A friend in Washington, D.C., posted on Facebook this story about an unemployed Ohio woman who moved to North Dakota just for the job.
[Janet Morgan] lowered her expectations and applied for hourly-wage jobs across Ohio. Nothing. She called a few prospective employers in neighboring Michigan and West Virginia. Nothing. She filled her truck and took a road trip around the country to drop off applications near her mother in California, her daughter in Nevada and her son in Washington state. Nothing.
Finally, on her way home from the West Coast, she swung through Bismarck, N.D. She had never visited the state before, and was pleasantly surprised to find "some civilization, like an Olive Garden and a Best Buy." The local paper published articles about a thriving economy; dozens of businesses hung "Help Wanted" signs. Morgan collected a handful of job applications and drove back to Ohio. Maybe in North Dakota, she thought, there existed enough jobs to accommodate someone who was "short, fat and old." She applied for a low-wage position at a Bismarck area call center. A few days later, the company called to make an offer. [Haha. Olive Garden = civilization.]
I was kind of kidding the other day about how we’re on TV so much that eventually people will realize North Dakota, with low unemployment, low taxes and low stress, is the place to be in this crazy economy. Guess that message is getting out!
This conversation in the story cracked me up:
"You must be the new woman," he said to Morgan. "Where are you from?"
"Ohio."
"Really? Ohio?"
"Yes. Ohio."
"That’s a ways. What are you doing here?"
"I moved for a job."
"All the way from Ohio?"
That’s the conversation I used to have when I met people in Grand Forks, except instead of Ohio it was Seattle. I sometimes still have that conversation. North Dakotans think anyone who wasn’t born here who chooses to live here is a little odd. Many North Dakotans, if they haven’t left already, secretly wished that they had.
I don’t know if I’ve told this story to you readers, but when I first moved to Grand Forks, my dad came with to help me move in and get a car. We were at Hugo’s our first night when this lady comes up and gives my dad a big hug. It went something like this:
"Oh hi! How’s it going? How’s your restaurant?"
"I … uh … I’m sorry; I know you?"
"Aren’t you the owner of the Chinese restaurant?"
"What? Oh, no, not me. I’m here with my son, helping him move. We’re new. Haha!"
"Oh, my gosh, my mistake! Hahaha! Where are you from?" (I remember a lot of embarrassed laughing.)
"Seattle."
"Is your son going to UND or is he in the Air Force?"
"No, he’s getting a job!"
Anyway, we eventually cleared that up. But note two things: 1) Asians are so rare that people have little practice telling us apart and 2) There are only two reasons for a young man from a big city to move to Grand Forks, and that’s cheap tuition or the military made him.
Oh, for sad, people!
I still get that, and I’ve been here for 10 years.
and you still don’t get the hint!
is that fargo calling?
ND is an oasis on the tundra. Or, is it snowblindness?
That Post article was deeply disturbing. I’m very worried for the woman featured. She moves to ND in search of a job, which is fine, but then, in order to save a few hundred dollars a month, she decides to live 150 miles from her place of work? That strikes me as showing signs of, at best, lack of common sense, and at worst, instability. She’s going to burn through gas at an appalling rate, spending far more on gas than she would on rent. And, in an old truck no less, which is liable to breakdown and strand her in the middle of nowwhere in less than hospitable weather.
This has disaster written all over it. There must be more here than meets the eye. Unfortunately, the reporter, bogged down in portraying the state as some sort of isolated backwater (no radio stations in rural ND? Really? Tell that to the farmers listening to their country stations) Hopefully some of the local people in Glenfield will catch word of this article, and keep an eye on her.
That should say “Unfortunately, the reporter, bogged down in portraying the state as some sort of isolated backwater, failed to explore the issue as they should have.”
Well love it or leave it ! If you were born in GF you are local. Otherwise, maybe not.
Ha ha. If not for the Internet, The Washington Post story would never have gotten here. I don’t even know where one can get a Post in GF. I’m sure they’re here…. somewhere.
Good eye Matthew–even though the article says “she drove through cornfields for over an hour,” according to Google Maps Glenfield is three hours from Bismarck.
That is weird. You would think she could have found a house to buy that was closer to Bismarck.
That article does little to change people’s perceptions of the state. Not that I can defend it that much (I’m not from around here), but it’s definitely not entirely backwater.
I attended a large, and very costly event held in a city out of ND hosted by ND government business development officials and agencies. They brought their “success story” and held the dude on a pedestal. They went on-and-on about what the state did to recruit this individual and his business. I remember he said that 11 agencies came at him throwing him cash and incentives. He went on and on about how he moved his business to ND and how happy he was. No one ever stated how many jobs he brought. After the event there was an informal mingling session. The dude revealed his business employed three people; himself, his wife, and his brother in law. This news spread through the group very rapidly and seemed to have a negative effect on the point that the ND officials were attempting to make. It was a truly bizarre experience. I think the message that attendees took away from the even was that the state was very, very desperate.
“Oh, for sad”?
You have so totally gone native. Congrats, and I hope you enjoy being a real Midwesterner. I know I do, every day.
Well, yeah, many times it is “oh, for sad.” After 20 years of living here, I still get asked, “You’re not from here, are you?”
Yes, there are many recruitment efforts by the state and EDC’s. But it seems in the majority of cases that the residents of ND only want ND natives who have left to return and are not really welcoming to anyone who came from somewhere else.
“But it seems in the majority of cases that the residents of ND only want ND natives who have left to return and are not really welcoming to anyone who came from somewhere else.”
Xenophobia is a central characteristic of Nodakers. Even Mike Jacobs admitted it in a column published years ago. Anyone from outside the state is viewed as a foreigner. The irony of all this is that the current “natives” are third-, fourth-, and fifth-generation removed from real foreigners who came from Europe. This is similar to the negative feelings people in the south have for all the retired Yankees moving there.
Aw, that ain’t so. Everybody in GF’s been super friendly. I think when people say “you’re not from around here” it’s because they think that ND is kind of crappy and they think everybody outside of ND thinks worse.
Anyway, the point Matthew and Matt made were also made in the comments section of the story by some Nodak readers. I think that maybe the woman in the story was only training to do call center work in Bismarck, but that she would do the call center work from home once trained.
SEI here in GF announced a few years back that high speed Internet connections had allowed it to tap into the rural labor force.
Thanks for clearing that up, Tu-Uyen. The work at home thing would make a lot more sense.
“Aw, that ain’t so. Everybody in GF’s been super friendly. I think when people say “you’re not from around here” it’s because they think that ND is kind of crappy and they think everybody outside of ND thinks worse.”
I would beg to differ. Perhaps everybody in GF is nice, 85 miles upstream–not so much. I’ve heard that common refrain multiple times. A couple of times it was in reference to me, a female, having the audacity to speak up in a meeting. It’s also been in a discussion of needs assessment for customers and I couldn’t possibly be correct because I didn’t really know the populace (after 18 years) because I wasn’t from here.
It’s not that they think ND is crappy; it’s pure condescension.
Maybe part of the problem is that even native Twin Citians are so prejudiced against anything outstate and Nodaks have been burned so many times by that attitude it becomes a sort of passive aggression towards outsiders. E.g. I work with a native of the Cities that can’t imagine having to travel once a year, as a part of ones’s job, to Moorhead. The assumption is that it is a backwater. It is a sort of provincialism that metro types exhibit when disparaging other less sophisticated places. I’ve heard people from Manhattan say that they can’t understand how someone could bear to live in the other 4 boroughs of NYC because they don’t have symphony orchestras like Manhattan. You can imagine what they think of ND. Funny thing is redneck Archie Bunker was portrayed as resident of Queens.
“because they don’t have symphony orchestras like Manhattan”
Which shows they are ignorant of the Brooklyn Institute of Music, which has fine groups and is internationally recognized.
As for the TC, yes, they do look down at the outstaters. Which is why there is so much satisfaction when a non-metro team wins the HS hockey tournament.
Of course even the transplants from ND many times think they have reached the promised land and become just like the native TCitian attitude toward outstate.
“just like the native TCitian attitude toward outstate.”
I wonder if a sense of superiority is innate. Parisians look down at the rest of France. Romans look down at the rest of Italy. Berliners look down at the rest of Germany.
It is an innate human potential imho. People are seduced by spectacle. The old adage ” how are you going to keep them on the farm after they’ve seen the bright lights of the city rings true. People are so disconnected from community because of the commodification of human behavior that they come to believe the anomie of the city is reality.