But the last five years have changed this little state. We left North Dakota at the brink of a insane boom. Insane. People from all over want to come here. Well, they may not really want to but the jobs are here. Loads of them.
Growing up in Williston, all the kids I went to school with were from right around there. I remember the kid that transferred to grade school in the fifth grade from Dickinson (two hours away). It was a really big deal, a new kid from "far away." Yeah. As I think about all the kids I knew in grade school, I think everyone's extended family were from other parts of North Dakota or Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota maybe. Oh there were the few that had an aunt or uncle in some far away place like California or Texas, but everyone was from here.
Now kids going to Wilkinson Elementary in Williston probably have kids from 20 of the 50 states attending their school. I have no research and no first-hand knowledge of this but I'm guessing it's gotta be close to that or more drastic. It just seems so, so different than ten, twenty years ago.
I know this because of all the license plates we've seen in just a short time, from the articles in the newspaper, from the local talk, from the "you wouldn't believe all the driver's licenses I've seen" stated by the bank guy and insurance lady. We're not even living in the thick of it and it's still full of folks from around the country.
We took an awesome riverboat tour on Saturday evening and I could tell within ten seconds of overhearing the young woman next to us that she was a southerner. Turns out her fiancee has been working in ND for over two years. She just comes up a few weeks at a time here and there. I very much enjoyed talking with them about things we actually knew about. Not that we will ever say we mastered southern culture or anything, but we have a great respect and joy for what we learned in SC. I could tell they were so happy to get to talk about southern culture to people that had some clue of it, too.
The other people next to us in the riverboat? Someone that taught with my father-in-law's brother for twenty years. So even though ND has changed with the influx of new people, it's still has some small do-you-know-so-and-so sort of feel. I hope that never changes.
I do wonder what all these new folks are thinking. It has to be such a shock. Especially if they are used to city life and certain stores and restaurants. Especially if they have never been really, truly cold. It's been fun to answer "where are you moving from?" with "South Carolina" and then get that look (usually a "oh you are one of those newcomers coming to try your hand at North Dakota living."). Most of the time I end up saying "but we are originally from Williston so it's not like..." and then I trail off because I'm not sure exactly what I'm really saying. I suppose I just want them to know that I'm not some random person coming here, that I have a history here and deep roots, that I understand how blasted cold it is, that I'm in this for the long haul.
Yes, I guess that's what I am. It just hasn't sunk in yet, even when I say "I'm relocating here from South Carolina". As a person born and raised here, it's a little odd that I feel out of place. But I've changed. It's changed. And it's going to take awhile to find out what a new normal is going to look like.
One thing I am very much looking forward to is playing the license plate game with our kids. We'll get one of those little boards and they are going to get to check off so many different states' plates. So unlike my childhood with the maybe five states I'd get to cross off on our family road trips (don't laugh, I remember being excited seeing a Wisconsin plate). While we still have it, I do hope our SC plate is checking off one state on some game app for a kid. Yes, variety is good.
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| Ah. Such a welcoming view. |
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