I was in an >76% Romney county today

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

And I must say, there was definitely something that felt...off about it. It wasn't just standard things like the miles of empty highway or signs warning of stray cows, or countless bales of hay on the side of the road, or the fact that it's so empty that when I left town in the wrong direction I didn't realize this until 15 miles out because there was nothing for 15 miles or the fact that there's no stoplights in the entire county. It was more things like the fact that there's actually a business in town that makes body armor and sells it internationally despite the size...or the fact that one of the churches there looks exactly like those old historical churches you see in pictures and in movies all the time but are still striking to see in real life with the realization they are still in use and not just historical sites...or the Catholic church with a plaque outside with an anti-abortion quote from Mother Theresa on it, not surprising a Catholic church would oppose abortion but still making that the first thing you display is a little offputting (not that this stopped me from submitting them as Ingress portals, Ingress being the reason I was there.) Or how all the residents I saw looked so old and how just about every guy seemed to have a trucker hat. The one exception being a fairly attractive 30ish woman with distinctly hipster looking glasses seen leaving the general store with an about 6 year old son, an odd site in such a place. Another funny thing was a gas station (not in the county but on the way) that had a post it board with a sign advertising a Hollywood Knockouts (google it) bikini oil wrestling show that would be in the county on Saturday (further south than where I was though), though I guess it is hunting season and yeah it'll be full of hunters on Saturday who'd be into that. Just still seeming oddly inconsistent with the obvious values of such a place.

Also in the morning I went with my mom to a county that "only" about 63% Romney, yet still shared oddities like the lack of stoplights, the fact that to get to her friend's place you had to travel on dirt roads and just how small the town library was (Ingress portal and one reason I liked being there) and the random cars sitting off the road in the grasslands. But I did to see these two awesome residents (her friend's daughters, one of which whom is my mom's goddaughter):

[Miles]

I can go a few miles east and be in a 84% Romney parish. The people I know from there are nice, but I haven't really spent much time in it.

[opebo]

BRTD, at least you weren't lynched.

[Torie]

I have a bit of an problem processing BRTD's reaction inasmuch as he grew up in North Dakota.

[opebo]

I have a bit of an problem processing BRTD's reaction inasmuch as he grew up in North Dakota.

Kids aren't generally very aware of the cultural horrors around them till they reach adolescence.  Besides I think he had a good family, right?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

BRTD, at least you weren't lynched.

He's a white, you see.

[King]

You should have briefly relaxed into a condom, tied it up, and buried it in the >76% Romney dirt.

You know, for your spiritual reasons.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I have a bit of an problem processing BRTD's reaction inasmuch as he grew up in North Dakota.

In Bismarck, which is quite different. OK the bays of hale along the road are common on the Interstate too but not to this level and I only saw those when leaving Bismarck, which wasn't common. People in Bismarck tend not to leave often, except on vacation (outside of North Dakota) and not to rural North Dakota because really, what is the reason to go there? I guess hunters do during hunting season, but I was not one. opebo is largely correct here.

BRTD, at least you weren't lynched.

He's a white, you see.

I don't think my Obama or Vote No on banning gay marriage bumper stickers were popular though. Or even my out of state plates.

[memphis]

You visited the countryside and saw the Volk in their natural habitat. Congrats, I guess. North Dakota is very Western in that nearly everybody lives in one of a few cities. The Great Lakes states and especially the South are different.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I also opted to swing by this place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh,_North_Dakota

Rather creepy. Even most small towns have people walking around, but not here. Lots of cars and trucks though, so it felt like a zombie apocalypse almost like everything was abandoned. I did see a dog on a truck near a lumber yard, but I think the lumber business was defunct. Believe it or not there's still a bar and grill open there. Supposedly their food (or I should say her since it's basically just one woman running it) is awesome, but unfortunately I wasn't able to swing by or sample it since it doesn't open till 4 (Mountain Time, so 5 by my time) and I was there too early. I tried submitting portals in it for Ingress but couldn't because there is no cellular connection. Seriously. Also all the roads in it are dirt only. Also creepy. One bit of weirdness was the park nearby that had a sign saying only open from 7AM-10PM, while such signs are common in parks I thought it was kind of strange here since who's going to enforce it?

Site I think most of you would find interesting by the way: www.ghostsofnorthdakota.com

[Lief 🗽]

Glad you got out of there alive. Stay safe!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Seriously though it's pretty weird when people look so different in different places that are basically the same ethnically. Like the woman with the kid in Hazelton. If I saw her on the streets of Minneapolis, I wouldn't think she was out of place at all or odd that she was there (well if she was without the kid.) That's why it was so shocking to see her there. Granted she would fit in better in Bismarck than in Minneapolis, but still, wouldn't be that out of place in Minneapolis. Now on the other hand look at the people in these pics:

http://www.newleipzig.com/photogallerytrinityheupelchurch.htm
http://www.theleipziger.com/photogallerydailylife.htm

You DO NOT see people who look like that in Minneapolis. Well at least not my part of Minneapolis. But the second set of pics is a cafe. Now you don't EVER see people like that in cafes and coffeeshops in my area of Minneapolis! The woman in Hazelton I could see in a Minneapolis coffeeshop...and thus it's bizarre to see her there. And it's not like she even looked like a stereotypical patron of such a place...she just wouldn't be out of place. It's bizarre in a way. White urban people, white suburban people and white rural people all DO look differently. (Though of course in places like Bismarck, Fargo and St. Cloud all three exist...and thus growing up in a place like Bismarck you don't really realize this.)

[Landslide Lyndon]

David Lynch should go and film a movie there.

[memphis]

Seriously though it's pretty weird when people look so different in different places that are basically the same ethnically. Like the woman with the kid in Hazelton. If I saw her on the streets of Minneapolis, I wouldn't think she was out of place at all or odd that she was there (well if she was without the kid.) That's why it was so shocking to see her there. Granted she would fit in better in Bismarck than in Minneapolis, but still, wouldn't be that out of place in Minneapolis. Now on the other hand look at the people in these pics:

http://www.newleipzig.com/photogallerytrinityheupelchurch.htm
http://www.theleipziger.com/photogallerydailylife.htm

You DO NOT see people who look like that in Minneapolis. Well at least not my part of Minneapolis. But the second set of pics is a cafe. Now you don't EVER see people like that in cafes and coffeeshops in my area of Minneapolis! The woman in Hazelton I could see in a Minneapolis coffeeshop...and thus it's bizarre to see her there. And it's not like she even looked like a stereotypical patron of such a place...she just wouldn't be out of place. It's bizarre in a way. White urban people, white suburban people and white rural people all DO look differently. (Though of course in places like Bismarck, Fargo and St. Cloud all three exist...and thus growing up in a place like Bismarck you don't really realize this.)

Here's some information on why those people look so different:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aging

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Methinks you do protest too much.

[opebo]

BRTD, at least you weren't lynched.

He's a white, you see.

That's true.  But I, as white, was nonetheless teased in Mississippi (I had long hair, thrift store duds, and a rather suspicious fishing hat).

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The original post is, for me at least, an interesting combination of stuff that I think anybody who grew up in a rural area of any political inclination would consider absolutely normal and unexceptionable and stuff that genuinely is somewhat disconcerting.

[Nhoj]

That area you were in actually has a fair amount of non English as a first language speakers.

[ElectionsGuy]

--> https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=180266.0

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

That area you were in actually has a fair amount of non English as a first language speakers.

Yep, olds who speak German. Though I doubt they actually are people who regularly speak German (except at some Volga German cultural club meetings), more like they grew up speaking it (or more accurately their parents' first language was German so they claim it as well.)

Something that didn't strike me because I was very aware of it growing up but is still quite weird and that I've realized is how many people in rural ND live in the middle of nowhere. And by that I don't mean a small town in a rural area. I mean literally 5-10 miles from their nearest neighbor. These aren't farmers either, they're just big houses you see in the countryside with no nearby fields or animals. And newer houses too, obviously built in the last 30 years, meaning people are actually moving there, all the more weird. Like look up St. Anthony, ND, and then consider that a bunch of houses are in between that place and Mandan (St. Anthony doesn't even have a gas station FYI) and also a bunch between that and the town of Flasher to the south. The fact that there's still people living in St. Anthony is weird, the fact that there are people living in even more remote areas for no reason other than that it's possible to build a house there is even moreso.

While we're at it, here's a pic taken in Spiritwood, ND today, showing that people are in fact moving there despite...well look it up:



Perhaps the most disturbing thing about Spiritwood, and far more disturbing than anything I saw in Hazelton: When I swung through to get pictures and tried to take pictures of the school, a dog started barking at me. Standard fare yes, but this dog was unleashed and unfenced, and actually ran up to my car. I started driving off and it started chasing me down a couple rows of houses (remember I'm not driving fast since these are not exactly high quality roads.) Keeping a dog like this is obviously illegal and would not doubt get the owner in trouble in a city, but out here no one's enforcing it and it seems to reinforce the xenophobic atmosphere. To be fair I saw another dog while driving around and it left me alone but it was also leashed up. When I drove around the school again I heard the dog barking, but didn't bother to check if it was chasing me.

David Lynch should go and film a movie there.

Yes, Hazelton would work for that, but St. Anthony, Raleigh and especially Spiritwood would be even better (especially with my anecdote from Spiritwood above). Raleigh was also quite surreal in a post-apocalyptic way due to the fact that tons of businesses that obviously aren't open anymore still had buildings and signs up and the fact there was a bunch of cars and trucks around yet no people in site (come to think of it there was more vehicles in that town than people...meaning that some of them had to be abandoned.) I did see a dog sitting on a truck near an abandoned lumber yard (a lot more friendly than the one mentioned above, it looked at me but didn't even bark), the only sign of life. Very Lynchian.

[opebo]

BRTD, did you ever see that movie about a guy wandering across the wastes of North Dakota, supposed to meet a girl penpal.. he breaks down, some semi-homeless guy rescues him but then kills him in order to pretend to be him in meeting the girl.. he meets her, they have sex, and then end up freezing to death when his car breaks down.

[Landslide Lyndon]

BRTD, did you ever see that movie about a guy wandering across the wastes of North Dakota, supposed to meet a girl penpal.. he breaks down, some semi-homeless guy rescues him but then kills him in order to pretend to be him in meeting the girl.. he meets her, they have sex, and then end up freezing to death when his car breaks down.

That sounds like a Bushie biopic done by the Coen brothers.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Haven't seen it though. What's it called?

[free my dawg]

YO BRTD I'M REALLY HAPPY FOR YOU AND IMMA LET YOU FINISH BUT BANDIT HAD ONE OF THE BEST ROMNEY COUNTY THREADS OF ALL TIME

[All Along The Watchtower]

"Ok Bob, here are the areas that voted for the Democrats. You will notice several points of interest, like the commercial districts, the university buildings, the variety of skin tones and colors in the people, who are numerous; also, notice the airport and the body of water, or the hospital, or the synagogues and temples and every different church you can think of or imagine. Notice also that you run into more people who aren't your friends or family and who don't look like you. Notice the diversity of workplaces, or the number of workplaces. Notice all the different houses and apartments, some of them quite old but still quite appealing to the young people who are moving into them. Look at the all the cultural attractions-libraries, museums, theaters, the live music scene. This is a place that looks like its used to change, diversity, and a fast pace of life. "

"Now, let's look at the places where the Republicans won. Notice there are less people here. Notice that the people you meet, more often than not, are Caucasian. Notice a decline in cultural attractions. Notice that there are fewer places to get a job here. Notice that many of these places are basically bedroom communities. Notice the lack of public transportation. Notice all the churches, some of them quite large. Notice the military base nearby. This is definitely a place where people go to have a slower pace of life, perhaps to escape the cities and what they are repelled by in those cities."