Tag Archives: Living in Dickinson, North Dakota

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How Men Are Assessed In Western North Dakota, Part I

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I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for almost four years now.  The local people in Dickinson, judge, assess, and evaluate men differently than they do in other parts of the United States.

I lived in Florida mostly until I was 30.  After that I lived and worked in Colorado, Utah, Texas, Arizona, Idaho, and North Dakota.  Higher education is important and valued in Florida, Colorado, Utah, Texas, and Arizona.  Not valued very much in Idaho and North Dakota.

In the states that I just mentioned that valued higher education, if you had a bachelors degree, this would allow you to enter into and work your way up in accounting, advertising, banking, business management, construction management, healthcare, human resources, insurance, manufacturing, marketing, real estate appraisal, sales, and other businesses.  What employers were looking for, were people who had adult level competency in reading, writing, math, history, logic, critical thinking, decision making, ability to learn, and ability to complete tasks unsupervised.  Local people in western North Dakota don’t look at things this way.

Things are different in western North Dakota.  For instance, if there was no Oil Boom, people that had good logic, critical thinking, and decision making ability would move away, so people in western North Dakota could never evaluate anyone based on these three criteria, because they wouldn’t be here in the first place.  Some of the other criteria that are important elsewhere like reading, writing, math, and history, are not important in western North Dakota.  In western North Dakota, they were looking for people that would stay and show up for work.

In western North Dakota, the most important characteristic in a male, was that he stay and show up for work.

In the small town in Florida that I grew up in, in the college towns that I went to school in, in the cities that I worked in, women would rather date, be with, and marry a guy that had a college degree, because everyone knows that college graduates make more money and have more employment opportunities.  In most of the places that I lived, women were very aware of the employment possibilities and earnings potential for every type of education.  Women would most like to be in a relationship with a medical doctor, 2nd lawyer, 3rd MBA or PhD, 4th physician’s assistant, pharmaceutical sales rep or engineer.  In western North Dakota, what really turns a woman on, is a guy that is going to stay here and show up for work.

How Women In Dickinson Can Behave Like Southern Ladies, Part 4 of 4

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This will be the last part for the time being.  There is a lot more to cover, but it would take a big book to include everything, and I don’t want to entirely devote this blog to this subject.  Parts 1, 2, 3, & 4 cover what I think are some of the most important things.

6.  Do Not Look Like A Slob In Public.  Try to take a shower, comb your hair, and put on clean normal clothes before you leave your home.  You might think that it is cute when you wear pajama pants and slippers to go to the store, but actually, people think that your family must be so trashy that you don’t even know any better.  You might think that you are cute when you go to the King Buffet or the Pizza Ranch in your pajama pants and slippers, but other people at the restaurant see you and think, “You must have gotten your welfare assistance payment today, that is why you are out to eat in your pajamas.”

The big problem is, women get in the habit of always wearing sweat pants or pajama pants, an over size worn t-shirt, an over size worn hoodie sweatshirt, and they live the rest of their life dressing this way.  They say to themselves, “I am just going to the post office, I am just going to the bank, I am just going to the car dealer to drop off my car.”  Do the women who work at the bank or at the car dealer dress this way?  No, the women who work at the bank and at the car dealer don’t dress this way because it is not allowed, they would look like a slob.  You look like a slob.

7.  Do Not Act Like A Slob In Public.  When you are out with your family, do not act like a troop of baboons, yelling, screeching, grabbing things, picking at yourselves, oblivious to the human beings around you.

8.  Do Not Become Over Intoxicated In Public.  No, people will not forget the things that you said and the things that you did when you were drunk.  They will not think that it was just the alcohol, they will think that that is how you really are, and it just finally came out.

How Women In Dickinson Can Behave Like Southern Ladies Part 3 of 4

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Please read Part 1 and Part 2 in my previous two blog posts where I explained Rules 1 through 4.  Many women in Dickinson already know these rules, however many do not.

5.  Do Not Fight In Public.  I mean do not engage in a physical fight in public.  In a stressful situation, if you can not stand there with your arms crossed, then you need to leave.  If you are being put under too much stress, you should probably leave anyway.  You do not have to stand there and let someone insult you, curse at you, or threaten you, ..leave.  You should always try to avoid situations where people will mistreat you, however if you find yourself in a situation where you are being mistreated, …leave.  I will give some examples below.

If your boyfriend is being disrespectful or insulting, …leave.

If your husband is being abusive, disrespectful, or insulting, …leave.

If a co-worker is being abusive or threatening, you should probably leave.

If an employer is being abusive or threatening, you should leave.

In the examples that I gave above, you need to let people know that you will not tolerate mistreatment or abuse, and though they may be using bad language, vulgarity, and making threats, you aren’t going to behave like that.  In your personal relationships, you can disassociate yourself from anyone that is disrespectful and abusive, but you should also do this in your professional life, and I will explain why

If an employer ever tries to mistreat you, they will likely never stop.  The first time that an employer does something abusive, understand that this is what they are like, and that this will continue.  There are laws now about “hostile work environment”, but you should just leave first, and not come back.

You might be thinking, “This is easy for you to say, but how am I going to pay my bills?”  When you are a young single woman, you can’t spend all the money that you make.  It is very, very important that you save money, and have quite a bit of money saved up.  You need to not get the most expensive apartment, most expensive furniture, most expensive car, and most expensive clothes that you can buy.  You need to save money and have money saved up so that you will not be at the mercy of other people, or dependent on other people, and can just leave any abusive, threatening, or coercive situation.

Again, a lady should not engage in a physical fight.  But this does not mean that you have to do nothing when people are threatening and abusive to you.  In some cases, it may be appropriate to have a boyfriend, husband, or father inform someone that they had better not mistreat you.  In some cases you may have to explain yourself to an administrator or a manager in order to report and stop abuse.  In some cases you may need a lawyer.  In some cases you may be better off to just never deal with some people again.

How Women In Dickinson Can Behave Like Southern Ladies, Part 2 of 4

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Please read my blog post “How Women In Dickinson Can Behave Like Southern Ladies, Part 1”.  I began that post by saying that many women in Dickinson already know these things that I will write, however many do not, especially the young single women who have come from out of state to work in Dickinson.

4.  Do Not Argue In Public.  You may have been wronged, but do not argue in public.  In confronting an individual that has wronged you, you may accidentally begin to use language that is not lady-like, and you may end up looking trashy and low class.  You may have been wronged, but in confronting an individual in public, details may emerge, or accusations could emerge, that may embarrass you or humiliate you.  Arguing in public, details might emerge that could hurt innocent people.  Arguing in public might reveal a dark side of you that no one was aware of and that you don’t want known.  Arguing in public might lead to a physical fight, and you don’t want or need witnesses to this.  Fighting in public is prohibited in Rule #5 by the way.

Rule #4 is an extremely important rule.  Let’s just say that you are right and that the other person is wrong.  Stop and think about the consequences of arguing in public.  I will have to explain this with some scenarios.

Let us say that your husband has had an affair with a waitress.  You know it, your husband knows it, and the waitress knows it.  In your anger, you might head straight down to the restaurant where this waitress works, and confront her wherever you find her saying, “You fucking whore!  I had better not ever catch you fucking my husband again!”  As a result of this approach, your husband’s friends, your friends, your husband’s co-workers, your co-workers, your neighbors, and probably even your children will know what your husband did.  Was it necessary and beneficial for your neighbors and children to know this?  What if the waitress yells back, “Your husband told me that you were a lesbian and you wouldn’t have sex with him anymore!”  Whether this is true or not, what is everybody going to think?

A lady would confront her husband in private, with no one around, no witnesses, no children.  (How and why do you think that President George Bush got a black eye while he was president and in the private residence?)  No one needs to see or hear this lady using bad language.  No one needs to see or hear this lady punch her husband in the face.  He won’t be able to tell the police.  He will have to say something stupid like he was eating pretzels and a pretzel got caught in his throat and he hit his head on the coffee table.

A lady would not want her children to know that their father had had an affair.  She would not want to upset and confuse the children, who would then spend all of their time worrying that mom and dad were going to get a divorce.  A lady would dictate terms, conditions, and consequences to her husband in private.  All of the arguing and negotiating would be done in private.  No one needs to know or should know the husband and wife’s personal affairs.

If a lady wanted to confront the waitress who had had an affair with her husband, she could inform the waitress that she would like to meet with her.  By the way, a forty-five year old married woman telephoning a twenty-five year old waitress and asking to speak to her in the most matter-of-fact way, would probably result in all restaurant staff suspecting, but not knowing, what had transpired, and it would not be liked.  A quick meeting, off hours, at the most distant table, in a hotel bar, would be an appropriate place for a lady to tell some young woman that she knows what had happened.  That she has explained this to her husband, and now she is explaining this to you, that if this ever happens again, that you can have him, he can come and live with you, but you had better be able to support both of you, because she will be keeping the house, and she and the kids will be taking all of his money.

Rule #4, Do Not Argue In Public, does not mean not doing anything, or not getting even.  In the South, women don’t have to like each other, in order to help each other.  The easy thing to call it would be “Networking” but this it not accurate, because “Networking” is different.  It is more simple, it is like, “If you do something to one of us, you do something to all of us.”  Ladies do not like it when other women cause their husbands to cheat on them.  If a lady told her best friend in the strictest confidence what her husband had done.  Her best friend might take matters into her own hands and tell her friend, who is the wife of the restaurant owner.  The restaurant owner’s wife is not about to have some young girl around that is going to be after her husband next, and this young waitress can no longer work there.

Having just written that in the South, women don’t have to like each other, in order to help each other, the following outcome is just as likely.  Once a wife has had a chance to calm down after finding out that her husband has had an affair.  The wife will want to know who her husband cheated with.  It might be a relief to the wife that her husband cheated with some twenty-five year old waitress, and feel that this is not a threat.  The waitress probably doesn’t want her husband anyway.  The wife might try to put herself in the shoes of the young waitress, not making much money, struggling financially, her husband trying to charm her, maybe promising her things.  The wife might not want any revenge on the young waitress, and begin to believe that both she and the waitress were both victimized by her husband in this.

But remember that there was No Arguing In Public.

How Women In Dickinson Can Behave Like Southern Ladies, Part 1 of 4

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A reader named “Cheryl”, a.k.a. ndgirlone, recently wrote a comment to my blog post “Women In Dickinson, North Dakota”.  I answered some of Cheryl’s questions in my previous post about how I date women in Dickinson.  Cheryl’s comments reminded me that I had intended to write about how women in Dickinson can behave like Southern Ladies.

There are women in Dickinson who already know the things that I will write, but there are many women who don’t know.  In particular the single women from out of state who have come to work in western North Dakota are quite lost in how to behave appropriately.  If they follow my advice, they will be able to improve their situation in life.

  1.   A lady must not use bad language.  Any person who hears a woman use bad language will probably assume that she is trashy and low class.  I will explain later the disadvantages of being thought of as trashy and low class.
  2.   A lady must withdraw and not participate in any situation where bad language is being used.  Any person who observes a woman in the company of others who are using bad language will probably assume that she is trashy and low class.
  3.   A lady must withdraw from any situation where people are behaving inappropriately, crudely, or with vulgarity.  Again, any person who observes a woman in the company of others who are behaving inappropriately will probably assume that she is trashy and low class.

For now, I will just explain the three statements that I made above.  Consider in your mind a young man who is going to medical school to become a doctor, who comes from a wealthy family.  If you were dating this young man, and he took you home to meet his parents, would you be using the words “fuck”, “asshole”, and “shit” around his parents?  You probably would not, unless you wanted to end this relationship quickly.  You would not because you don’t want to appear trashy and low class.  The reason that you might not want to lose your relationship with this young man is because as a husband, he could provide you with a nice home, nice vehicle, and easily pay for your children.  So you see that there is an advantage to not acting trashy and low class.

What you might not be aware of, is that there is opportunity around you every minute of every day.  When you get up in the morning, wear pajama pants and slippers, with your hair looking like a bird’s nest, get in your car to go to a convenience store to get coffee, and maybe say to the cashier, “Fuck, I forgot my wallet, it’s in my car, let me go get it.”  Did you know that the old farmer behind you or sitting at a table has just noticed what a mess you are?  Many of the old farmers in Dickinson are way past being millionaires, they are old, and they have sons.  You had better believe that these old millionaires have a say in what their sons do.  If their son dated a trashy girl like you, it would be against their wishes.  For his son’s sake, he would be told that he was going to receive very little from his father, in order to protect him from this trashy girl he is involved with.

On the other hand, if you were a young lady that had a job as a waitress in a diner in Dickinson, and you were always polite and positive, you might be getting asked questions from old farmers like, “Where are you from?  Are you going to school?”  They are not getting ready to ask you out, but they might think that you are a nice girl and they would like to introduce you to their son, grandson, or nephew.  Yes, yes, old farmers ask trashy waitresses what their name is and where they are from too, but they will be using this information to make damn sure that their son never gets involved with you if they can help it.

These examples that I just gave involved dating and marriage.  However, appearing trashy and low class will adversely affect everything in your life.  You might not even be aware that employment, promotions, educational opportunities, and housing are being given to someone else instead of you because you acted so trashy and low class.

Please go back and re-read the numbered points #1, #2, and #3 above.  You will also have to begin excusing yourself from the company of others who are using bad language, acting crudely, or acting with vulgarity.  If others see you with people like this, they will assume that you are the same as them.  There is the expression, “Birds of a feather, flock together.”  In order to not be in the company of people who use bad language and behave badly, you may no longer be able to go to some bars where everyone uses bad language and behaves badly.  Also, you may have to begin leaving bars and parties by 10:00 p.m., before people are over intoxicated and begin behaving badly.

There are many wives and single professional women who will never, ever, go to some of the bars in Dickinson because many of the patrons become over intoxicated and will act inappropriately.  These women will not tolerate bad, crude, vulgar language, or people putting their hands on them.  These women will also leave parties before people become over intoxicated.  This is what they have to do in order to maintain a reputation as being a lady.

Answering A Reader’s Questions About How I Date Women In Dickinson, North Dakota

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A reader named “Cheryl”, a.k.a. ndgirlone, posted a comment to my blog post “Women In Dickinson, North Dakota”, where she asked about how I date women.  To answer Cheryl’s question, for one thing, I give each girl/woman that I like the following Application For Relationship:

Application For Relationship

Please complete the following application.  Please answer all questions.  Please print clearly.  Incomplete or illegible applications will not be considered.

First Name:______________________  Last Name:__________________

Phone Number:___________________  Date of Birth:_________________

Current Address:______________________________________________

Height:_________________  Weight:____________  Race:_____________

Do you have Children:________  How many:_______  Do they live with you:____

Do you want Children:________  When:________________  How many:______

Current Occupation:_________________________

High School years completed:________________  Did you graduate:__________

Name of College or University attended:________________________________

Years at College or University:___________  Degree Awarded:_______________

Do you have any Diseases:__________________________________________

Do you have any Medical Condition:___________________________________

Do you have any Mental Condition:____________________________________

Do you Smoke:__________  How often:___________________

Do you use Drugs:______________________________________________

Are you Currently Married:_____________

Have you ever been Married:____________  How many times:______________

List activities, hobbies, and interests:_________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Tell why you think that you would be a good person to date:_________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

Note:  You will be considered on a number of different factors.  For instance, a not very high education level can be compensated for by a good personality and disposition.

I always have blank Applications For Relationship in my vehicles.  For women that are working when they are dealing with you, like police officers, doctors, and nurses, you can give them an application so that they can fill it out later, and you don’t have to ask them a lot of questions while they are dealing with you.

When you are at a restaurant or a gym, it is better to hand women the application when you are on your way out, instead of when you first get there.

When you receive the completed application back, you can go and look them up on the internet to do a more thorough background check.

Everyone Please Go To The Cowboy Hall Of Fame Pioneer Museum In Medora, North Dakota

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Please, everyone in western North Dakota needs to go to the Cowboy Hall Of Fame in Medora, North Dakota and spend an hour in the first floor Pioneer Museum.  Even if you are from western North Dakota and have been in the Pioneer Museum before, you need to go again now.

Everyone has forgotten how hard, barren, and poor North Dakota had been.  Everybody in North Dakota has got to realize that without oil revenue, North Dakota will be as hard as what is shown in the Pioneer Museum.

2007 to 2015 was just a brief moment in time when people in North Dakota could go out and buy a new four-door four-wheel-drive truck for $50,000, and a new tractor for $200,000.  There was one other brief time like this and that was 1978 to 1983.

Spend an hour in the Pioneer Museum, look at the photographs and read the captions.  There was no wood to construct houses, people had to cut squares of grass sod and stack it to make 10′ x 12′ shelters to live in.  There was no fire wood, people had to collect buffalo dung to burn for heating and cooking.  This is how North Dakota is, this is reality.  It is harsh, barren, cold, and desolate.

If you have extra money right now, you had better not be buying a new vehicle, motorcycle, boat, or RV.  You had better hang on to your money as tight as you can and start cutting way back on your spending.

If you have very little money right now, you should probably try to get a second or third job to make extra money, and to have some place else to work if your first job goes away.  I recommend that you look at all the job advertisements to be up to date on where you can apply.  When you see all the job advertisements go away, you will know things are about to get bad.

It is easier to watch TV and do other things than it is to stop and face the reality that oil drilling operations are not coming back to North Dakota for at least a year, and possibly not for many years.  You need to face this now.  You need to know that North Dakota is unforgiving.  I can’t tell you everything that you should do, but you need to cut back on your spending and try to save as much money as possible now.

I have run out of money at least twice in my life.  The first thing that I had to do was sell extra firearms or an extra vehicle.  All this did was buy me a little more time and allow me to travel to some place else to work.  I have traveled to the wrong place before and could not get a job.  The more money you have, the more chances you will have.

I need to start scaring people now in North Dakota, because you need to be scared now, it is to that point now.  The biggest indicator of what is happening right now is to look at the job listings in North Dakota, and see that there are fewer and fewer jobs.

(If you go look at the North Dakota Job Services listings in Dickinson now, about 35 out of 50 jobs listed are for nurses, virtually the same nursing job.  Not many other jobs at all, especially jobs that pay a living wage.)

Many Local Men And Women In Dickinson Will Never Date, Marry, Or Have Children

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Many local men and women in Dickinson will never date, marry, or have children.  I have lived in Dickinson for about four years now, and I want to explain what I have seen and describe the people that I have met.  This aspect of Dickinson is culturally different than where I am from mostly, but not entirely.  I have seen this happen where I am from too, but this is much more common in Dickinson.

I have met many men and women in Dickinson who do not date, will not marry, and will not have children.  Their backgrounds are similar.  They have a normal mother and father, who have normal jobs, and they grow up in a normal household.  When these children are born, their mother and father love them and take care of them.  When they enter school, these children are kind of in the middle of their class as far as size, appearance, physical ability, and mental ability.

These kids fit in O.K. all through elementary school.  However, once these kids are in high school, they fall behind without anybody really noticing.  One of the reasons why nobody really notices that they are falling behind their peers is because these kids seem content mostly.  Their parents love them and provide for them, they aren’t unhappy.  Another reason why no one notices that these kids are falling behind their peers is because these kids don’t cause any problems.

No one is paying much attention to these kids because they are not gifted academically, athletically, artistically, socially, or appearance wise.  Their parents are satisfied with their “B” and “C” grades, and don’t pressure them to do better.  Their parents see no reason to pressure their kids to do better, or more, and don’t want to make their kids uncomfortable.  Their child has never expressed an interest in playing football, basketball, or baseball, and this is O.K. with them, they didn’t want them to get hurt anyway.  The parents didn’t try to push or steer their kid in any direction, not in academics, not in sports, not in music, not in art, not in drama, not in anything.  The parents thought that their kid was fine just as they were, no need to pressure them to do anything or be anything, or guide them in any direction.  Their kid was a good kid who never got into any trouble.  But their kid was not participating in anything, not trying anything, not competing, and perhaps not socializing.

Kids that are shy, awkward, not physically attractive, small, or overweight, they might not want to participate in sports, student government, drama, or band.  They may need some encouragement or coaxing to get involved.  But because their parents love them, don’t want to see their kid struggle, face disappointment, failure, and rejection, the parents just leave them be.

By the time these kids graduate from high school, that’s all they did, just graduate.  They didn’t participate in anything.  They probably didn’t date anyone or go to prom.  They didn’t find out what they were good at and what they were bad at.  They didn’t find out what they wanted to do, and what they didn’t want to do.  They don’t have any goals, aspiration, or ambition.  Without it being said out loud, the parents think that their kid is not good at anything, and the kid thinks that he is not good at anything.

(Everything that I have just described, I have seen before with parents and their children, and not just in Dickinson.  The parents were not bad parents, they loved their kid.  But because they did not want their kid to get hurt, become stressed, or uncomfortable, they spared their kid from the things that would have made their kid mature and grow up.  Especially if their kid was shy and awkward to begin with, their kid has not competed enough, failed enough, and participated enough to have the experience and confidence to go out on their own.  Now their young adult child will probably have to continue to live with their parents, but the parents headed things in this direction all along the way.)

With both the parents and the kid believing that the kid is not good at anything, this young person carries themself with very little confidence.  This young person gets the lowest pay entry level job that there is, if they are able to get a job at all.  This young person is not stupid, may be nice and polite, but they don’t assert themselves, have confidence, or take chances, so they just settle for the lowest pay job there is.  They may have so little confidence in themselves, both them and their parents, that they don’t even seek a job.  Their parents love them and don’t want to see them get hurt, don’t want to see them get turned down for a job, or lose a job, so they don’t even make them get a job sometimes.

These young people in Dickinson that continued to live with their mother and father, they became so accustomed to this sometimes that they lived the remainder of their lives this way.  I have met men and women in Dickinson in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s that continued to live in their mother and father’s home.  There are many many employers in Dickinson that have reliable competent employees that they don’t pay a living wage to because they don’t have to, because these employees live with their mom and dad.  I have met many workers in Dickinson like this.  I would say that about 15% of the local work force in Dickinson reside with their mother and father.

When these young adults live with their mother and father, I don’t think that their parents try to suggest or talk them into dating anyone.  They just leave their kid alone, their kid seems content enough.  The parents may be fearful that their son would get some girl pregnant, would be unable to support her, and that all three of them would just end up right back in their house, so it is better to have just the son.  The parents may have similar thoughts about a daughter, that she would be taken advantage of, become pregnant, and the two or three or four of them would be right back in their house, so it is better to just have the daughter.

In some cultures in different parts of the world, this is how things are done anyway.  The adult sons and daughters remain living in the mother and father’s home until a suitable marriage can be entered into, one that the parents agree with.  And if there is no suitable marriage that can be found, the son or daughter stays, until they are very old.  This may be working in Dickinson because I do not see very many local women being unwed mothers, and I don’t think that there are any North Dakotans on the Jerry Springer Show.

Answering A Reader’s Questions About Buying A Home Now In Dickinson, North Dakota

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Do not buy a home now in Dickinson, North Dakota unless the price is very low, and it is a property that you will be able to rent out in the future.  I will thoroughly explain why I make this statement.  But I need to caution you right away that you do not want to let your employer or your coworkers find out that you are having any hesitation in wanting to buy a home in Dickinson.  Employers want to see that their employees are committed to being here, that they are dependent on their job here, and that they don’t plan on leaving.  Your coworkers will tell on you, believe me they will.  They all know that you are renting, and that you are looking at houses to buy.  The husband needs to blame the wife, that she is just so picky, the wife says, “The yard is too dark, the yard is too small, the bathroom is too small, the closets are too small, the kitchen is outdated, the bedrooms are too small.”  That way, everybody will just think that there is no pleasing his wife, everybody might even feel sorry for the husband, and have admiration for him in persevering with such a difficult wife.  The wife can blame the husband for not being able to find the right house, and everybody will just think the wife is crazy.  However, no one can find out that the truth is you are skeptical about buying a house in Dickinson right now.

Reasons not to buy a house in Dickinson, North Dakota right now:

  1. There is about a 50% chance that the oil field work in western North Dakota will continue to decrease, for years.  Not only will oil field related jobs continue to decrease, all jobs in all areas of the economy will subsequently decrease.  You can research this for yourself by reading about the history of North Dakota, and by talking to old local people that are not in business or real estate.  A good website to read is “A Brief History Of North Dakota Oil Production”, which is a collection of newspaper articles from the past about the Oil Boom in the 1950s, and the Oil Boom in the 1970s.  Supplement your reading by talking to old blue collar workers in Dickinson.  They will tell you about the difficulty in getting any employment for ten years after the 1970s Oil Boom, and that all employment was very low wage.  What I am telling you is there is a 50% chance that you or your husband may lose your job in a year or two, and that so will everybody else.  You will not want to live here, because there will be very few jobs, and they will be low paying jobs.  You will not be able to sell your house, because everyone else will be trying to sell their house too, and no one will have any money.  This all happened before in Dickinson, go read about it for yourself, and go ask old local blue collar workers.
  2. This is somewhat related to Reason #1, but I need to explain this separately.  I will begin by saying that the home prices are too high in Dickinson right now.  But let’s just say that you find a home that you like for $350,000 right now, and that this price seems fair.  Reading about the history of Dickinson, and talking to old local people, you find out what happened after the Oil Boom of the 1970s.  Based on what happened in the past, this house that you bought for $350,000 right now, two years from now if the oil field work has continued to decrease, you might not be able to sell this house for $180,000 because everyone else will be trying to sell their house too, no one will want to live here, and no one will have any money.  It is not that your house is worth so little money, it is that no one wants it, everybody wants to leave.  Do you want to lose that much money?  Are you prepared to leave the state and rent your house out?  Is your house the kind of property that you could rent out?
  3. There is a 50% chance that the price of oil will climb, will remain high, and oil drilling operations will begin again in North Dakota.  You can go and read for yourself news articles from all the different oil companies where they state, “In order for our company to begin again with drilling operations, the price of oil would have to climb to over $60 per barrel and remain there for several months before we would take any action.  Then, at that time we would begin bringing personnel back in all areas of operations.  It would take nine to twelve months to get enough personnel back to resume full operation.”  What this means to me, is that as long as the price of oil is low, employment in North Dakota will not increase. There will continue to be new apartment buildings with occupancy rates of 30%.  Apartment rents will continue to decrease, consequently house rents will continue to decrease.  There is no justification for home prices to remain high, other than wishful thinking of the homeowners and real estate agents.  Where are the owners of these houses that are for sale?  Are they still making high wages in the oil field, probably not.  How long can they afford to pay $2,000 to $3,000 per month mortgages, not forever, because if they could afford to wait, they would just wait for the Oil Boom to come back and make a profit.  They are not waiting because they can’t wait, they need to sell, more and more each day as they keep having to pay their mortgages, and new apartment rents become lower and lower.  A buyer right now can afford to wait for prices to drop in Dickinson.  A buyer should look at everything that is available, know what is available, and wait.  If the price of oil climbs for several months, and remains high for several months, and oil companies begin increasing their personnel, that might be the time to consider buying a house if you plan on staying in Dickinson and the oil field may be busy for more than a couple of years.  But you will have several months of advance warning before you have to decide whether to buy or not.
  4. Since you don’t have to hurry up and buy anything right now,  Keep Looking.  I would not only be looking for my ideal house, I would be looking for something that might be a really good deal.  This good deal could be a house closer to Belfield, South Heart, Richardton, or Gladstone, that may have so much land, have such a good view, or be so low priced that you feel it is too good to pass up.

To answer your question about real estate agents, property managers, and property investors gouging people.  Prior to 2007, there were three bedroom/two bathroom older homes in Dickinson that sold for $30,000 to $40,000 and rented for about $400 to $600 per month.  Retail workers, restaurant workers, construction workers, and retirees lived in these homes.  By 2011 these rents had increased to $3,000 per month, about five to six times what they had been.  The retail worker and restaurant worker wages increased by maybe 40%.  The construction worker wages increased by maybe 50% to 60%.  The retiree income might have increased by 5%.  But the rent increased by 500%.

All over Dickinson, the price of goods and services increased.  Grocery prices might have increased 15%, car repair prices might have increased 15% to %25.  Everybody could understand 15% to 25% price increases, but not the 500% housing price increase.  Everybody who moved to Dickinson to work was angry about the cost of housing and being ripped off.  Everybody who moved to Dickinson decided right away that as soon as the Oil Boom was over, they were leaving.  No one wanted to stay or could afford to stay after they lost their oil field job.  The real estate agents, property managers, and property investors might have been able to gouge people for about five years, but the people got gouged so bad that they all left, and now nobody wants to live here.  All the other business owners have the real estate agents, property managers, and property investors to thank for ruining what could have been permanent growth of the area.  All over the United States for the next fifty years, people will be talking about how bad North Dakota was, and really most of everybody’s bad experience was being gouged on housing.

Kaycee Hutzenbiler, “Hop”, Belfield, North Dakota

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Recently I was at an event where the Outlaw Sippin Band and the Sawdust Band performed.  I have watched Outlaw Sippin play at Alive @ 5, First On First, Buffalo Gap, and the High Plains Cultural Center.  I think that they are a good band and I have written about them several times in this blog.  I have seen the Sawdust Band play several times, and they are pretty good, but they don’t have Emil Anheluk playing accordion and fiddle.

I believe that I have seen every performer at Alive @ 5, and First On First in Dickinson 2014, 2015, and 2016.  I recognize and acknowledge that Gwen Sebastian and Kat Perkins are very talented and well liked.  I also like the two sisters with their band Tigir Lily.  The first time I heard the Zeona Road Band from South Dakota, I was very impressed, and I thought that they have a very good chance to be as well known, well liked, and as commercially successful as Miranda Lambert, somebody like that.

When I was at this recent event with Outlaw Sippin and Sawdust, I didn’t expect to see anything new or different.  Beni Paulson was playing the drums, which I had never seen him do before, that I can remember.  He did good, didn’t seem too uncomfortable, but I don’t think this is his favorite thing.  When Sawdust was going to play, Beni got up from the drums and let this small girl take his place.

This girl was in her early twenties, about 5′-4″, 110 pounds, medium length black hair, she was cute.  She seemed a little timid at first and through the first couple of songs.  She kept the beat O.K. , but was lighter and softer on the drums than a guy would have been.  After maybe about ten to fifteen minutes, she sang lead vocals.

She has a very good soft voice. I was trying to think of who to compare her voice to, and I think that it is most like Belinda Carlisle, but as I listened and paid attention, I think that her voice is better than Belinda Carlisle’s voice.  I would also compare her voice to Natalie Merchant in its niceness and smoothness.  I think that she would sound great singing Belinda Carlisle or Natalie Merchant songs, not mimicking them, but singing just as her own voice is.

I was thinking that she would also sound good singing Blondie songs.  As I was considering these things, I realized that she was more into her drumming now, probably because she had warmed up and had loosened up.  She was a good drummer.  She sounded different than male drummers.  I could hear it in my head before I could figure out why she sounded different.  Guys have heavier arms, shoulders, and hands, and I am thinking that their drum sticks come off the drum milliseconds later than her. You can hear it especially when she is working on just one drum, her sticks are getting off the surface quicker and you can hear the difference, it is clearer and sharper.

I was thinking that this quick, sharp, lighter handed beating, was something that a rabbit would do.  She drums like a rabbit with rabbit paws and feet.  My favorite drummer looks like a gargoyle, plays drums like a gargoyle, and is the most recognizable drummer that I have seen.  I like the band he is in, because of him.  This girl is cute, pretty, has a very good voice, plays drums well, and like a rabbit, you can hear the difference.  I will go to see Sawdust, just because of her.

I went and asked people who she was, and they told me her name was KC.  I said that she has a very good voice, and everyone agreed, and added, “She looks good too.”  I wanted to tell her after she got done playing that she sounded very good, but when she got off her stool, she was gone, and out of there.

I looked up the Sawdust Band on the internet when I got home.  Her name is Kaycee Hutzenbiler, and she is from Belfield.  From the little that there is to read about her, I am worried and concerned that she has been overlooked, and her talent not recognized locally.

Back in the 1980s, the band the GoGos became popular and successful just because of their good sound, I don’t think that any of the GoGos had years of training, they just went out and played, and everybody liked them.  That is exactly what Kaycee needs to do now, just get out and perform.  Now, don’t wait!

I did some research about rabbits playing drums, and there was a 2011 movie about a rabbit who plays the drums who moves to Los Angeles to be in a band, the name of the movie is “Hop”.  This is a good name for Kaycee, “Hop”.

Trying To Change Things In Dickinson And Watford City, North Dakota

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In my blog posts I have written about: The Dickinson Mafia, Dickinson State University, Dickinson Police Department, Dickinson Chamber of Commerce, Watford City Chamber of Commerce, Watford City Police Department, Belfield, Gladstone, Catholics, Bohemians, Black People, Mexicans, Real Estate Agents, Property Developers, Property Investors, White Trash, Jessie Veeder, Dan Porter, Kristi Schwartz, Bill and Kamal Patel, Outlaw Sippin Band, Codi Miller, Marinna Marsh, Eric Smallwood, Bigfoot, UFOs, women, bartenders, prostitution, restaurants, and that arrogant Mexican who owns that Mexican restaurant.

Many people are mad at me.  I will suffer some negative consequences as time goes by and people figure out that it is me who wrote these things about them.  There are at least three things that I accomplish when I write about Dickinson and Watford City:  I give the readers from out-of-state a better understanding of what is going on in western North Dakota; I point out things to the local readers that they might want to think about, consider, and change; and I cause the local people who are directly involved to think about what they are doing and maybe change what they are doing.  It is worthwhile to me to give truthful information to people from out-of-state to save them from having problems, and to try to cause some things to change in Dickinson and Watford City that will benefit everyone.

There are some things that I write about, that no one else addresses in public, and the Dickinson Press newspaper will not write about.  There are some things that I write about, that no one thought needed to be written about.  The following are some subjects that I have written about that I still think are important:

  • The Dickinson Mafia.  The Dickinson Mafia exerted beneficial control over development in Dickinson.  The town of Dickinson is very organized and clean, even though it just went through an Oil Boom.  However one of the things that the Dickinson Mafia should have done was grab hold of all the Real Estate Agents and Property Investors by their necks and said, “You are not going to fuck up this beneficial growth of Dickinson by ripping off all these people so bad, that they can’t wait to leave here when this boom is over!  Do you understand that you are going to ruin the whole economic future of Dickinson for years to come with your short-sighted gouging that is only going to last a couple of years?”
  • Dickinson State University.  I quit going to the West River Community Center in 2013 because of all the hoodlum street thugs, which were here in Dickinson because they were brought here by DSU.  Everybody in Dickinson noticed this, where did all these inner city street street thugs come from?, my God, it’s DSU that is recruiting them here!  In about 2015, I think that Dickinson State University quit doing this, because I don’t see as many hoodlum street thugs in Dickinson as I used to.
  • Dickinson Chamber of Commerce and Watford City Chamber of Commerce.  At first, the Dickinson Chamber of Commerce and the Watford City Chamber of Commerce did not want to allow my blog on the first page of Google search results, but now they don’t fight with my blog as much.  Probably, the Chamber of Commerce wants people from out-of-state to know that housing prices are very high, that most people who come to North Dakota to work will not make $100,000 per year, that it is very cold for about seven months each year, and that there is no homeless shelter.
  • Jessie Veeder.  Jessie Veeder is a singer, writer, and photographer from Watford City.  I wish that she would write about Watford City and North Dakota exactly how it is, not how she wants it to be.  She should know from her grandparents, parents, and old people in Watford City how hard life in North Dakota had been, how poor people were, and how much of a struggle it was to survive.  It is very important that people in North Dakota know and never forget how hard and difficult it was for people up until this most recent Oil Boom.  People here need to know this so that they conserve everything they have, don’t waste anything, and don’t live foolishly.  There has been about a twenty-five year gap between Oil Booms in North Dakota.
  • Women, bartenders, restaurants, and prostitution.  It took me a while to catch on, but I am now 100% certain, that the single women who came to North Dakota to work had something wrong with them.  There are jobs in human resources, nursing, administrative assistant, banking, retail, hotel, bartending, and waitressing, everywhere in the United States.  A woman could make more money in these occupations in Florida, Texas, New York, Arizona, or California and live in a more comfortable and better social environment.  With the cost of housing in western North Dakota, there was no financial advantage to women in these occupations to move to North Dakota.  The thing was, they were so fucking crazy, that they could not get a job in Florida, Texas, New York, Arizona, or California, a background check or even just talking to them for five minutes would reveal that there was something wrong with them.  In North Dakota, there was a shortage of workers, so employers didn’t do much of a background check or much of an interview to exclude crazy people.  In addition to the extremely cold weather, very high housing prices, lack of things to do, and shortage of women, when you did go to a restaurant or a bar, the women servers were crazy and had something wrong with them.  I argued and argued in this blog that prostitution should have been allowed in western North Dakota due to the shortage of women.  I argued that housewives didn’t want truck drivers, construction workers, and oil field workers trying to solicit them everywhere they went.  But I was wrong about prostitution, if all the waitresses and bartender women had something wrong with them, I can’t even imagine how horrible the prostitutes would have been.

 

Having A Young Attractive Girlfriend In Watford City Is Like Having A Monkey

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Having a young attractive girlfriend in Watford City is like having a monkey, because everybody wants to come and look at it.

When I was about 11 years old, riding my bicycle, some chubby kid coming the other way on the sidewalk said, “Hey, they got a monkey over there, they got a monkey.” I asked where is this?  And the chubby kid said right down there at the house on the corner.  I rode down there, and there was no monkey, but there was a wooden crate up in a tree, and a long leash tied to one of the tree branches.

I rode about six blocks home to my neighborhood, and talked to the neighbor kids about the alleged monkey.  One of the kid’s older brothers had seen it.  Nobody told me.  Anyway, the owner would let it out from time to time, but not for very long because it would attract too many kids.  The kids would get all excited and start yelling, and the monkey would get all exited, jumpy, and upset, which he didn’t want.  Everybody asked where did he get it, how much did it cost, and how can I get one.

The same thing happens to guys in Watford City that have young attractive girlfriends, everybody wants to come and look at it, wanting to know where they got it, and how much did it cost.  I usually go and look at their girlfriends when they leave them sitting in the truck.  One of my neighbors has to drive fast past me because I always try to look at his girlfriend.

This is not a bad idea, because I do talk to some people’s girlfriends when they aren’t at home.  One very attractive 21 year old girlfriend does talk to me about three times a week before her boyfriend gets home from work, because she refuses to live like some guy’s monkey.  She wants to go outside in Watford City, and do things, and go places like everybody else.  She knows that everybody looks at her, but she is not going to let this keep her from going outside.

The last place she lived, somebody broke into her apartment, went through all of her stuff, and the only thing that they took, was all of her underwear.  She was mad that she didn’t have any underwear, the only pair she had left was one that was in the dirty laundry basket.  I was thinking, “Why would they take all her underwear from her drawers?  That would be like getting new ladies’ underwear from the store.  What is the point in that?  What they should have done if they liked her, was take the underwear that she had been wearing, that would be the underwear to take.”  I was going to explain this to her, but then I thought, no, I better not.

Outlaw Sippin And The Green River Gargoyles Of Gladstone

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Gladstone, North Dakota is fifteen miles east of Dickinson on Interstate 94.  The town of Gladstone sits high above the Green River which runs through the center of town.  The population of Gladstone according to the 2010 Census was 239.

Gladstone has a Highway that runs through it, called “The Enchanted Highway” that has ten of the largest scrap metal sculptures in the world depicting such things as birds, fish, and grasshoppers.

In the 1970s Gladstone had the “Green River Concerts” which were outdoor music concerts that lasted through the day and into the night, with a high amount of alcohol being consumed, along with marijuana, and LSD.  Some of my older friends in Dickinson who are in their 60s, start giggling when I ask them about the time people demanded to have some of their wine, and they didn’t know that the wine had LSD in it, and they had never taken LSD before, and they went out of their minds in the fields in Gladstone that night.  This is probably why they quit having the Green River Concerts.

This may have been when people in Gladstone started seeing gargoyles.  Some people said, “How can you tell the difference between gargoyles and North Dakotans?”  Some people said that the gargoyles had wings and could fly, which makes them different than North Dakotan people.  A mayor of Gladstone, I’m not going to say which one, said,”I don’t want anybody to shoot at, or try to kill what they think is a gargoyle.  It could be somebody’s kid, or somebody who has something wrong with them.  I have a call in to Fish & Game, and until I have something back from them in writing, I don’t want anybody trying to shoot one.”

The towns people said, “Can we at least call Outlaw Sippin, they investigated the Giant Sea Squid of Sakakawea and that Dennis Johnson thing?”  (Is it any wonder that they would call Outlaw Sippin?  Beni Paulson lives not ten miles away in Richardton.)

The Outlaw Sippin band consists of Brady Paulson, Beni Paulson, Emil Anheluk, and Jessie Veeder.  Jessie Veeder likes to take photographs, so it was her job to stay around Gladstone and try to photograph a gargoyle.  Brady and Beni thought that the gargoyles might be living in the coal mine shafts between Dickinson and Gladstone, so they went to look there.  Emil thought that the gargoyles might have something to do with the Assumption Abbey in Richardton, so Emil went there.

The Assumption Abbey is a Benedictine Monastery that was built in Richardton in 1899.  Today one of the things that the monks do at the monastery is make soap, which they sell at their gift shop.  When Emil went to the monastery to follow his hunch, he didn’t want to let on what he was doing.  He started talking to the monks about the monastery, and what it was like there.  The monks offered to let Emil stay there in an extra room in the dormitory, to dine with them, and to participate in their activities.

A day came and went with Emil living in the dormitory, dining in the hall with all the monks, making soap, and chanting.  Emil liked chanting.  Emil liked it so much and was having such a good time, that he soon forgot about the gargoyles and why he was there.  Had it not been for an intervention by Brady and Beni, Emil might still be there to this day.

Well, Jessie Veeder was supposed to be taking photographs of a gargoyle, and she didn’t see one, and she started talking to people, and there is a bar in Gladstone, and Brady and Beni had to go get her too, and this turned out to be not one of their better cases, but nobody got hurt, and maybe I shouldn’t have even talked about this case.

 

Belfield, North Dakota Is Like Small Towns In Florida Forty Years Ago

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Belfield, North Dakota is twenty miles west of Dickinson, on Interstate 94.  Probably a million oil field workers have exited the interstate in Belfield to get on Highway 85 to go north to Williston.  According to the year 2000 Census there were 866 people living in Belfield, and the 2010 Census said there were 800 people, but I think that there were probably twice that many people because of the Oil Boom.

Most of the people driving on Interstate 94 and Highway 85 do not know that Belfield has a downtown because you can’t see it from these main roads.  If you drive 1/8 of a mile westward from Highway 85 you will find the residential neighborhood with the houses, schools, and churches.  Most of the houses and buildings were built between 1920 and 1980.  The houses and buildings are not fancy, they are simple and modest.

In the middle of the town of Belfield, there is Main Street and 1st Avenue.  In this area there is the Post Office, an old movie theatre which has been remodeled recently to serve as a civic center, and about four bars which also sometimes serve food.

Belfield has had its ups and downs.  Remember, there was an Oil Boom in western North Dakota in the 1950s, the late 1970s, and most recently 2007 through 2014.  Sometimes local residents have had high incomes, but most of the time the local people did not have high incomes.

I had to go to Belfield recently and spend some time there.  I didn’t think about it much beforehand or driving there.  When I drove through downtown Belfield, the residential area, it was quaint and pleasant looking.  There is a very nice green belt beside a small river that runs through town.

When I had to start dealing with people, I was worried that they were going to be hostile towards me because I was not from there, and the people were rough looking.  Some of the local residents asked me where I was from.  I answered, “I lived in Florida until I was 30, then I lived in Arizona for five years, then Idaho for five years, then I came to North Dakota when the economy got bad.” Everybody of course asked me why I left Florida.  I told them what I always tell everybody, that Florida got too crowded.  Nobody would ever believe me that most of the towns in Florida when I grew up forty years ago, were exactly like Belfield is now, with maybe about a thousand people.

I was worried that these people in Belfield were going to pick a fight with me, because I was not from there, and the people were rough looking.  They did not pick a fight with me.  I had been observing that the people were not fancy, fashionable, or stylish in their appearance.  I began to realize that they did not care.  I think that they had all lived together for so long, known each other for so long, that they had no desire to try to impress each other, so they just went everywhere, as they were, whether they had been doing yard work, house work, car repair, farming, or truck driving.  Not only did they not care about impressing their neighbors, they didn’t care to impress anybody.

Because the local people had been asking me where I was from, and I had tried to explain it to them, I was realizing more and more that Belfield was like the small town I had grown up in forty years ago.  In that town, most of the people did not make a lot of money, everybody knew where everybody worked, so there was no use in anybody trying to pretend to be something they weren’t, so nobody did.  The result was, everybody was much calmer, and much more laid back.  The other thing was, everybody had to try to get along, because you were stuck together, so people just adapted a manner of civility, because you had to.

I remembered that one of the things I hated when I moved away from my small home town, and had to live in places like Tampa, was that everyone was trying to be somebody they weren’t, and everybody was trying to impress everybody else.  Yes, it was a “rat race”, everyone competing and trying to out-do everyone else, in a ridiculous way, spending more money than they earned, making themselves stressed and pressured needlessly, except because of their own vanity and desperation.

Outlaw Sippin And The Giant Sea Squid Of Sakakawea

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During the 1970s and 1980s there was a cartoon television show “Scooby Doo”. The television show was about a group of four members, Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and their stupid dog Scooby.  They drove a van, the “Mystery Machine”, and every episode they would happen upon a mystery that needed to be investigated.  Also on television at the same time was the cartoon “Josie and the Pussycats” which was about a band, that would happen upon a mystery in every episode that needed to be investigated.  Therefore, I see no reason why the Outlaw Sippin band can’t investigate mysteries.  Hence, “Outlaw Sippin And The Giant Sea Squid Of Sakakawea”.

The Outlaw Sippin band consists of members Brady Paulson, Beni Paulson, and Emil Anheluk of Dickinson, and Jessie Veeder of Watford City.  Lake Sakakawea is a 480 square mile reservoir located twenty miles northeast of Watford City.  The creation of the lake flooded the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation villages of Van Hook and Sanish.

There are at least two legends regarding Lake Sakakawea.  There is a Native American legend of a Missouri River monster, Miniwashitu, that is now trapped in Lake Sakakawea after the dam was built.  The second legend is that a crew of underwater welder divers refused to continue to work on a dam gate repair until shark cages were brought in due to the size of the paddle fish encountered, which were big enough to swallow the divers.  Is it any surprise that the Outlaw Sippin band would be called in to investigate, not twenty miles from Jessie Veeder’s home?

The circumstances of the Outlaw Sippin band’s involvement, is strangely similar to those described in Jules Verne’s novel “Twenty Thousand  Leagues Under The Sea”, which coincidently, also involves a giant sea squid.  However, Lake Sakakawea is only 180 feet deep and 176 miles long.

Brady, Beni, Emil, and Jessie are onboard a pontoon boat in search of the giant sea squid, when they encounter the creature.  During the subsequent attack, Brady, Beni, Emil, and Jessie are hurled overboard.  They cling to the creature to keep from drowning, which they find is not a creature at all, but a submarine!  They are captured, and brought before the captain, Dennis Johnson, former mayor of Dickinson.

To be continued…

Reasons Why I Can’t, Couldn’t, Wouldn’t Marry Codi, Kit, Marinna, Or Kristi, In Dickinson, North Dakota

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For the first two years that I lived in Dickinson, North Dakota, I complained that there was a shortage of women, and a lack of attractive women in Dickinson, North Dakota.  For the first time in my life, I began to look at internet dating sites.  Looking at five different internet dating sites, there were still very few attractive women in Dickinson.  I believed that there were many things wrong in Dickinson.  The residents here were producing ugly children, and no attractive or normal women would move here.

After about two years of living in Dickinson, I went to a grocery store before 5 p.m. during the week, and I saw a few attractive women, which made me suspicious.  Then, there was a Chile cook-off at the Astoria Hotel that I went to, and there were many different kinds of attractive women there.  There were attractive women at the downtown summer street parties.  I looked up some of the pretty girls that I had met downtown on Facebook, and they all had pretty girl friends.  So, I found out that there are attractive women in Dickinson, but they do hide most of the time.

This year I wrote about some of the women that I like in Dickinson, Codi, Kit, Marinna, and Kristi.  I also wrote about a very beautiful housewife that I met, and some beautiful Bohemian women and girls that I met.  With the exception of one 32 year old Bohemian woman with two kids who didn’t tell me that she was married, and one other exception, I did not try to pursue a relationship with any of these women that I liked, because I liked them and did not want to make them unhappy.

I did not want to make them unhappy, because then I would be unhappy.  It would be very sad for any one of these women to like me, to trust me, to believe in me, and to try to have a life with me, and me let them down.

For all of these women, their beauty, attractiveness, and health would allow them to marry a man that was much more successful than me.  I don’t want to keep them from having a nice home, nice car, nice clothes, not having to work, being able to travel, and being able to have kids who won’t go without anything.  I could not stand knowing that I ruined everything for them.

The only women that I would be comfortable dating, would be women that already had their life ruined.  A single mom with two kids said to me once, “I’m just looking for a guy who has a job, and can fix shit.”  This woman already had a courtship with the man she thought was “the one”, a wedding, honeymoon, first child, second child, many problems, a divorce, and the difficulties of raising children alone.  She was looking for someone that she liked, that she could trust, that would help her, and make her life easier.  She no longer was expecting a man to provide her with a nice home, nice car, travel, and not having to work.

Another way to say this is, I just can’t handle women putting all of their expectations on me.  Not entirely because of the fear of failing, but the understanding of the reality that I will likely never be able to provide as much as I would have wanted to.

Unfortunately, the reality is, that most of the men that will pursue these women that I like, will not be any wealthier or any more successful than me, and the thought of ruining these women’s lives is not something they concern themselves with, only the goal of obtaining these women for themselves.

 

Marinna Marsh, My Eighth Most Favorite Person In Dickinson, North Dakota

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Marinna Marsh is my eighth most favorite person in Dickinson, North Dakota because of her beauty and her personality. She is the daughter of Bernie Marsh, the owner of the downtown bar The Esquire Club. Bernie and his wife had about ten children, and every one of them is named with an “M”, like Max, Mariah, and Miranda. All of the Marsh children that I have met have dark hair, except for Marinna who is blond. Many of the Marsh children work at Bernie’s Esquire Club, including Marinna.

In 2011 when I first came to Dickinson to work, I complained to my co-workers that there were no attractive women in Dickinson. They said, “You should see Marinna Marsh.” The second company that I went to work for, the company owner’s kids went to school with the Marsh kids, the company owner said to me, “You should see Marinna Marsh, she is quite attractive.” When I came back to Dickinson in 2013, my new co-workers said, “You should see Marinna Marsh.”

It is a good thing that I never saw or met Marinna Marsh in 2011, 2012, or 2013, because she wasn’t married then, and I never would have left her alone. I probably saw some of her pictures on Facebook in 2014. In 2015, I saw her about once a week on a television commercial for active duty military personnel overseas, she was with her boyfriend or husband. I saw Marinna in person several times in 2015 and 2016. In order to not get run off right away by her mom, dad, brothers, and sisters, I waited to talk to her.

To me, her physical appearance, personality, and disposition make her the most attractive girl in North Dakota. She is like a nice girl cat. When she is not doing anything, she settles right down, still and contented. When she has to do something, she rouses right up without objection. But she is better than a cat because she can talk, and drive a car, and she can probably even pay bills on time if you gave her a check book. And, on top of everything else, she is Bohemian.

My Motorcycle Gang, The Prairie Dogs, Dickinson, North Dakota, Part II

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In Part I, I explained what bikers were like when I grew up, how yuppies started the “Costume Party” bikers, and that most bikers today are pretend bikers, good weather bikers, motorcycle sits in the garage 355 days a year bikers.

In 2013, when I came back to Dickinson, I wanted to start a motorcycle gang, “The Prairie Dogs”. Founding members were to be myself, Duane Sickler, S.A., and D.M. Possible prospects were Rod Sickler and Dale Sickler. In talking to Duane Sickler, who had previously been in a motorcycle club, he wanted to put the motorcycle gang life behind him. Duane was warning me that we would face opposition from the motorcycle club already existing in Dickinson, The Sick Bastards.

I said to Duane, that my motorcycle gang, The Prairie Dogs, would be different. We would leave people notes. Notes like, “Do not park here” or “Your jacket makes you look fat”. We would also threaten to leave notes, “Notes that people wouldn’t like.” The other thing about the Prairie Dogs, you had to have a smaller cc motorcycle, like under 500 cc, preferably an older motorcycle. I had a 1975 Kawasaki 125 enduro, and a 1976 Yamaha 125 enduro. I got another 1975 Yamaha 125 enduro out of somebody’s backyard in Dickinson.

I gave the 1975 Yamaha 125 enduro that I got out of someone’s backyard to S.A. Then S.A. threw the engine in the garbage because he said the piston was seized, but I wish he would not have done that. S.A. has been arrested many times, several contempts of court, several restraining orders, on the U.S. “No Fly List”, dresses oddly, good founding member for the Prairie Dogs.

Duane Sickler wanted to put the biker gang life behind him. When I let him borrow my 1976 Yamaha 125 enduro, and I saw him riding around town, that was the happiest I ever saw him. Until it died. This motorcycle has a generator, not an alternator, and it went bad, a common problem for this motorcycle. I put a tool box on the back luggage rack with a lawnmower battery in it, but then Duane didn’t want to ride it anymore because it didn’t look as good. Then Duane died. Then Dale Sickler died too.

D.M. has been arrested and imprisoned many times. He stole 30 cars, including a police car, before he turned 16. He plays a banjo, and he looks like a banjo player. His only problem is that he has a 1300 cc Harley Davidson, which you can’t ride with the Prairie Dogs with that.

I am not mentioning any names, but these founding members have been kicked out of the military three times for bad behavior and non-compliance, and have been kicked out of prisons and jails for causing too many problems. (You used to get kicked out of jail for having crab lice, because the other prisoners would get it, I am not saying that any of the founding members had crab lice.)

If you were a Prospect of the Prairie Dogs, you would get a sticky note pad to leave notes. If you were a Probationary Member, you would get a spiral note pad, to leave longer notes. If you were a Full Member, you would get stationery with envelopes. The president, which would have been me or Duane, would have letter size manila envelopes to leave long notes in.

All over town, people would fear and dread the Prairie Dogs. Bar managers would meet us at the door saying, “You’re not coming in here starting shit with your notes.” Which would of course result in a note being shoved under a door in a manila envelope, which would have to be read. The bar staff would say, “What does the note say, what does the note say?” The bar staff would have apprehension all night, saying to customers, “Can you go out to my car, and see if it has a note on it, it’s the blue Dodge Charger over by the street light.”

We could go by the Catholic Church and leave notes on car windshields: “Rather than going to Mass, why don’t you quit doing underhanded things in the first place.” and “I’m not ever going to buy raffle tickets for your car because you never announce who won the car, and I think it’s a scam.” Not all the notes would be mean, some would be benign, which would be irritating: “You do a good job taking care of your car.” and “You look like you have good hygiene.”

People in their homes would hear those two stroke engines coming, and say, “Oh no, it’s those fucking Prairie Dogs, I hope they keep going.” People at parks, the Prairie Hills Mall, and restaurants would leave when we got there, or keep on driving and not stop if they saw our motorcycles in the parking lot. The only people who wouldn’t leave, would be women who want attention. They would be like, “So…., are you going to give me a note?…. Why not, why aren’t you going to give me a note, that’s what you do isn’t it?”

My Motorcycle Gang, The Prairie Dogs, Dickinson, North Dakota Part I

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I grew up in the 1970s just south of Daytona Beach. Things were different in the 1970s. People drank as much alcohol as they wanted, as often as they wanted, and regarded law enforcement as not having any business interfering with their drinking. Many men had been over in Vietnam, had been immersed in military order, discipline, and killing people daily. A civilian police officer was not someone they were frightened of, or someone they wanted to listen to very much. For many veterans who just got back, complying with law enforcement was something they did voluntarily, because they could have just as easily killed a single police officer or two if they were attempting to arrest them.

There were bikers around Daytona Beach throughout the year, and thousands of bikers before, during, and after bike week. Most of the bikers were poor, many of them were recently returned from Vietnam. Many bikers liked to stay at the campground, because it was the cheapest place to stay. The bikers didn’t try to go to upscale restaurants, they preferred to go to hole-in-the-wall biker bars.

My recollection is, that the bikers back in the 1970s did not go looking for trouble. They especially did not bother children, moms, or parents with children. I think that they went out of their way not to frighten kids, moms, and parents. However, if a restaurant owner or a waitress ever insulted a biker, their restaurant would likely be burned down after it closed that night. There was a restaurant in Daytona, I believe it was called The Raw Bar, that got burned down two years in a row because a waitress was shitty to a biker.

Back then, most of the Bike Week bikers had Harley Davidsons, second most popular was probably Triumph, there were probably some BMWs and BSAs. Throughout the year, bikers just rode what they could afford, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha. Bikers wore what they normally wore, jeans, boots, T-shirt, maybe a denim jacket, not a lot of leather. My father had a small Suzuki, a Triumph chopper, an AMF Harley Sportster, and a Honda XL 185. I had a small Suzuki enduro, and a Kawasaki KX.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that there came to be the “Costume Party Bikers”. I think that one of the first signs that Harley Davidsons were becoming glamorous was when Rocky Balboa had one in the movie Rocky II. I didn’t like it when the accountants, dentists, and attorneys started dressing all in leather like they were going to some Sadists & Masochist sex party, trying to pretend to be bikers. Since the early 1900s, bikers were just bikers, they rode what they had, and they wore what they had. The yuppies were turning Bike Week into a Halloween costume party. I felt like it was non-Muslims going to Mecca, and I don’t know why the bikers put up with it. The only reason that I can think of, is that the bikers thought they could get these fantasizing yuppy women away from their husbands for a while.

Continuing to this day, I think that most bikers are pretend bikers. Good weather bikers, their $15,000 motorcycle sitting in the garage 355 days each year. Their $15,000 1100cc motorcycle sitting in their garage for 355 days each year, and they feel the strong desire to trade it in for a 1300cc motorcycle. Hey, you can go buy a new 300cc Kawasaki Ninja that will go 113 mph, for $5,700. Ohh, but it vibrates at 8,000 rpm. Yes, it should vibrate at 8,000 rpm, good, get used to it.

Reformation And Rehabilitation Of White Trash In Watford City, North Dakota

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This discovery, like the discovery of penicillin, was accidental and may be just as important. I had written in several previous blog posts that many of the workers who have come to Watford City are poor White Trash. The police in Watford City do not allow the White Trash to misbehave.

Anything that White Trash typically do, is not allowed in Watford City: No speeding, no reckless driving, no throwing garbage out car windows, no drunken driving, no picking up street prostitutes, no buying meth or crack, and no selling meth or crack. The White Trash are under such tight control, that they do not go out in Watford City, they just stay home.

The White Trash are behaving not just because the police in Watford City have methods of strict enforcement of laws, but also because the White Trash have good paying jobs. The jobs that the White Trash have in Watford City allow them to pay their rent at the apartments where they live, buy food, and make payments on a four door four-wheel-drive truck, and they want to keep their job and everything they have now.

Without anybody keeping track or documenting what is going on, I think that I am the first person to note that the White Trash have not only changed their behavior, but I think that this change may be semi-permanent and lasting. I am the first person to observe and document a large population of White Trash transform into Lower Middle Class in a short period of time! This transformation process is probably repeatable! It may even work on Blacks and Convicted Criminals!

Step One: The subject individual must be relocated far away from previous environment and previous human contacts. Step Two: The subject individual must be relocated to an environment with strict law enforcement and strict rule enforcement. Step Three: The subject individual must be allowed to obtain employment through a fair process and proof of non-drug use, such employment allowing the subject individual sufficient income to pay for his own food, housing, and other things that he desires. Step Four: There is no food, housing, or anything provided unless the subject individual works, however if the subject individual does work the income he receives is sufficient to pay for food, housing, and other things that he desires.

After I thought about it some more, this is similar to when Great Britain in the 1800s began shipping convicted criminals from the prisons in Great Britain to prisons in Australia, and after a period of time allowed the convicted criminals to homestead in Australia.  Being far away from friends, family, criminal people, criminal enterprises, and given the chance to work and have their own property, many convicted criminals became successful farmers and ranchers, and turned their lives around.