word means.

KYBO RECYCLING
Click to expand...

I'm going to guess that they stopped at three because the Fourth Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa wouldn't have marketed very well......o_O What did they call the first?
 
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KYBO was actually a company that made Porta-potties in the 70's and 80's and they had the contract with the Des Moines Register for RAGBRAI for several years, but they were not able to support the ride after it got so big. There Porta-pots were made a fiberglass and quite sturdy. I can not find a picture of one from my early days of RAGBRAI, but I did find one of the KYBOs that were sold off to another company after KYBO went under.

Did find this: KYBO
 
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"Keep on going with KYBO!" Was a phrase/t-shirt often heard/seen on RAGBRAI in the early eighties. Being from the farm, where such aminities were frequently forgone, I quickly incorporated it into my vernacular.
 
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