Tag Archives: Information on Dickinson North Dakota

Starting Over Writing About Dickinson, North Dakota

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Dickinson, North Dakota has changed so much over the past 12 months, that I need to start over, and begin again in describing Dickinson, North Dakota.

The economy, business, business practices, real estate, construction, construction companies, oil field, oil field companies, employment, jobs, crime, people’s attitudes, and people’s behavior have changed so much, that I have to completely start over in describing what Dickinson, North Dakota is like now.

For my own personal reference and orientation, in thinking about Dickinson, and describing Dickinson, I will have to be clear, that there is a big difference between what Dickinson was like 2007 through 2016, and what Dickinson had changed into by the end of 2017.

The price of oil fell drastically in 2015, causing the oil boom in North Dakota to begin slowing down.  There were changes that occurred in western North Dakota as the number of operating oil drill rigs declined.  The oil field work slowed down, which in turn caused there to be a slow down in the rest of the economy in western North Dakota.  Many workers from out of state returned home to the states where they came from.

When the oil boom slowed down in 2015, Dickinson became calmer and quieter.  There became less people in Dickinson, and less traffic.  Some oil field businesses closed, other businesses closed, and some residents moved out of state.

However, the character, mood, attitudes, and mentality in Dickinson remained the same as what it had been during the last years of the oil boom, up until 2017.

I believe that 2017 is a clear cut-off point, to where everything changed in Dickinson.  I believe that all through the beginning of 2017, virtually everyone in Dickinson realized that the oil boom was over, whether they said it out loud or not.  Throughout Dickinson, everyone considered how the oil boom being over, would affect them.  By the end of 2017, everyone’s outlook, attitude, mentality, and behavior changed.

To me, who had been living in Dickinson since 2011, there came a point in late 2017, that it seemed like everyone in Dickinson had changed over night. It was like the people in Dickinson had changed in unison.

In writing this blog post, and in discussing it, I see that the origin of this change was the sharp decline in the price of oil, the slow down in the oil field, the decline in business and the number of out of state workers, the continuation of the slow down, and the gradual realization by the people in Dickinson that the oil boom was over, and that it was not coming back.  However, the outlook, attitude, mentality, and behavior of people in Dickinson seemed to change all of a sudden, in late 2017.

The people in Dickinson became less friendly.  That is right, the people in Dickinson became even less friendly.  For the past three years, I have described the people in Dickinson as being unfriendly, but now, they have become distinctly even more unfriendly.

There is becoming a greater distinction and division between the people who are from Dickinson, and the people who are not from Dickinson.  During the oil boom that occurred in Dickinson from 2007 through 2014, the people from Dickinson did not like the out of state workers.  Now that the oil boom is over, the people from Dickinson dislike people from out of state even more.

Working in Dickinson from 2011 through 2014, my co-workers from Dickinson were sometimes hostile, unfriendly, uncooperative, not helpful, resentful, and undermining.  Beginning in 2015, I could see that the people from Dickinson, were becoming even more hostile, unfriendly, uncooperative, resentful, and undermining with their co-workers, both with local and out of state workers, but much more so with out of state workers.

What is happening is this:  The local people from Dickinson are making less money, working less hours, and working less overtime.  The local people from Dickinson have lost their jobs, and have had difficulty in getting jobs.  The local people in Dickinson, they want to be able to afford to pay for the things that they have, not lose their car or their house, and be able to live.  The local people in Dickinson, believe that they should have more of a right to work and earn a living, than workers from out of state.

Many or most of the local people in Dickinson, did not like people from out of state coming to Dickinson to work during the oil boom.  The local people were hostile and unfriendly to the people who were from out of state, during the oil boom.  Now, with local people making less money, having lost their job, and not being able to get a job, their dislike for people who are from out of state, is much greater.

With work having slowed down in Dickinson, many out of state workers having moved away, traffic being lower, businesses being slower, things being quieter and calmer, there are a few other ways that Dickinson had changed distinctly by 2017.

Apartment rent and house rent have decreased greatly.  The new apartments that were built during the oil boom, are now much more affordable.  The older apartments and older homes, the rent on these are now very low.

The house prices in Dickinson have come down some, but not as much as they should have, considering that the oil boom is over.  There are several reasons why the house prices remain high, higher than they should be:  Real estate agents and property owners are deliberately trying to keep house prices high through their own efforts;  some home owners do not understand and will not face reality;  some home owners mistakenly think that the oil boom will return any minute now;  some people are just so hung up with what they paid for their home during the oil boom, that they will not price it for what the market is now;  some people paid so much for their home during the oil boom that they owe much more than their home is worth now.

I will mention one more way that Dickinson had changed significantly by 2017.  There was an increase in property theft in Dickinson in 2016 and 2017.  In reading the Dickinson Press newspaper “Crime And Courts” and the “Police Blotter” over the past several years, I noticed that there were more and more thefts from businesses, homes, garages, and automobiles.  In 2016, the amount property theft appeared to be distinctly greater than in previous years.  Now in 2017, property theft seems to be a permanent, daily, ongoing thing in Dickinson.  Dickinson is now a high theft area.

Expect To Not Be Paid By Local Employers In Dickinson, North Dakota

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One of the purposes of this blog website, is to inform people from out of state what living in Dickinson, North Dakota is like.  One of the most important things that I can tell people who are planning on moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, is to be prepared for local companies in Dickinson to not pay wages that are owed.

I am 48 years old, and I have worked in Florida, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and North Dakota.  The only time that I have not been paid wages owed, is here in Dickinson, North Dakota.

I have already written a couple of blog posts about my previous employer in Dickinson, a local oil field service company with about seventy employees, that had failed to pay me for all the hours that I had worked, which amounted to approximately $630 in unpaid wages owed by the time that I received my third pay check.  I had to contact the North Dakota Department of Labor, and then go and get the Small Claims Court paper work at the Court House to file a civil suit against this employer before they agreed to pay me the wages that I was owed.

The Bismarck Tribune newspaper wrote an article approximately one year ago, stating that the Department of Labor in North Dakota has been overwhelmed with non-payment of wages cases, mostly from Western North Dakota.  This is why I realized that the Small Claims Court would be a quicker, surer way to get the money that I was owed.

Now, for my most recent employer, another local Dickinson company with about seventy employees, the person that hired me told me that I would be paid $20 per hour.  There was no negotiating or discussion, this is what I was offered, and this is what I accepted.  I was told that I would be working every day, for twelve hours per day, for approximately the next month.  This worked out to about $2,000 per week, and $8,000 per month.

The work was very hard physical labor.  I have had above average strength and stamina for most of my life, but I am 48 years old now, and I am not as physically strong as I used to be.  I did not know if I could hand dig, pound stakes with a sledge hammer, lift, and carry heavy things all day long, for twelve hours a day, day after day after day.  It was very difficult for me, but I did it, I wanted the $2,000 per week.

I received two other job offers shortly after accepting this job, but I politely declined both of these job offers, explaining that I had already accepted another job, and was sticking with it because it paid $2,000 per week, otherwise I would have liked to have worked for their company.

After working for sixteen days straight, I received my first pay check direct deposited to my checking account on this past Friday.  The check was for much less money than it should have been.  One of the reasons why it was less than it should have been, was because I was being paid at $18 per hour, not $20 per hour as I was offered and accepted when I was hired.

I was very, very angry about this, in part, because I was not paid wages owed by my previous local employer here in Dickinson, I had to threaten to take them to court to get all of my unpaid wages, and now this same thing is happening to me again.  I was angry because it was very hard physical labor for twelve hours each day, and I was expecting to be paid $2,000 per week.  I was angry because I had declined two job offers from other companies because I was expecting to be paid $2,000 per week at this company.

I do not yet know who/how/why I was not paid what I was told, what I accepted, and what I agreed to.  I considered not going to work Saturday morning, this morning, because I was so angry.  But I thought that perhaps it was a simple mistake, that the company would be willing to resolve.

I went to work this Saturday morning.  By 12 noon, approximately four of the ten workers present, left for the remainder of the day, with various excuses, whether they were legitimate reasons or not.  I was still so angry about not being paid what I was owed, that I thought that perhaps the best thing for me to do, would be to say that I was sick, and to go home for the remainder of the day, lest I lose my temper at someone, or over something.

At approximately 1:00 p.m., a foreman named Mike, who was not my foreman, who I had never met, and who I had never worked for, drove by my work truck and called me out on the radio, “Why are you sitting in your truck?!”  I replied, “I just got in my truck to move it forward, my foreman is on the loader behind me, watching me and what I am doing, are you my foreman, or is Jeremy?”  Mike replied, “We are all your foreman.”  My foreman who was one hundred feet behind me on the loader, and the superintendent remained silent, and didn’t object.

I could tell from foreman Mike’s demeanor, that he was going to try to assert some kind of master-slave work conditions on me for the remainder of the day.  I had worked for the past sixteen days straight, without complaint, mistake, mishap, or problems with my co-workers, foreman, and superintendent.  I tried to get along with these twelve people, to do what they wanted, to work in agreement, to work in cooperation, to keep up with them, to do as much or more of the work, and to help them in their work.  My co-workers, my foreman, and the superintendent were with me throughout the day, every day.  If anything needed to be done, I took direction from my co-workers, my foreman, and the superintendent.  I did not need, and it was not a good idea, for someone outside of this work group, who did not know me or anything about me, who was not aware of what I had been instructed to do, to drive by or drive up and get on me about my work.

I couldn’t believe, and I didn’t like, that I was not being paid what I had been told, and that my foreman and the superintendent were not sticking up for me when another foreman was trying to get on me about my work.  I told my co-worker that I was quitting, to get in the truck, I will drive back to the yard and that he could take the truck.  I told my foreman that I was quitting because I was not being paid what I was told, and that I didn’t like being fucked with by someone who doesn’t know me, who I have never met, and who I have never worked for.  I drove to the yard, and I told the superintendent the same thing.

Neither my foreman or the superintendent cared very much.  They could not care less.  This was not much of a surprise to me.  Nor will it be much of a surprise to me when the person who hired me, fails to acknowledge that he told me that I would be paid $20 per hour.  This is why I will file a Small Claims civil court case against the owner of the company for the wages that I am owed.

When I file a Small Claims civil court case against the owner of the company personally for wages that I am owed, there will be a permanent record of the case for everyone to see and look up.  The owner of the company will be served the court papers at his company office by a Sheriff Deputy, and his reaction will be, “What the fuck is this shit?!”  Then, the “I could not care less” attitude will stop, and be replaced with “I wish that I would not have done that.”

The owner of the company can appear personally on the court date and defend himself against my claim for unpaid wages, and hear what happened to me, which is fine with me.  Or, the owner of the company can hire an attorney to represent him in court, which will cost him at least $750 in attorney’s fees, plus the unpaid wages that I am owed, which is fine with me.  Or, the owner of the company can not show up in court, not be represented by an attorney, and I will be awarded a default judgement for the unpaid wages that I am owed, which is fine with me.  In all three scenarios, there will be a record of the judgment against this employer for everyone to see and look up.

If you come to Dickinson, North Dakota, I advise you to be aware that the local companies here in Dickinson will attempt to not pay you the wages that you are owed.  I recommend that before you accept a job with a local company here in Dickinson, that you look up the owner of the company on the North Dakota Court Record Repository, “NDCourts” to see what kind of person they are.  I also recommend contacting the North Dakota Department of Labor to ask how many complaints the employer has for nonpayment of wages.

Time’s Money Magazine Just Named Dickinson, North Dakota As 6th Best Place To Live

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On September 18 Time’s Money Magazine published a list of the 100 best places to live, and Dickinson, North Dakota ranked 6th.  Oh my God!  You probably couldn’t find twenty people in Dickinson that would even put Dickinson in the top 50 places to live.  You probably couldn’t find twenty people in the state of North Dakota that would put Dickinson in the top 50 places to live.

In some ways Dickinson is one of the worst places in the United States to live:

  1. The ratio of men to women in Dickinson is about 3:1.  There is a shortage of women, and a scarcity of attractive women.  Of the many states, cities, and towns that I have lived and worked in for the past 48 years, Dickinson has the most unattractive women of any place that I have ever been.  These statements are common knowledge here in Dickinson.
  2. Dickinson is one of the least educated places that I have ever lived.  Higher education is derided, ridiculed, laughed at, and penalized in Dickinson.  In Dickinson, people who did four years in prison are treated better that people who did four years in college.
  3. Dickinson is one of the least healthy places that I have ever lived.  It is common for both men and women to be overweight, use tobacco products, and to never engage in healthy exercise.  Only about 10% of the people in Dickinson engage in regular exercise.
  4. There is a lack of entertainment, social activities, and things to do in Dickinson.  Yes there is the West River Community Center which is nice.  There are outdoor concerts in downtown Dickinson in the summer which are nice.  But, with the shortage of women, and scarcity of attractive women, most men end up going to bars, and getting a DUI when they go home.  I have never seen more people get DUIs, than I have here in Dickinson, which is mostly because there is nothing to do and it is depressing here.
  5. I have never met more depressed, down on their luck, nearly hopeless, suicidal people than I have here in Dickinson.  It is difficult to get a job in Dickinson.  There are not a lot of things to do in Dickinson.  There is a scarcity of women in Dickinson.  All of these things, plus the unfriendliness of people in Dickinson, make many people that I have met become very depressed, hopeless, and suicidal.
  6. About 90% of the out of state workers who came to Dickinson for work during the oil boom, couldn’t wait to get out of here.  They said it out loud every day.

I have never seen a news article be more wrong than the Money Magazine article ranking Dickinson as the 6th best place to live in the United States.  Whoever wrote this article should have to come and live in Dickinson for one year.

I don’t know how the data was manipulated in order to somehow make Dickinson the 6th best place to live.  The editor of Money Magazine should interview two oil field workers, two truck drivers, two retail workers, two fast food workers, two black people, two gay people, and two housewives from out of state, and I guarantee that each of these people would say that Dickinson is a difficult and unpleasant place to live.

Exposing Some Bad Things In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for five years now.  Ever since I came to Dickinson, I could tell that there were things going on that were wrong.  There were things that were adversely affecting me, my friends, and other people that I met.  I wanted to know what was going on, what were the reasons, what was behind all of this.  Eventually I created this blog website, and here are some of the things that I wrote about:

  1. The gouging and taking advantage of out of state workers on housing.
  2. The deliberate creating of a shortage and not alleviating the shortage of housing in order to keep prices high to benefit local property owners.
  3. OSHA refusing to investigate the work site death of Eric Haider.
  4. No one being charged with manslaughter over the work site death of Eric Haider.
  5. Public and private businesses violating EEO laws in order to hire friends and relatives.
  6. Failure of the Department of Labor to hold employers accountable for non-payment of wages.
  7. Long history of companies and employers in Dickinson attempting to keep wages low in order to prevent employees from ever getting ahead or being able to leave.
  8. Not allowing prostitution though the ratio of men to women varied from 3:1 to 30:1.
  9. Newspaper reports of multiple occurrences of local men resorting to sex with cows and horses in this area.

One of the causes of the injustices that I have listed above, appears to be the Catholic Church in Dickinson.  The Catholic Church in Dickinson has encouraged the Catholics to believe that they are better than everyone else, has encouraged anything that brings money to the Church, and has not discouraged or spoken out against the mistreatment or taking advantage of others.

A second cause of some of the injustices in Dickinson, appears to be the Dickinson Mafia.  The Dickinson Mafia are a group of men who own businesses, who hold public office, who are on boards of directors, and who manage some of the large companies in Dickinson.  They sought to keep wages low so that workers could never get ahead, would have to work their whole life for low wages, and could never leave.  The Dickinson Mafia also sought to control Dickinson by giving jobs as favors or rewards to people who did what they wanted, and not giving jobs to people that were independent, regardless of education, skill, and qualifications.  The Dickinson Mafia was greatly responsible for the Nepotism and Chronyism that goes on in Dickinson.

A third cause of some of the injustices in Dickinson, appears to be the failure of the police, the judicial system, and the press to hold people accountable for wrong doing.  I have come across situations in Dickinson, where individuals should have been arrested but were not, should have been prosecuted but were not, should have received long prison sentences but did not, and should have been fully covered in the Dickinson Press newspaper but were not.

Some of the really bad bad things that have been done by prominent people and businesses in Dickinson have been covered by newspapers outside of Dickinson, such as the Jamestown Sun, the Grand Forks Herald, and the Bismarck Tribune.  This is one way to handle it, and leave the Dickinson Press newspaper out of it.

The Bismarck Tribune newspaper did publish an article approximately one year ago, that described the failure of the North Dakota Department of Labor to hold employers accountable for non-payment of wages to workers.  There had been a two year wait after a worker complaint had been filed, before a case worker was even assigned to the complaint.  75% of the Department of Labor complaints were against oil field companies in western North Dakota.

I myself was shorted wages by an oil field company in the Dickinson area, so were some of my coworkers, so were some former employees of this company.  I called the North Dakota Department of Labor, and there were four other complaints against this company by former employees for non-payment of wages.

The Dickinson Press newspaper writes glowing newspaper articles about this company and the owner.  How can that be?  I began asking many local people about this company and the company owner.  I wanted to know why was he doing this, how did he think that he could get away with this, and what kind of person is he?  I found out more and more.

In high school, in the seventh grade, this company owner raped a boy in the gym locker room.  It was a very severe sexual assault.  He should have been arrested, convicted, sent to a juvenile detention center, and been registered for life as a convicted sex offender.  None of those things happened.  I asked why this didn’t happen.  I was told because of his family name, who his family was, and because his family had money.

In a previous blog post that I wrote titled, “Summary Of Wickedness And Perversion In Dickinson, North Dakota”, I wrote about a very similar incident to the one that I just described above, where a member of a wealthy and prominent local family was convicted of molesting an 8 year old girl.  His prison sentence and restitution was extremely lenient, unbelievably lenient.

In that blog post, I wrote that one of the problems in Dickinson, is that some people in Dickinson think that they are so much better than other people, that they can take advantage of other people with impunity.

As long as the Catholic Church continues to teach that Catholics are better than other people, there will continue to be people trying to take advantage of others, and mistreatment of others in Dickinson.  As long as the Dickinson Mafia continues to practice Nepotism and Chronyism, there will be corruption, collusion, injustice, unfairness, and mistreatment of people in Dickinson.

As long as the police, judicial system, and press do not hold all people equally accountable, there will be corruption, injustice, unfairness, underhandedness, crime, and mistreatment of people in Dickinson.

This Is How Methodists Act

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In my previous blog post, I wrote that I hate White People in Texas.  White People in Texas are arrogant, elitist, proud, greedy, self-serving people.  I partly blame the version of Southern Baptists that exists in Texas, the “prosperity gospel” believers, that allow them to believe that they are better than other people, which gives them the right to do the things that they do.

I have written approximately eight blog posts about the German Catholics here in Dickinson, North Dakota, that act almost as bad as the Southern Baptist prosperity gospel believers in Texas.  The Catholics here in Dickinson, North Dakota think that they are better than everyone else, so if they want to gouge people from out of state on housing, violate federal EEO laws to hire their relatives rather than people from out of state, undermine and take advantage of people from out of state, they feel that they are justified in doing so.

The German Catholics in Dickinson, North Dakota may have no idea that their behavior is not right, because they have nothing to compare it to.  Most of my close relatives and distant relatives are Methodists.  I grew up in a town with many Methodists.  But I also went to Catholic School for four years.  Later I went to school with, and became friends with Atheists, Baptists, Episcopaleans, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, Lutherans, Mormons, Muslims, and Seventh Day Adventists.  I read, and I learned about each of these religions.

In this blog post, I will write about how Methodists act.  Primarily, Methodists are moderate, peaceful, conservative, tolerant, and patient.

Methodist Finances:

  1. Methodists seek to have their financial affairs in order, just like every other part of their life.
  2. To not be reckless with money, to not overspend, to live within one’s means.
  3. To not have much debt, and to certainly not have delinquent debt.
  4. A personal bankruptcy to a Methodist, would be a grave moral failure.
  5. To stay employed, to work steadily, to pay your bills, and to save money.
  6. To not buy a home, automobile, boat, motorhome, or airplane as a way to show off.
  7. To make money only in an ethical, moral, right way, to not engage in usury, fraud, deceit, treachery, or taking advantage of others.
  8. Methodists realize as part of their faith and religious beliefs, that no good can come from taking advantage of others, usury, fraud, deceit, treachery, indebtedness, overspending, showing off, and pride.
  9. Methodists have no difficulty seeing the evil in some people accumulating great wealth, while at the same time others in the same community are lacking basic necessities.  Methodists would feel shame and guilt in having excessive wealth while at the same time others in the same community didn’t have enough, due to being less able.  Methodists seek to make sure that other people don’t suffer needlessly.

Methodist Families:

  1. Husbands and wives should stay married, they took their marriage vows before God.
  2. Husbands and wives should not engage in infidelity, they took their marriage vows before God.
  3. Husbands and wives have a duty to act like a civil, decent, moral, ethical, responsible adult, for the sake of their spouse and their children.
  4. Methodists believe in having zero to three children, and that their children need supervision, guidance, instruction, education, and correction.
  5. Methodists realize as part of their faith and religious beliefs, that they should conduct themselves as a civil, decent, moral, ethical, responsible adult, for the sake of their spouse and children, for the sake of their community, and to try to make sure that their children do the same.

Methodist Culture:

  1. Methodists seek to be civil, decent, moral, ethical, responsible, thoughtful adults.  They have read the Bible themselves, and they have had the Bible, what it actually says, taught to them by thoroughly educated Methodist ministers.
  2. Methodists are likely to see the wastefulness, sloth, immorality, and drunkenness in people getting overly entrenched with NASCAR, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, and UFC.
  3. Methodist are not likely to want to spend much time in bars.
  4. Methodist are not likely to want to spend much time in casinos.
  5. Methodist do not have any interest in using drugs.
  6. Methodists are not sexually promiscuous, and they do not take advantage of others.

Methodists At Work:

  1. Methodists do not believe in discrimination of any kind.
  2. Methodists believe in performing work competently, and making sure that work is performed competently.
  3. Methodists have an aversion for unethical and immoral businesses practices, so much so that they do not and will not tolerate unethical and immoral business practices, and seek to stop these business practices whenever possible.
  4. Methodists will try to help, assist, instruct, or teach others who are having difficulty in their work, in order for that person to keep their job.  If a person is not capable of doing a job, Methodists believe that that person, no matter who they are, should be removed from that job, for the sake of the work, the company, and everyone else.

I just want to point out how significantly the Catholics in Dickinson, North Dakota behave differently than Methodists.  In #4 above, Methodists at Work, Methodists would never fill all the private and public management positions with poorly educated, incompetent people like has been done in Dickinson.  Methodists would realize that the whole future, economic prosperity, and current functioning of Dickinson has been placed in the hands of not very educated or capable people.  How in the world could this turn out well?

Dickinson58601 Living In Dickinson, North Dakota Is Now On YouTube

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A couple of years ago, a friend of mine who read my blog posts, suggested to me that I begin making videos.  I didn’t want to do this at that time, there was so much that I wanted to say and write about, that I just didn’t want the distraction of trying to make videos.

Now that I have written approximately 400 blog posts, there are some things that I would like to show using video.  My first videos will not have audio commentary or narration, because I want to show some things in Dickinson, North Dakota, just as they are, so that people can look at them and have their own thoughts about them.

Today, Monday 8/28/2017, I uploaded two 40 second videos to YouTube that show Patterson Lake.  These two videos are primarily for people who have never been to Dickinson, so that they will know, and can see that Patterson Lake is less than one mile from downtown Dickinson.

I will begin adding more videos on a regular basis.  To view these videos, perform an internet search in your browser for “YouTube”, then click on the YouTube website.  Once on the YouTube website, in their search box, type in “Dickinson58601 Living In Dickinson North Dakota”.

Here is a link to my YouTube Channel:

Final Dickinson First On First Concert For 2017?

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I don’t want this to be a quick, flippant blog post, I want to be clear and have people think about and reflect on some of these things.

This might have been the last First On First a.k.a. Alive at Five concert that you will see in Dickinson for many years, or maybe something else happened at this final event, you will have to continue reading.

The Odd Fellows Lodge in Dickinson is the group that sponsors, organizes, and pays for the First On First concerts.  The Odd Fellows Lodge members are all unpaid volunteers.  Some members handle the event plans and permitting with the city, sell event advertising to businesses, seek event sponsorship and donations, have signs, tickets and T-shirts made, order alcohol, close off the street and set up the event area, set up the stage, stock the alcohol bars, serve drinks, sell event wrist bands and drink tickets, sell event space to vendors, take down the stage, and clean up the event area.  And continually do accounting and budgeting all week in order to be able to pay for everything each week, the biggest expense being the main performer every week.

Since I began going to the Alive at Five concerts in Dickinson in 2014, it has been harder and harder for Odd Fellows Lodge members and other people to volunteer and work at the events because of the way that Dickinson has changed.  I would describe it as most people having financial difficulty, more difficulty in their lives, and being less able to volunteer their time.  Also, businesses have become less able to afford event advertising, sponsorships, and donations.

For the past two years, Tracy Tooz the owner of Tooz Construction, and Mike Odegaard have been the primary event organizers in the leadership, management, booking of performers, event set up, and event take down each week.  I have never seen Tracy Tooz or Mike Odegaard complain or gripe about anything.  I have also never seen anyone ever thank Tracy Tooz or Mike Odegaard.

If you look at the First On First events as a big party, where everyone in North Dakota is invited, Tracy Tooz and Mike Odegaard set up this party, hire a band, make sure that there is enough alcohol, try to make sure everyone has a good time, then clean up after everybody has left, and then throw another party next week.  Well, nobody has ever thanked them for it.  They spend a lot of their time on the phone, the computer, driving their own trucks to go pick things up, using their own tools and equipment at the event, letting the performers use their personal RVs and vehicles while in town, and spending many hours each week setting up and taking down the stage.  Tracy Tooz and Mike Odegaard have donated a great deal of time, money, and energy to the First On First concerts and there is no guarantee that they will want to continue, I am not sure that they will.

Other people who have consistently volunteered many hours at the events are Kathy Fisher owner of the Rock Bar, Kristi Schwartz owner of Allstate Insurance, Jeff Pokorney owner of Pokorney Chiropractic, all of the Outlaw Sippin’ band members Brady Paulson, Beni Paulson, Emil Anheluk, Qwain, Donna HR at Tooz Construction, Brock White owner of Brock White Entertainment, April, and many other people whose names I will add as I remember them.

As I wrote earlier, it is becoming more and more difficult for people to volunteer or work at the events because of the way that Dickinson is changing economically.  All of the people that I have named so far up above, I don’t know if they will all be able to keep on volunteering like they have been.  I have never seen anyone thank any of them.

All of the Odd Fellows Lodge members, all of the volunteers, all of the event sponsors and donors wanted for people to come out, have a good time, meet friends, socialize, and enjoy the concerts.  Seeing and knowing that people enjoy the concerts was gratifying for everyone.  But I wanted to point out now that many people just took the events for granted, that they would always happen every Thursday, that the city paid for it, or that it was a money making venture, where someone was making a profit.

The final First On First concert of this year, I knew, and probably thirty other people knew that this might be the last First On First concert for many years possibly.  This may have been one of the reasons why Tracy Tooz, Mike Odegaard, and Jeff Pokorny decided to have the very last concert at the Dickinson State University football season opening game.  This had never been done before.

While the DSU Blue Hawk supporters were having their tail gate party in the stadium parking lot, the Outlaw Sippin’ band began playing.  Bradi, Beni, Emil and the band sounded as good or better than they ever had, but most of the tail gate partiers stayed over in the Blue Hawk supporter event area, like they were accustomed to doing for many years.  There was also the assumption by many of the DSU Blue Hawk supporters that they had to be 21 years of age, and pay admission to get into the fenced in area in front of the stage.  Attendance before the start of the football game at 6:00 p.m. was very low.

Immediately after the football game was over at about 8:30 p.m., the event area in front of the stage began to fill very quickly.  Chancy Williams and the Younger Brothers Band began playing at about 8:45 p.m.  From about 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m, there were approximately 400 to 500 people at the event.  Without anyone knowing, the event almost ran out of beer by 10:30 p.m. and they had to go get more beer.

All of the event organizers were very happy that they had sold so many wrist bands and drink tickets in the final two hours, which would be enough to cover or more than cover all of the event expenses.  All of the event organizers, volunteers, vendors, and workers realized that they could have or would have had much higher attendance starting at 3:00 p.m. if they would not have had a separation between the Blue Hawk supporter tail gate party and the event stage, everything should have been co-mingled, not separated.

The event organizers also realized from the wrist band sales and drink sales immediately following the end of the football game, that they might be able to continue to have this event for each of the remaining DSU home football games.  This would allow the Odd Fellows Lodge to continue to bring music performers to Dickinson into the winter months, which is something that many people had wanted to happen for at least the past several years, but it was not known how this could be done.

What was seen by some people as possibly being the last First On First concert for quite a while, might have instead turned out to be the beginning of the music concert season in Dickinson extending into the winter.  We will have to wait and see.

(Please leave the names of the event organizers, volunteers, band members, sponsors, and donors that I keep forgetting to mention in the comments section and I will include them.)

The Beautiful Women Of Sanford Health In Dickinson, North Dakota…Can Be Treacherous

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Update 9/7/2017:  When I originally published this blog post on 8/22/2017 it was completely positive and complimentary.  When I found out that I could get my medication for 1/10th the cost from Canada, and Sanford Health would not give me a prescription slip to get my medications from Canada, my impression of Sanford Health became very negative.  When I received my bill today, it was reasonable, so I am editing this blog post.

For the past three years in North Dakota, about four times each year, I have had a severe allergy attack.  The worst part about these allergy attacks is that my eyes become so swollen and sensitive to light, that I can not see well enough to drive.  In order to not lose my job, I have driven anyway, when I should not have.

I did not want to go to a doctor in North Dakota, because I was afraid of what kind of doctor I would get, and how much money I would be charged.  I have had mostly bad experiences in trying to get anything done in North Dakota, that would have been normal and ordinary things to do in other states.

I had to stay home on Sunday and Monday because I was having an allergy attack, and I could not see well enough to drive.  I realized that I really needed to find out about getting a strong antihistamine to use in an emergency, almost something like people who are allergic to bee stings might use in an emergency.  I went to a pharmacist on Tuesday morning and I asked him if there was any prescription strength antihistamine that I could use in an emergency to stop the swelling of my eyes.  He said that yes there was, and he wrote two of them down, Pataday and Prednisone.

I went to an optometrist’s office in Dickinson, and the earliest appointment that I could get was more than several weeks away.  I had not wanted to go to the Sanford Health Clinic because I was worried about what kind of doctor I would get, and how much money it would cost.  I talked myself into going to Sanford Health, hoping that the walk-in clinic visit would not be much more than $200.

I went into the Sanford Health walk-in clinic, and both of the check-in/admitting women were available.  Both of these women were pleasant and professional acting, and check-in was fairly quick.  I had to wait less than five minutes for a nurse to come and get me, she was older with grey hair, but she was also pleasant and professional acting.

There was a second nurse already waiting in the exam/treatment room, she was nice, in her mid-thirties.  The first nurse checked my weight, heart rate, and blood pressure, while the second nurse asked me some questions about my medical problem this day.  The first nurse and the second nurse spent less than five minutes with me.  In the back of my mind, I was thinking that this was probably some scheme by Sanford Health to charge me for two nurse consultations/treatments to increase my bill.

Lastly, I got who struck me as the Marinna Marsh of medical doctors, Dr. Nicole Marie Wilson-Hall from Indiana.  She was very attractive with long blonde hair, and friendly disposition.  I thought that I was very lucky, but I was worried how much this would cost me.  Dr. Nicole Marie Wilson-Hall is a locum tenens, a temporary doctor used by a medical facility to fill a staff shortage.  I have seen and read job advertisements for medical doctor locum tenens in Dickinson, and they are usually paid $300 to $350 per hour.  When I got home, I looked up Dr. Nicole Marie Wilson-Hall on the internet, and I found that she also works at walk-in clinics in Tampa, Florida where she lives:

Dr. Wilson Hall graduated Cum Laude from the University of Notre Dame, where she majored in Pre-Medicine and Anthropology and minored in Science, Technology, and Values. Her love of culture and travel prompted her to spend a semester abroad in Australia during her junior year of college. She graduated from St. Louis University/Scott Air Force Base’s Family Medicine program in Belleville, IL. She served four years as a family medicine physician at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota and earned an Army Accommodation Medal during Operation United Assistance in Liberia. She attended A.T. Still University of Health Sciences for medical school in Kirksville, MO and spent her two years of clinical rotations in St. Petersburg, Fl, where she and her husband fell in love with the Tampa Bay area.

I was glad to have met Dr. Captain Nicole Marie Wilson-Hall, she was attractive and nice, and she seemed very competent.  She prescribed two medications, Pataday and Prednisone.  I had explained to her that I had an allergic attack like this about four times per year, and that I really wanted to get an antihistamine that would stop the swelling in my eyes so that I could see well enough to drive, and not lose my job.

When she asked me what pharmacy that I wanted my prescription to be filled at, I said that I didn’t know, I guess at the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy if the cost was the same as anywhere else.  She sent the prescription to the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy.

From the time I walked in the door to the walk-in clinic, to the time I got to the clinic pharmacy to pick up my prescription, it took about twenty minutes.  I hoped at the time that I would not be charged much more than $200 for the walk-in clinic visit.

One of my prescriptions, the Pataday eye drops, cost $191 for a bottle smaller than a sewing thimble.  The amount of liquid in this bottle was less than what a tea spoon would hold.  I was not prepared or expecting this to cost so much.  I was literally scared to try to use it, what does this cost $5 per each drop?  I usually miss my eye a little bit when applying eye drops, and it takes several drops.  Drop, drop, drop, there goes $15.

The Pataday eye drops, my other prescription for ten Prednisone tablets, and the walk-in clinic visit to get these prescriptions will end up costing me more than $400.  I have one refill on the prescription for the Pataday eye drops.  If I want to pay $191 for another Pataday refill, the first bottle and the second bottle would get me through two allergy attacks, at a cost of $591 to get me through two allergy attacks.

When I got home after picking up and paying for my two prescriptions at the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy, I looked on the internet and I found several drug stores in Canada that sell the same bottle of Pataday eye drops for $32 per bottle, versus $191 at the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy.  These Canadian drug stores ship prescriptions by mail to the United States without any difficulty.

I called one, and then another Canadian drug store to place my order for the Pataday eye drops, and they both said that they needed the original doctor’s prescription slip for the Pataday, not the prescription label showing one refill allowed.  I explained that I never got a doctor’s prescription slip, it was e-mailed from the doctor straight to the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy.  The Canadian drug stores said that they did not think that I would have any difficulty in getting the doctor to write me another prescription slip.

On Thursday 8/24/2017, I delivered a letter to the Sanford Health walk-in clinic for Dr. Nicole Wilson-Hall.  The letter explained that I could get the Pataday eye drops from Canada for $7 per ml, instead of $76 per ml at the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy, that the Canadian drug stores would not accept the refill label on the Pataday, and I asked if she could write a prescription slip for me.  I was told at the check-in desk that she was gone for the rest of the week.  I asked if she had a mail box that they could put the letter in for her, and they said that they would.

I knew that it might be a while before Dr. Nicole Wilson-Hall would come back to Dickinson.  She might not come back at all.  Later on Thursday afternoon when I was working, I received a phone call from a woman at Sanford Health, I should have asked her to repeat who she was, but I didn’t.  She pretty much said that I could forget about anyone at Sanford Health writing me another prescription slip, even though I explained to her that I had one refill allowed, and that I wanted to get this one refill at some place other than the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy.

Even though I have had nothing but bad experiences getting anything done in North Dakota, I still was not cautious, suspicious, and careful enough.  Because the women at Sanford Health seemed to be pleasant, professional, and competent, I began to think that nothing was wrong.  I had intended that my doctor visit and the money that I was paying, was going to allow me to have medication to treat my allergy attacks that occur about four times per year, not just this current attack plus one more.  When I have a third allergy attack, I would have to go back to the Sanford Health walk-in clinic again, go through this process again, and pay the same amount of money again.

Rather than helping people, these women at Sanford Health are there to help make sure that Sanford Health makes as much money as possible, I see that now.  I am really dreading the bill that I am going to get from them now.  I might not pay it.  I have excellent credit, and I have never not paid a bill, but I think I might not pay this one.  I don’t mind explaining a hundred times why I haven’t paid this bill.

About two weeks later I received a bill from Sanford Health for the walk-in clinic visit.  The bill was $158, which I think is fair and reasonable.  In the end, the only thing that I am mad about, is that I wish I would have requested a prescription slip from the doctor, so that I could go home and research the best price for my medication before getting the prescription filled, most likely in Canada.

Elks Lodge Calamity In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have heard from two different people that the Elks Lodge in Dickinson, North Dakota is giving up the upstairs main floor of their building, and will now operate out of the basement of the building.  This was shocking, upsetting, and depressing to me, and I am not even a member of the Elks Lodge.  The more I think about it, the angrier that it makes me.

What’s next, are you going to get a reverse mortgage on your basement, and then when that money runs out, start having your meetings at McDonalds?

Oooh, Oooh, it’s so hard to make money now, we can’t really afford to keep the upstairs to our building, it’s so hard to keep the building clean and pay the electric, with my arthritis and my hip problems, I can’t climb down those stairs anymore.  We aren’t going to live much longer anyway.

What the Fuck is wrong with you!  The Elks Lodge members before you bought the land, paid for the construction of a nice modern two-story building, with a large lounge, large bar, large kitchen, dining room, and ballroom.  All of this was long ago paid for.  From what I have been told, the previous manager “Ray”, built up $700,000 in retained earnings over his tenure.  All you had to do was break even with bar and restaurant sales, banquets and events, and only dip into that $700,000 in an emergency.

You can’t take a paid for building, and just break even with bar and restaurant sales?  All over North Dakota, bar and restaurant owners not only have to pay for their building, they have to make a profit.  And you couldn’t even break even with a paid for building, right in the middle of the biggest economic boom anywhere in the United States that went on here from 2007 to 2014?  What the Fuck is wrong with you!

1,000 Elks Lodge members probably contributed at least $100 per year, that’s $100,000 per year, and you still couldn’t keep a paid for building, even with a $700,000 emergency fund?  With the last little bit of money you have, you should hire an independent auditor to find out what happened to all the money.

In every city, and every state, the Elks Lodge members are comprised of the car dealership owners, car dealer management, real estate brokers, real estate agents, insurance company owners, insurance company agents, other business owners, doctors, dentists, lawyers, and accountants.  All of these types of people formed, built, and kept the Elks Lodge going for 80 years, and now right after the biggest oil boom ever in Dickinson, you can’t even keep your building that was long ago paid for?

Something is wrong with you people.  I would be ashamed to be an Elks Lodge member in Dickinson.  You belong in a basement.

Supposedly, the upstairs to the Elks Lodge building has been acquired by the New Life Pentecostal Church of Dickinson.  This church has fewer than 100 adult members, and most of them are not wealthy people.  How can these 100 adults from a church afford to purchase, renovate, and maintain the upstairs to the Elks Lodge building, and the 1,000 professional and business people Elks Lodge members can’t even keep the upstairs to the building that they already owned?

Update 1/12/2018:

I do not know why this blog post article has been viewed by more than 100 people today, because I posted this article back in August, four months ago.  Here are some of the Facebook posts from the Elks Lodge in Dickinson:

November 16, 2017 – “PSA: We have set a date to close the top half of the Elks, our last day open this year will be December 16th! We are planning to renovate downstairs of the Elks and will reopen in 2018! We are really excited to see where this new chapter takes the Elks and all of our Members….”

December 14, 2017 – “Hey Everyone, As most of you know our last day upstairs is Saturday (16th) and we are requesting help from anyone who is interested!
We would like to start on Sunday December 17th……The Auction will be December 30th at 10:00 AM here at the Elks. Basically, we need to move the various equipment and furniture into trailers that we plan to keep for the lower level and organize the sale items in the building for the auction sale…..”

January 2, 2018 – “As most of you know we are officially closed for lower level renovations! We will be reopening at a later date in 2018….”

I drove to the Elks Lodge in Dickinson this evening, and I saw several work vans and equipment trailers owned by Simons Homes Siding & Windows parked beside the Elks Lodge building, because work was being performed on the upstairs of the building.  Simons Homes Siding & Windows is owned by Robert Simons, pastor of the New Life Pentecostal Church.

From the three quotations that I took from the Dickinson Elks Lodge Facebook page and listed above, it appears as though the Elks Lodge is moving into the basement of their own building, and vacating the upstairs of their own building.

I can not say for certain that the New Life Pentecostal Church will occupy the upstairs of the Elks Lodge building, but it looks like this will happen.

I do not want to express any more anger and outrage than I have already written, about how the Elks Lodge members from the past, could buy or build their own building in the worst of economic times, and then later the future Elks Lodge members would lose a paid for building in the middle of the best of economic times.

I will write an updated article with some other comments about the Elks Lodge in Dickinson.

Dickinson, North Dakota Could Have Had Permanent Growth If….

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In this blog post, I am going to try to explain one of the mistakes that has been made in Dickinson that has prevented permanent growth.  No, I am not going to write about local people in Dickinson being unfriendly, uncooperative, not helpful, and hostile for the 100th time, I am going to write about something that I have not covered yet.

I will illustrate what I am trying to explain using a real life example of a woman named “Trudy” who moved to Dickinson with her husband approximately two years ago.  Trudy and her husband are in their late forties, and they moved to Dickinson because of her husband’s job.  They had moved to different towns more than several times during their marriage because of her husband’s job.

Initially, when they moved to Dickinson two years ago, they rented an apartment.  They wanted to look for and try to find the right house for them.  With the sale of their previous home and their financial situation, they could have afforded to buy the most expensive home listed for sale in Dickinson if they wanted to.  But they were really only looking for a nice looking, comfortable, modest home that was the right size for them.

Trudy and her husband did not like paying the very high apartment rent that was the result of the oil boom that began in 2007 in western North Dakota.  The rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Dickinson was typically $2,000 to $3,000 per month.  Most people recognized that if you are going to pay $24,000 to $36,000 per year in rent, you would be much better off financially by using that amount of money to purchase a home.

Trudy liked Dickinson, and she liked the people in Dickinson.  She was looking forward to buying a house and making a home here with her husband.  She was looking forward to getting out of their apartment, this was only supposed to be a temporary arrangement.

Trudy looked, and looked for a house in Dickinson.  She looked at every on-line listing, she looked at all the printed real estate guides, she went to real estate offices, she drove around Dickinson looking at homes “For Sale By Owner” and to look for any house for sale that she wasn’t already aware of.

Trudy looked for a house in Dickinson for 1-1/2 years.  Though from time to time she found a house that would have been O.K. for her and her husband, everything was overpriced.  It was as if the home owners and the real estate agents did not think that anyone else was aware that the oil boom was over, and that the oil field was not going to pick up any time soon, and possibly not for a long time.  It also appeared that the home owners and the real estate agents believed that there were people “with a lot of money”, that would just go ahead and buy a house for $250,000 to $450,000 without even thinking about it.

Most people that are capable of purchasing a home for $250,000 to $450,000 are financially shrewd people, who are not in the habit of losing money.  These people don’t willingly over-pay for anything.  But in Dickinson, there seemed to be this wide-spread belief that there were vast numbers of home buyers that didn’t know how much homes were worth, and that the thought never entered their mind, “What could I expect to re-sell this home for in the future?”

Dickinson began to lose its charm for Trudy and her husband.  The people didn’t turn out to be that friendly or very helpful after all.  They could not find a reasonably priced home, and living in their apartment was unpleasant.  There was not a lot to do in Dickinson.  Eventually, both Trudy and her husband agreed that they would be happier and better off if they just moved to a different state.

I used this story up above to illustrate that both the excessive gouging on housing during the oil boom, and the current and continuing over-pricing on houses, has made about 90% of the people who came to Dickinson in the past ten years make up their minds that they would never stay in Dickinson.  I am not saying that 10% of the people decided to stay, I am saying that 90% of the people made up their minds that they would never stay.

Of the 10% of the people who came to Dickinson in the past ten years who didn’t make up their minds that they would never stay, many or most of this 10% had to leave anyway because they lost their job, or they could not find a reasonably priced house.  Trudy and her husband would be in this 10%.

In other words, Dickinson drives almost everyone who comes here away.  The population of Dickinson is going to continue to decrease every year, for years to come.

If You Come To Work In Dickinson, North Dakota, You Must Plan On Leaving

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If you come to work in Dickinson, North Dakota, you must plan on leaving.  This is probably the most important advice that I could give to anyone.

I first came to work in Dickinson from Idaho, in 2011.  I have lived in Dickinson for almost five years now.  Something that I now realize was a mistake, was that once I had been here for a while, I tried to settle in, to be comfortable, and I tried to make a life here.

When I first came to Dickinson in 2011, I ended up staying in my truck camper on company property where I was working.  My goal was to make as much money as possible, and then return to my home in Idaho when I had made enough money.  I brought over one extra vehicle, so that I could drive around after work and on weekends without moving my truck camper.  Making money, saving money, and bringing just the bare minimum of personal belongings to Dickinson, these were all good ideas that I should have continued to follow.

When I came back to Dickinson in 2013, by the winter I had moved into a house.  I purchased an additional vehicle in Dickinson.  I bought a couple of kayaks.  I bought some mountain bikes.  I later brought over from Idaho, two extra trucks, two equipment trailers, and construction equipment.  I began doing self employed construction work, in addition to my other job.

Instead of making money, saving money, and going back to Idaho when I had made enough money, I tried to make a life here in Dickinson.  I tried to have a normal life in Dickinson, because it looked like I was going to be here for several years.  I began trying to do things that I enjoyed doing elsewhere, riding my bike, kayaking, fishing, going to the gym, going to restaurants and bars, trying to meet women, driving jeeps out to nowhere.  This turned out to be a mistake, trying to make a life in Dickinson.

I have been writing blog posts for a little over 2-1/2 years, and I have written very few good things about Dickinson, and many, many bad things about Dickinson, North Dakota.  Primarily, the local people are unfriendly, uncooperative, hostile, hateful, uneducated, very greedy, and they raised housing prices 400% to 500% to gouge the out of state workers.  There is a shortage of women and a scarcity of attractive women.  The restaurants are not very good, and the waitresses and bartenders hate their jobs, hate their customers, hate white men, and hate Dickinson.  The police follow everyone leaving restaurants and bars hoping and trying to arrest them for something.

I tried to make a life here in Dickinson, and this was a mistake.  Dickinson is not normal, and it is never going to be normal.  There will always be a scarcity of attractive women in Dickinson.  The restaurants and bars will always be bad with waitresses and bartenders that hate their job and hate their customers.  The people here will always be unfriendly, uncooperative, hostile, and hateful.  I guess that I thought that I would try to persevere, and try to make things as bearable as possible while I was living here in Dickinson.

Things are so bad in Dickinson now, that I can now see that I had made a mistake when I changed my plans from working, saving, and leaving, to trying to do things, have things, and become involved in things here in Dickinson.

There are very few job openings in Dickinson now, even though this is the busiest hiring month in Dickinson.  My job is not very busy, and I am not making very much money.  Once I had brought extra vehicles, trailers, and equipment to Dickinson, my local landlord began being difficult and causing problems, thinking that I was stuck here, and that I could not leave.  Once I started taking my extra vehicles and equipment back to Idaho in preparation for moving out, my landlord changed his attitude.

Without having some of my equipment that I moved back to Idaho, in order to do my self employed construction work, I had to re-buy equipment from local businesses that I had bought this equipment from last year.  I was shocked recently when two local business owners that I had bought equipment from last year, were very nasty to me when I talked to them about buying more equipment from them.  I regretted having spent over $1,200 at these two local businesses.

These two local business owners being so nasty, caused me to think about what I am doing in Dickinson.  Just about every involvement with anything and anyone in Dickinson has been negative.  The local people are so unfriendly, the women are unattractive and unfriendly, the waitresses and bartenders are so unfriendly, the local business owners are nasty, and the police follow everyone around trying to arrest them for something, I guess that it was a mistake in trying to make a life here.  I just should have brought the bare minimum of belongings over here to Dickinson, and tried to have as little involvement as possible in Dickinson.

I recommend to out of state workers, do not move to Dickinson, just plan on staying here while you have a job.  Do not buy a house in Dickinson.  Do not pay a lot for housing, get just the bare minimum for housing.  Try to get a lease that allows you to break your lease by giving notice and paying a penalty.  Try to bring a minimum of belongings to Dickinson.  Be ready to leave Dickinson.  Try to make as much money as possible, to save as much money as possible, and to spend as little as possible.  While you are here, try to research some place better to move to.

After living in Dickinson for almost five years, with everything that I have seen, learned, and experienced, you can’t have a normal life, or a good life here in Dickinson.  Don’t get trapped here because you have bought a house which you will be unable to sell, or because you have spent your money on a new car, motorcycle, or boat.  Plan on saving your money so that you will be able to leave.  Don’t accidentally get trapped here in Dickinson.

I Am The Most Influential Person Now In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I recently did a Google search for about fifteen different topics concerning Dickinson, North Dakota, and my website comes up near the top of the first page of search results every time.  I said it before, anyone, anywhere in the world, gets their information about Dickinson, North Dakota from me.

I don’t want to be popular, I don’t want to be invited to parties, I want to be the dead chicken around everyone’s neck.  And like a dead chicken around your neck, I want to keep getting worse, reminding you what you did.

Some of the Worst things in Dickinson:

  1. There were no Ethics, Morals, or Decency in what people in Dickinson did to other people during this most recent oil boom when it came to rent and the cost of housing.  Retail store prices might have increased by 5% to 10%, repair service prices might have increased by 15% to 25%, wage rates might have increased by 10% to 40%, but rent and housing prices increased by 400% to 500%.  Many long time local residents could no longer afford the cost of housing.  Many out of state workers could not afford the cost of housing and slept in their vehicles.  There was no reason for 400% to 500% cost increases in housing other than greed.
  2. The Catholic Church is the biggest social influence in Dickinson, North Dakota. The Catholic priests, the Catholic Church leaders, and the Catholic congregations ignored and turned their back on all Christian principles such as, “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you”, “So as you do to the least of my people, so do you unto me”, “What profiteth a man that he gain the whole world, yet lose his soul?  Or what shall he give in exchange for his soul?”  In fact, the Catholics actually used their social influence and networks to organize, orchestrate, and control the taking advantage of people.
  3. The local company owners, the local manufacturing companies, and the local people hate, mistreat, and disrespect educated people in every way possible.  Out of fear of being outsmarted and losing control, local company owners seek to hire people who are less intelligent and less educated than themselves, which makes Dickinson one of the least educated and most ignorant places in the United States.  Local companies and manufacturing companies in Dickinson do not hire engineers, instead they offer $18 per hour for “engineering” positions which are filled by people with not even good High School educations.  All of Dickinson functions at a very low level.  The most underpaid people in Dickinson are the professors at Dickinson State University who are paid about the same as unskilled laborers.
  4. In order to staff the restaurant, bar, and retail positions during the recent oil boom, local companies did not perform background checks on these employees.  Vast numbers of mentally ill, criminal, and drug addicted women came to Dickinson to work at these jobs that did not perform any background checks.  The trashiest, lowest class, most corrupt women that you will ever find moved to Dickinson and many of them are still here.
  5. Because Dickinson allowed all of the things above to take place and could not see that these things were wrong, most people made up their mind that they would never stay in Dickinson.

Summary Of Wickedness And Perversion In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for a little over four years now.  I have been writing blog posts on this website for two years.

I wrote about bits and pieces of things that I saw that I thought I understood.  Some things that were culturally different, some problems, and things that were wrong.  Each of these things that I thought that I saw and understood, and wrote about, as time has passed, I can say that I was not incorrect in my assessment and explanation.

The people here in Dickinson took advantage of the out of state workers tremendously during this past oil boom.  The people in Dickinson have a hatred and hostility for people who are from out of state, and an even stronger hatred for people with an education.  The people in Dickinson also have hatred and hostility for each other.

Psychologists, counselors, and ordinary people have seen that when people are abused, they in turn abuse others.  This happens in families with domestic violence and abuse, this happens in organizations like fraternities that haze inductees, this happens in the military, this happens in company culture.  People repeat what has been done to them.

People in Dickinson were mistreated, taken advantage of, and abused way before this most recent oil boom in 2007.  I am angry at the Catholic Church in Dickinson for not making Christian values, ethics, and morals wide spread and dominant in Dickinson.  I have gone so far as to say that I think that the Catholic Church in Dickinson must be teaching hostility and hatred in Dickinson because it is so prevalent.

I wrote in a recent blog post that Dickinson treats educated people very badly, that the manufacturing companies in Dickinson treat engineers with disrespect in every way, and that this is what the local people want.  I had written in a previous blog post, that the large manufacturing companies in Dickinson have had a practice of paying employees as little as possible in order to keep them from ever getting ahead, ever furthering themselves, ever advancing, or ever being able to leave their job or leave Dickinson.  The regular employees were treated very badly.

So as I started out saying in this blog post, when people are abused and treated badly, they in turn treat others badly.  Should it be any wonder that out of state workers were treated with hatred and hostility?  Should it be any wonder that educated people and engineers are treated with hatred and hostility?  The people here are only repeating what has been done to them.

I want to finish this blog post by citing a very disturbing newspaper article by the Bismarck Tribune from 2005, that illustrates perfectly several of the things that I have been writing about.  This article is about what one of the wealthiest individuals from the wealthiest manufacturing company in Dickinson did.  I want to use this example to show that people at the top in Dickinson abuse and take advantage of people.  I want to use this as an example of lack of Christian morals and ethics.  The people in Dickinson act in accordance with how they have been treated, when they have been treated with a lack of Christian morals and ethics, they do so to others.  Lastly, this hatred of educated people and engineers in Dickinson, which comes from the top, is probably due to the fact that the people at the top don’t want anyone around to know what they are doing.

From the September 2, 2005  Bismarck Tribune article by Blake Nicholson:

“A former Dickinson businessman has been sentenced to five years in prison for possessing child pornography, and ordered to pay restitution to the one known victim and to a hospital children’s center here…

David Fisher, 44, the former head of Fisher Industries and Fisher Martin Inc., admitted in April to possessing two video clips and about two dozen computer files of child pornography in March 2003. In return for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges of sexual exploitation of minors and receipt of material involving the sexual exploitation of minors…

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Dan Hovland also ordered Fisher to pay restitution of $4,860 to the one known victim, a 10-year-old girl whom Fisher had hired to help with office chores. Authorities said six of the child porn images in Fisher’s possession were of the girl. Hochhalter said Fisher also will be responsible for paying future costs of counseling for the victim…”

David Fisher was sentenced to five years in prison.  Note that in exchange for his guilty plea, the charges of sexual exploitation of minors was dropped.  If an out of state worker would have taken six pornographic images of a ten year old girl, he probably would have been sentenced to twenty years in prison.

People Resorting To Sex With Animals In Dickinson, North Dakota

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In my previous four blog posts I wrote that the Catholics, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, law enforcement, and the judicial system in western North Dakota have all decided that there is not going to be any prostitution allowed whatsoever, even though there are way more men than women, and prostitution is necessary.  Rather than achieving a glorious state of morality and purity in western North Dakota, it has resulted in adultery, and sexual abuse of animals.

Right now, everybody needs to go read the Jamestown Sun newspaper article dated January 28, 2013 “Horse becomes victim of sexual assault in west North Dakota.”  Go read the article, not only was a horse sexually assaulted, this was not the first time that this happened to a horse in this area, and, it has happened to cattle in this area too.

A quote from this newspaper article reads, “…an illegal act ranchers suggest happens all too often in this area, but rarely gets reported.”

Another quote from this newspaper article reads, “This is not the first time an attack like this has happened. Horse farrier Lee Hecker found his daughter’s older mare on the ground with grease on its “rear-end” this fall.”

Another quote from this newspaper article reads, “Hecker has over the years found evidence of assault on his horses and cows.”

I am so sick of the Catholics in Dickinson.  The Catholics here in Dickinson, instead of having kindness and charity towards others, have hatred and hostility towards others.  Instead of helping the people who arrived here in Dickinson, they took advantage of them in historic proportion.  Just like the Catholics here have got a complete misunderstanding of the teachings of Christianity, which has them believing that they should treat others with hostility, hatred, and abuse, their determined efforts to not allow men the opportunity to have sex with women, has forced the men here to turn to horses and cows for sex.

How To Tell If Your Child Was Fathered By An Out Of State Worker In Dickinson And Watford City, North Dakota

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The Catholics, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, law enforcement, and the judicial system all decided that there was not going to be any prostitution allowed when all of the out of state workers moved to western North Dakota for the oil boom and the ratio of men to women in Dickinson became 3:1, and 10:1 in Watford City.  There was nothing that the out of state workers could do but try to seduce the married women and unmarried local women by any means necessary to obtain sex.  Promising them anything and everything, lying to them, tricking them, taking advantage of them, exploiting their vulnerabilities, because they had to if they wanted to have sex.

In order to tell if your child was fathered by an out of state worker, here are some signs to look for:

  1. If your wife had been asking you to fix a fence, wash the windows, trim a tree, clean the gutters out, and your wife quit asking you, and these things got done, and she gave birth nine months later, your child was probably fathered by an out of state worker.
  2. If your child says, “I’m cold”, and it is above 20 degrees Fahrenheit, your child was probably fathered by an out of state worker.
  3. If your child does well in school, likes school, and has a large vocabulary, your child was probably fathered by an out of state worker.
  4. If your child says, “Are y’all fixin to go to the store?”, your child was probably fathered by an out of state worker.
  5. If your child is black, and neither you or your wife is black, your child was probably fathered by an out of state worker.

Are We Supposed To Seduce The Married Women In Dickinson And Watford City, North Dakota?

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Are we, the out of state workers, supposed to seduce the married women in Dickinson and Watford City, North Dakota?  The Catholics, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, law enforcement, and the judicial system don’t want there to be any prostitution of any kind whatsoever, so I guess we must be supposed to seduce the married women.

The ratio of men to women in Dickinson is about 3:1, and the ratio of men to women in Watford City is about 10:1.  There are not enough women for everybody to have one, therefore, we must borrow someone else’s, because prostitution is not allowed.

Most of the time, very attractive young ladies with good dispositions already have a boyfriend or husband.  They are so sought after because of their beauty and good personality, that they always either have a boyfriend or are married.  Fortunately, married women are easier to seduce than single women, as I will explain.

Married women, by the fact that they are married, have demonstrated that they like men enough to marry one of them.  If they have been married for at least a few years, they are used to men.  They are used to a man touching them, grabbing them, handling them, having sex with them, sleeping next to them, snoring, being sick around them, being dirty, sweaty, and smelly.  So they are not uncomfortable with men, or the things that men do.

I have written in previous blog posts that all of the housewives, waitresses, and store clerks were tired of being propositioned ten times every day by the truck drivers, construction workers, and oil field workers.  I have written that all of the housewives in Dickinson, Dunn County, and Watford City, hide, they hide, and they try to only go out to do errands and shopping between the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in order to avoid all of the male workers who are currently still at work during those hours.  But the housewives try to avoid the male workers, because they actually like some of them, they find some of them to be cute or handsome.

When a married woman sees a strong dirty sweaty construction worker that she thinks is cute or handsome, she starts fantasizing about all the work that she could have him do back at her house.  She starts fantasizing about the strong dirty sweaty construction worker taking her, without asking, (so it’s not her fault), in an animalistic primitive wild lust that she can’t stop, (so it’s not her fault).

The housewives, they have already noticed that some of the out of state workers are cute or handsome, and they have already thought about it.  The housewives that are sometimes the most vulnerable to seduction, according to scientific research, are the ones with a couple of children under the age of eight.  This is because of both a high hormone level at this time, and the fact that they are looking for relief and  escape from their squabbling squealing children.

When you combine the fact that housewives are used to men, are used to having sex, are not scared of sex, are not scared of getting pregnant, find strong sweaty construction workers attractive, have high hormone levels, want an escape from their squealing kids, and, and are probably mad at their husband for something and want to get back at him, you see that housewives are very ready to be borrowed temporarily by out of state workers.

The Catholics could not have set things up any better for the greatest amount of adultery in Dickinson and Watford City, with there being so many men, so few women, and absolutely no prostitutes allowed for the out of state workers.

In my next blog post, I will write about how people in Dickinson and Watford City can tell if their child was fathered by an out of state worker.

Maggie McNeil, The Honest Courtesan, Part II

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In my previous blog post I wrote about the website “Maggie McNeil, The Honest Courtesan, frank commentary from an unretired call girl”.

Maggie McNeil is not her real name, it is a pseudonym that she chose for herself to protect her identity.  Maggie McNeil received her B.A. in English, and her M.S. in Library Science.  She became married after graduating and began working as a librarian.  When she became divorced after four years of marriage, she began working as a stripper in New Orleans to pay off debt that she was left with.  While working as a stripper, she found out that she could make more money as a prostitute, so she became a prostitute.

Maggie McNeil writes about all aspects of her life, but mostly she writes as an advocate for women’s rights, especially the right for women to earn their living by having sex for money, without being persecuted and treated like a criminal.

Maggie McNeil came from a stable family, was mentally and physically healthy, completed her education, and was not destitute.  She chose to become a prostitute, she was not forced into it.  She writes that she enjoys having sex and she likes being a prostitute.  She has always been able to manage her own affairs, she has always been in control of her life.  She was never under anyone else’s control, and she was not victimized.

Maggie McNeil writes that there are many women throughout the world that are just like her.  There are many women throughout the world that are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, and they to chose to have sex for money as a profession.  Maggie McNeil has written more than a thousand blog posts on the subject of people working as prostitutes.  She reads research, studies, and news articles from around the world related to prostitution daily, and she posts links, summaries, and commentary.

I am writing about Maggie McNeil on my blog website, because I would like for people in North Dakota to consider some things in a rational, logical way.  When you have 20,000 male oil field workers move to Williston, North Dakota, there are not enough local women for the oil field workers to court, become engaged, and become married like you Catholics would like.  The ratio of men to women was probably 10:1.

Throughout the history of the world, in most parts of the world, there has been the situation where there were great numbers of men, and very few women.  Wars in remote locations, mining and lumber operations in remote locations, settling of frontiers and far away countries, gold rushes, oil booms.  There has been prostitution everywhere that there has been great numbers of men and few women.

Readers probably have images in their heads of dirty, filthy, diseased women working as prostitutes near battle fronts and mining towns.  The truth is, if these women working as prostitutes didn’t have access to clean lodgings, bathing facilities, and medical care, they might be dirty and diseased.  The best thing for women working as prostitutes and the men using these prostitutes, would be that these women have a clean, safe, regulated environment to work in.

What the North Dakotans should have done, was acknowledge and understand that there were going to be way more men than women due to the oil boom.  There was going to be prostitution.  When prostitution is illegal, and law enforcement and the judicial system seek to find and arrest all prostitutes, prostitution is conducted as a criminal enterprise, by criminals.  No normal woman is going to want to come to North Dakota to work as a prostitute when law enforcement is determined to arrest all prostitutes.  So instead what you get in North Dakota is, gangs, pimps, and criminals in other states get girls and women addicted to drugs, keep them high on drugs, beat them, threaten them, and drive them to North Dakota and force them to work as prostitutes.  These women are so drug addicted, so high on drugs, so coerced, that they have no control over how many men they have sex with, take no health precautions for their own safety, and take no health precautions against spreading disease to men.

If North Dakota would have allowed prostitution to be conducted as a legal business, there could have been normal, healthy, safety conscious women working in safe, clean places of business, with good access to health care, and some regulation.  Instead with North Dakotans vilifying and criminalizing prostitution, you have gangs and pimps drugging girls and women, holding them against their will, and forcing them to have sex with as many men as possible with no regard for their own health, for their customer’s health, or for spreading diseases.

North Dakota White Trash Hall Of Fame, Williston, North Dakota, Part II

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In Part I of this blog post, I wrote about the North Dakota White Trash Hall Of Fame in Williston, North Dakota. In order to be fair, there needs to be a point system in order to determine who will be inducted. Below is a point system.

  1. If the person is from Florida or Texas, they automatically get 1 point.
  2. If their name is “Kayla”, they automatically get 1 point.

 

  1. If they drive a Pontiac Grand Prix, they get 1 point.
  2. For each vehicle hubcap missing, 1 point.
  3. For each vehicle window that is broken, 2 points.
  4. For each vehicle windshield or rear window decal banner, 3 points.

 

  1. For each body piercing, 1 point.
  2. For each tattoo, 1 point.
  3. Each name tattoo, 2 points.
  4. Each misspelled tattoo, 3 points.

 

  1. Each tobacco product used, 1 point.
  2. Each illegal drug used, 3 points.

 

  1. Each misdemeanor, 1 point.
  2. Each warrant out for their arrest, 3 points.
  3. Each resisting arrest, 3 points.
  4. Each felony, 4 points.
  5. Each assaulting a police officer, 5 points.

 

In the point system, there is no maximum point total, because it is not conceivable how many tattoos, piercings, and criminal charges a person might have. I believe that a person with a point total of 10 is probably White Trash, however this point total of 10 would probably be what 75% of the workers in North Dakota would have. You can’t have everybody inducted into The North Dakota White Trash Hall Of Fame. I believe a sufficient point total to be inducted would be 15 points.

I believe that a good time and place to have a White Trash person inducted into The North Dakota White Trash Hall Of Fame, would be at their sentencing hearing. Right after the judge or jury reads the sentencing determination, they can announce, “Also, you are hereby inducted into the North Dakota White Trash Hall Of Fame, congratulations.” Then everyone present can clap, the inductee gets their picture taken, and this photograph goes in the newspaper.

 

Please mail your nominations for induction into The North Dakota White Trash Hall Of Fame to:

Chamber of Commerce                                                                                                                         Attn: White Trash Hall Of Fame                                                                                                             #10 Main Street                                                                                                                                           P.O. Box G                                                                                                                                                      Williston, North Dakota 58802

 

It’s Over, Dickinson, North Dakota

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It’s Over.  The Oil Boom is Over in North Dakota.  Just about everyone living and working in Western North Dakota can see that it is over, and they acknowledge that it is over.

My recollection is that the price of oil started to decrease in December of 2014, and that the price of oil continued to decrease each month after that.  In the summer of 2015 in Dickinson, though the price of oil had fallen, there was still quite a bit of work going on.  There were a couple of large road improvement projects on State Avenue, the new Public Safety Building was being completed, Trinity High School was being worked on, there were several large commercial developments that were having site work done, several large apartment communities and one hotel were nearing completion.  There were still a lot of workers in Dickinson, and Dickinson was busy, just not as busy as it had been in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.

I can remember in the summer of 2015, there was discussion of the number of operating drill rigs, continuing to decrease.  Many oil field workers were losing their jobs that were related to drilling and fracturing, but oil field workers that were doing service, repair, installation, and oil hauling were not losing as many jobs.  In the summer of 2015, and fall of 2015, it seemed like if the price of oil increased, everybody that was currently employed would keep their job, that more oil drill rigs would become operational and many people that had lost their job, would get their job back.

In the winter of 2015, the price of oil continued to drop.  The number of drill rigs operating continued to decrease.  Outside of Dickinson, drill rigs were positioned close together in tight rows and columns, for long term storage, not easy access for moving.  In Dickinson, Baker Hughes parked all of their trucks and equipment nose to bumper, side by side, in one great big mass, so you couldn’t get anything out, they were done.  Occidental took their sign off the entrance to their building, they no longer have a receptionist, and no one will come to the door.  In order to not have to talk to people, some drilling companies have locked the entrance gates to their property during the day.  I know of one oil field service company, where the manager parks his vehicle inside the building, so that nobody knows he is there and stops by to ask for a job.

Some of the real estate investors are trying to sell their properties, but it is too late, they waited too long.  They were waiting to see if things were going to turn-around, but it is apparent now that they aren’t.  I thought that by the summer of 2016, the price of oil would have gone back up.  I thought that by the summer of 2016, the people that were here in Dickinson would all have jobs, and that some of the people that left Dickinson would come back because there would be quite a few job openings by then.  That doesn’t look like that will happen now.

It looks like the price of oil will continue to drop.  It looks like Continental, Marathon, Whiting, Conoco Philips, Tesoro, Hess, Haliburton, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Nabors, Patterson, H&P, all the small oil field service companies, all the man-camps, all the apartment communities, all the hotels, all the real estate developers/investors, all the business owners, all the restaurant owners, know that the boom is gone, that it is not coming back, and that there is not going to be much new oil production work in the foreseeable future.

 

 

 

 

I Want To Beat The Chamber of Commerce In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I want to beat the Chamber of Commerce in Dickinson, North Dakota.  I want to get to you, before they do.  I want to tell you the truth, rather than have you listen to lies and bullshit.

The individuals in the Dickinson Chamber of Commerce may not be bad people, but they have a job to do, and that job is to lie to you about Dickinson.

When I first wrote this blog post in November of 2015, the housing prices in Dickinson were very, very high.  Extremely high.  This was the result of greed, lack of human decency, and stupidity.  There was this lie going around that everybody in the oil field was making $100,000 per year.  In the five years that I have lived in Dickinson, I have only ever met three people who made over $100,000 per year in the oil field.

The Oil Boom was over in western North Dakota by the end of 2015, due to the price of oil falling from over $100 per barrel down to $40 per barrel.  Many oil field jobs went away, and many out of state workers returned to the states where they came from.  Once the apartments, manufactured home parks, and trailer parks in Dickinson became less than half occupied, the rents throughout Dickinson dropped greatly.

During the Oil Boom, the people in Dickinson were not friendly, not helpful, and not cooperative.  Now that the Oil Boom is over, the people in Dickinson are even meaner, in part due to increased competition for fewer jobs, and also because they want people to leave Dickinson.

The people in Dickinson dislike people who are from someplace else, and they also dislike each other.  Anything you say to people in Dickinson, will probably make them dislike you more.  If you arrive in Dickinson now, you are better off staying away from people.  Remain in your hotel, or your home, there isn’t anything to do or anywhere to go anyway, and you will likely be followed and stopped by the Dickinson Police.

There is a shortage of women in Dickinson, and a lack of attractive women.  The ratio of men to women in Dickinson is probably 3:1.  The Dickinson Police Department try as hard as they can to not allow prostitution in Dickinson, though it is needed.  The Dickinson Police create fake advertisement for women wanting to have sex, and then arrest people when they show up.

You can not safely go out to bars or restaurants in Dickinson at night, because the Dickinson Police try as hard as they can to arrest people for DUI.  In Dickinson, the Police are so eager to arrest people for DUI or other charges, that they will follow you and stop you for any reason that they can think of.  The Police try to encourage people to leave Dickinson.

In Dickinson, all of the restaurants have employees and servers that don’t like their jobs.  All of the restaurant employees think that everyone else is making over $100,000 per year, and they aren’t, and they are mad about it.  The servers are disappointed and can’t understand why people don’t spend $50 per meal and leave them a $20 tip, like they all heard about.  How are they ever going to make $300 a night at Applebees like they planned?

There is not a lot to do in Dickinson.  It is cold and grey from about October through April, at least seven months of cold weather.

The oil field work has been reduced by about 80% over the past several years.  Most of the oil field workers who lost their jobs went back to the states where they came from because housing prices were so high here, the people are unfriendly, there is a shortage of women, you can’t go out to bars or restaurants at night, the restaurants have terrible service, there is not a lot to do, the Police encourage people to leave Dickinson, and it is cold for at least seven months of the year.

The people in Dickinson, and the employers in Dickinson, hate people with an education.  The employers in Dickinson would much rather hire someone with several felony convictions, than someone with a college degree.  In Dickinson, your supervisors and co-workers will be people convicted of robbery, theft, assault, and drug charges.  Perform a Google search and look up your company owners, managers, and personnel on www.ndcourts.gov/publicsearch/default.html before you accept a job with a company in Dickinson.

What do I want?  I want the truth to be known.  I had thought that Dickinson could change, but once the Oil Boom was over, the local people in Dickinson became ever meaner.  I had not realized that the local people in Dickinson were on their best behavior during the Oil Boom.  All I can do now is warn people what Dickinson is like.