Taconite Curtain is a play on words from the iron curtain (meaning russian and the eastern bloc countries of the cold war). It refers to the slow progress and backward tendencies of people from Minnesota's great white tundra. The boom in mining created many cities along the iron range of Minnesota that have Taconite is iron-bearing rock that is mined in northern Minnesota.
Snowmobiles and ATVs are like candy to kids behind the taconite curtain.
Even after garnering fame, Bob Dylan was still despised by some behind the taconite curtain.
The new 21st century recession has had little effect on the constantly depressed cities behind the taconite curtain.
A person who hung out or hangs out in the Towson area of Baltimore Maryland. While not an official group or organized gang, this loose knit group of individuals of all races, sexual orientations and walks of life consider themselves a family and have taken care of their own since the late 1980s. Originally begun by a core group of social outcasts by the mid to late 90s the group had swelled to several hundred. Accused of being hooligans, misfits and runaways the group survives to this day.
You gotta remember that a lot of people HATED the lanky kid with the nasal voice--until he moved away and got famous. There are still plenty of haters here behind the taconite curtain, but maybe not as many.