Ali Knox continues to operate hair salon at her home

Alice (Schultz) Knox was the third youngest of six girls and five boys and grew up on a farm in the Henrytown area, north of Canton, Minn. Ali said she went to the Elstad country school for a half year of kindergarten where her older siblings attended.  
Growing up in a big family, one of her older sisters spent a lot of time keeping track of her as her mother was busy with the home projects plus taking care of the other family members.
Some of the jobs she would do was making sure the house floors were kept clean so she scrubbed the floors on her hands and knees to make sure the job got done right. Helping with the baking, ironing clothes, picking and washing the eggs plus washing out the milking equipment were other chores that she helped with.
Ali said she had a real struggle with reading so her third grade teacher recommended that she should repeat this grade. Her mother would work with her each week going over the “Weekly Reader” they got at school and her reading skills started to really improve so she did not have to repeat that grade.
Since they had a big family Ali would share a bed with an older sister.  
One day another older sister got her own new single bed but she was also a bed wetter. Ali said: “why do I have to share this old bed while she gets a new one, maybe I should start wetting the bed so I can get one by myself too.” Her dad said: “I wouldn’t think twice about that girly” and that took care of that issue.
Ali said they always had horses at their farm and horseback riding was something she really enjoyed doing. Whenever possible coming home after school she would go out for a ride and it was really a relaxing time for her. Her mother did not like being around horses but her father did, so he would hitch up Bill and Duke, (Percheron horses) and take the family out for sleigh and wagon rides.
Ali attended school in Canton and when she was in high school, Mabel and Canton merged. She was not involved with many school activities and quit playing the clarinet as she didn’t like the new band instructor.  When she told her mother what she had done, mom told her “you better tell your father as he won’t be happy” but he accepted it.
Ali said she was in the County Dairy Princess contest and remembers going to get her hair all fixed up and going through the pageant committee questions and the ceremony program. She wore her nice yellow dress and got to ride in a green Corvette convertible in the local parade for their dairy days so that was a highlight.
Ali graduated from high school in 1970 and the school counselor asked her what she was going to do with her life. She signed up to go to Winona Vo-Tech in the beauty school program. It was 1,600 hours or about a one-year course. 
The students would practice on people coming to the school for haircuts and she really enjoyed the nice older ladies that would come in to get their hair done, she said. She thought about staying in Winona but since some of her family members had moved to the Rochester area she made the move there. She started working at a salon near the American Legion and then to another salon in Rochester. She then worked at Saint Marys Hospital for the next five years and would cut hair for hospital patients in their hospital basement salon and sometimes in their rooms. She did cut hair for a few celebrities such as actress Agnes Moorehead (Bewitched TV show) and the nanny for Sonny and Cher. 
Mrs. Oscar Mayer mentioned Ali should get a job on a cruise ship and Ali thought about it but after seeing the movie “The Poseidon Adventure” she forgot about that possibility. The cruise ship was hit by a huge tidal wave, turned over and nine survivors were trying to escape.
Her future husband, Steve Knox, was a couple of years older and attended the same high school. When Steve was home from college at the University of Chicago and was looking at the school yearbook his sister brought home, he asked who that girl in drug store yearbook adv was and it was Ali.  
The first place they met was at the Pla-Mor Ballroom in Rochester with Father Kapoun’s “The Polka Padre” band.  
Steve and Ali were married in 1973 and lived near the Madonna Towers area in Rochester. They started checking out the possibility of being a first time home buyer in Kasson in 1976.  After they signed the paperwork, Steve was wondering “Did we bite off more than we can chew?”  
Since they were expecting their second child the possibility of the new Kasson Medical Clinic was also of interest to them with their young family.
Steve worked at the Marquette bank in Mantorville so it was handy for him to come home and eat plus take care of the children at times and help with the dishes. Steve asked Irene Pappas (who had a beauty shop for many years in Mantorville) about the possibility of Ali starting her own hair shop and Irene told her to fill out the application and she started her beauty shop in their home in 1981.  
When the Mantorville bank was sold to the Hayfield Bank, Steve moved to the Marquette Bank in Rochester. She said Steve would see the positive in people during his long banking career and always told the family to think positive of people. 
Since they had one car, Steve told Ali that he had put in a bid on an older truck being put up for sale by the city of Kasson. They ended up buying this truck they called “Old Betty” and they used it for years for many different duties.  
One day Steve said let’s go and try out a boat. Later that day when they bought a boat Ali asked “how are we going to pay for this anyway? “
“I am giving up my smoking habit as I don’t need them anymore and he quit cold turkey,” Steve said. His father-in-law had mentioned to him at times, to do more for your family as tobacco is just a waste of money. 
They used the old gray truck for years to haul the boat around and enjoyed the boating trips and their kids got a chance to learn to water ski and tube.
Steve started to have struggles with Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinson disease and it progressed over a seven-year period robbing a once very energetic man with a progressive health decline. It was a tough disease, Ali said, and she took care of Steve during this time, but it was especially horrible during the last year of his life. Eventually Ali felt they needed to move to a one level house and they did in 2012 to the area near Prairie Meadows.  
Steve died in January 2013. Steve’s favorite times during the year had always been Christmas and St. Patrick's Day, Ali said.
After Steve passed, Ali would come up to Prairie Meadows to work with the residents, play games, cut and fix hair and be a dance partner with the residents as that is something she liked to do. She said she really misses the interaction with the residents after the virus canceled her visits just like she misses her church family friends when in-person services were cancelled. Ali said she wants to be treated with respect and tries to show that to others when working with them.
Ali has continued to operate her hair shop in a room of the attached garage and the sign on the garage wall is: “What Happens in the Garage Stays in the Garage.” She has given haircuts, perms, etc. for nearly 50 years. 
Ali said she likes to read, put together puzzles, embroiders, make wreaths, watch westerns on TV and enjoys walking about the Kasson community. She used to make wine, as that was something her parents also did, but said she no longer does that and gave away her equipment. She does enjoy having her five- year-old-cat, Cindy, as her house companion.
Her three children and one granddaughter are KM grads and two are now KM students. Matt lives in Montana and has worked at a dude ranch for the past 25 years located about an hour from Missoula.  Tara lives in Kasson and has been on the Triton teaching staff for over 20 years and she credits long time KM teacher, Phyllis Sands, for her mentor-ship guidance to encourage her to become a teacher. Lucas works in Zumbrota. 
Ali said she has had a good life, feels blessed to have had a great husband for 40 years, her children and grandchildren and many friends have all enriched her life in Kasson.
 
 
Photo: Ali Knox at her hair salon located in a room in her garage.