ABC Wednesday Challenge - K

It's ABC Wednesday again, and this week, the letter is K

I thought about just throwing out random KILOBYTES of KNOWLEDGE like:

KANGAROOS can hop up to 75 KILOMETERS per hour.
and

KOALA Bears are not bears at all, but are really a cousin to the wombat.
and

From places in the south of KENYA, you can see Mt. KILIMANJARO, which has three volcanic cones, one of which is named KIBO.
and
KIM KARDASHIAN KEEPS KLUTZY KITTENS in a KING-SIZED KENNEL.

(OK, I just made that last one up)

But I just wasn't too KEEN on a whole page of that KIND of KOOKY stuff.

Then, my KIND and KNOWLEDGEABLE wife reminded me of my roots...

There is a country song that says:
I feel no shame,
I'm proud of where I came from,
I was born and raised in the boondocks.

Well it may not be the boondocks, per se, but KEARNS Utah sure felt like it when I was a KID.

It was a little windy, dusty corner of the world.


OK this isn't exactly what it looked like when I was growing up. This picture is from about 20 years earlier.
KEARNS came into existence May 1, 1942 as a World War II United States Army Air Force training facility known as KEARNS Army Air Base.
It was redesignated: Camp KEARNS on January 1, 1944.
It was named after Senator Thomas KEARNS, a Utah Senator who had amassed a fortune in silver mining in Park City.
.
After the war was over there was no need for the facility, and it was decomissioned, but since water and sewer lines had already been installed, it was an excellent place to build houses, and soon they began springing up everywhere.

My parents bought their home there two years before I was born. So, I went to West KEARNS Elementary School. This cannon and flagpole, remnants of Camp KEARNS, used to sit on the corner of our playground at West KEARNS, and as KIDS we got to play on them, but they were moved in the 80's to a street corner where they sit today.

And of course KEARNS High School:


I last lived in Kearns in 1987, and it has grown and changed a little since then.

The Utah Olympic Oval in KEARNS was the venue for long-track speed skating events in the 2002 Winter Olympics. Because of its altitude, which gives it the thinnest air of any such facility in the world, and its unique architecture, which allows for close control of temperature and ice conditions, the Oval saw numerous records set during the games. It remains arguably the fastest ice surface in the world. The Oval is still in operation, hosting both competitive events and public skating.

Incidentally, the oval was built at the site of the KEARNS swimming pool, where I was a lifeguard in my teenage years.

Please take some time to check out what others were INSPIRED to blog about this week, at

ABC Wednesday,
and feel free to add your own blog to the list as we work our way through the alphabet.

~{@ @}~ ~{@ @}~ ~{@ @}~ ~{@ @}~

Be sure and join me each Tuesday for Tuesday Trivia Tie-in, where readers are invited to share trivia and show off their treasures.


Read all about it here