Tag Archives: Living in Dickinson

What Dickinson, North Dakota, Is Like

April 22, 2015UncategorizedEmployment in Dickinson, leisure in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, Moving to Dickinson, out-of-state worker, recreation in Dickinson, Women in Dickinsonname withheld

When I was a kid in the 1970s, when my family went on vacations, we visited old houses and museums. When we went to St. Augustine, Florida, we visited the oldest school house in the United States, which I believe was built in the late 1600s, and also some other old houses that were built in the 1800s. When we went to Key West, Florida, we visited the house where the writer Ernest Hemingway had lived, I believe this house was built in the 1930s, and we also went to the Naval museum. In Sarasota, Florida, we went to the Ringling Circus winter residence, I believe this house was built in the 1930s, and we also went to the Ringling Circus museum. In Savannah, Georgia, I remember when I was about eight years old, it seemed like we went through about a hundred houses that were built in the 1800s. Outside of Lynchburg, Virginia, I went through a residence of Thomas Jefferson, called Poplar Forest, that was built in about 1790.

In contrast to what I saw when I had visited old houses and museums in other states, in the Dickinson area of North Dakota in the early 1900s, families were living in 10’x12′ grass sod huts, with dirt floors, dirt walls, no furniture, no paintings, no photographs, no children’s toys, no phonographs, no pianos, no indoor water pump, no indoor toilet. In order to understand what living in Dickinson, North Dakota, is like now, you have got to realize and understand that many people in this area of North Dakota lived in very primitive conditions up until very recently.

When I had travelled to other states and visited old houses, I could see how the people had lived in the past, what types of things they did to prepare food, how they decorated and adorned their homes, what kinds of “modern” conveniences they had, what they did in their spare time: read books, write letters, draw, play an instrument, play board games, swing on porch or tree swings, ride bicycles, play lawn games. However, when I visited old houses outside of Dickinson, visited the pioneer museum, looked at old photographs, and talked to Dickinson residents, I found that the people here had had very little, often times they did not even have all of the bare necessities. The harshness and starkness of life in this area of North Dakota is partially the cause of people in this area being unfriendly, inhospitable, jealous and malicious to people from out-of-state, and behaving in a primitive manner.

There are some psychological theories on human development, that explain human behavior based on what is called a “hierarchy of needs”, which basically says that humans will try to fulfill their most basic needs first, in this order: 1)oxygen, 2)water, 3)food, 4)clothing, 5)shelter, 6)personal security, 7)mating, 8)security of family, 9)social interaction within family, 10)social interaction within extended family, 11) social interaction within a village, … and when the basic needs have been fulfilled, later, there comes the expression of religion, creation of laws, passing on of learning, …. and if a group of people passes out of the primitive stage of development they begin to have higher learning in the areas of science, math, medicine, art, architecture, and philosophy.

In order for a group of people to pass out of the primitive stage of existence, there has to be enough resources available so that the people do not have to spend every minute of every day just trying to survive. Unfortunately in North Dakota, that didn’t happen. Resources were so scarce in fact, that people looked and looked for something to build their houses with, and all they could figure to do was to cut the grass sod and stack it, in order to make the walls for their house. They looked and looked, and all they could find to use to heat their home was dried buffalo dung, so they burned dried buffalo dung for heating and cooking. Forget about furniture, forget about wall paper, forget about art or photographs on the wall, forget about a piano or a phonograph, this was just bare survival. This was the early 1900s in North Dakota. Back East, people were painting, boating, playing tennis, playing golf, riding bicycles, attending concerts, going on picnics.

If you looked at a map in the early 1900s, you could see the state of Vermont, Maine, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, …O.K., these are cold states. On the map you could see the state of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Texas. In those states, they have houses, built of wood, with furniture, they had houses there for a couple of hundred years already. Why did people in North Dakota, stack grass sod to make a 10’x12′ house, and collect buffalo dung to burn, when they could have moved to the southern United States? I asked a Dickinson resident in his late 50s one time, why people in North Dakota didn’t look at a map, and move south? Why didn’t people in North Dakota read a book or a newspaper and realize that they didn’t have to live in the cold and the barrenness? He replied that people just didn’t really think you could do that.

If you come to North Dakota, you will see that there are not very many trees, it is mostly grassland and badlands. There used to be a lot of buffalo, now there isn’t. There are some deer, but not a lot. It is cold October through May, eight months of cold. If you stay here for a year, and you have to go outside in the winter, you will begin to understand how hard it was to live in North Dakota. The people in North Dakota had such a hard time trying to survive, that they did not progress to the higher levels on the human development scale, they were stuck at the lower levels, spending all of their time trying to meet basic needs. As a result, there was no architectural development in this area of North Dakota, all structures are very basic. The education level is very low due to children having to leave school at an early age to work on the farm, and very few families able or wanting to have their children go to college, which contributes to ignorance and primitive behavior. Due to it being so hard for people to survive in North Dakota, they do not have any concept of hospitality.

The local people in Dickinson think that they are friendly, but because this area had been isolated in the past, with many people here never traveling outside this area, and the education level being very low, somehow the people here do not realize that they are in fact, unfriendly. Their sense of friendliness and helpfulness to other human beings is not very civilized. Just this evening, I was watching the evening news with a Dickinson resident, where it was shown on the news that a Southwest Airlines passenger ran to the bathroom on the airplane, and was heard groaning, about ten minutes prior to landing. The flight attendants assumed the man was drunk, didn’t check on him, and had everyone de-board the plane at landing, and called the police. The passenger was found dead in the bathroom, he had had a brain aneurism. The Dickinson resident stated,”They are not required to do anything, a person is not required to do anything, you might think that someone has to help somebody else, but there is no law requiring people to help somebody else.”

Because the people in Dickinson had had such a hard time trying to survive, and they were not able to progress to the higher levels of human development, there are other manifestations of this in addition to the lack of architectural development and lack of hospitality. People in Dickinson do not have an appreciation for beauty, recreation, and leisure.

I have written several posts to this blog about women in Dickinson being overweight, out-of-shape, unattractive, poorly dressed, and making no attempt to look attractive. In architecture, painting, sculpture, dance, music, poetry, and writing there is the pursuit of beauty, but they don’t have that here, they are still primitive here. I think that the women here would not be so overweight it they had the concept of recreation, where you swim, walk, ride bikes, roller blade, canoe, sail board, play tennis, play golf, but they don’t understand recreation.

If you come to Dickinson, as I have written elsewhere in this blog, there are certain things that will get you into trouble with the local people. If you have a wife or girl friend that is not overweight, they won’t understand this, and they won’t like this, so I recommend if you have an attractive wife or girl friend, that you keep her out of sight, they don’t appreciate or understand beauty, and they tend to be jealous. If you have an Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Porsche, or Mercedes, they will not like it, they will not work on it, and they will not like you, they don’t appreciate or understand beauty, and they tend to be jealous. If you talk about warm weather, the beach, sailing, surfing, running, rock climbing, swimming, bicycling, or travelling, they won’t like this, they won’t understand, and they will just get mad and frustrated, they don’t appreciate or understand recreation and leisure. As I have stated before, if you want to know what living in Dickinson will be like, you need to watch the movies “Deliverance”, “The Grapes of Wrath”, and “Planet of the Apes”.

Warning, Do Not Come To Dickinson, North Dakota

April 11, 2015UncategorizedEmployment in Dickinson, Housing in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, Moving to Dickinson, police in Dickinson, Unemployment in Dickinson, Women in Dickinsonname withheld

Please do not come to Dickinson, North Dakota, at this time. Right now, and in the coming months, there will be many people let go from their jobs. There will be many more people looking for jobs, than job openings. The people that are already here will be competing against each other and fighting each other for the few job openings that will come up.

According to the “Dickinson Press” newspaper, and some oil field industry publications, there were approximately 280 oil well drill rigs in operation at the peak of the oil boom in North Dakota several years ago. A little over two months ago, the “Dickinson Press” newspaper had an article about two drilling companies parking approximately eighty drill rigs outside of Dickinson because they were not being operated. About one month ago, the “Dickinson Press” had an article that said the number of drill rigs operating in North Dakota had fallen to 97. Now, the number of drill rigs operating in North Dakota is about 80. The number of drill rigs operating in North Dakota went from 280, to 80 the present time.

According to oil industry publications, one drill rig that is operating, has about 100 direct and indirect jobs created when it is operating: site clearing operators, dump truck drivers, quarry operators, road construction operators, fence installers, equipment transport drivers, rig erection crew, site trailer haulers, trailer set up workers, electricians, tank battery haulers, water truck drivers, drill rig operators, work-over rig operators, drill rod deliverers, casing deliverers, fuel truck drivers, heavy equipment mechanics, welders, pump jack installers, oil tank installers, containment barrier installers, automation & control installers, etcetera. Because the number of drill rigs operating went from 280, to 80, 200 drill rigs x 100 jobs per drill rig, equals 20,000 jobs lost.

Some of the oil field workers who have recently lost their job have already left North Dakota and have gone home or gone elsewhere. The ones who left right away already knew what was going to happen. How do you expect to get another job in the oil field when there are 20,000 other people who are also losing their job at this time?

In Dickinson, every hotel, every restaurant, every grocery store, every retail store, every hardware store, every bank, will let a couple of employees go, because business has slowed down, and it will slow down even more. Car dealers and heavy equipment dealers will let sales people and mechanics go.

Though many out-of-state workers have recently left Dickinson, the RV parks, trailer parks, and apartments will not lower their prices for about a year, and housing prices will remain very high. The people who lost their job, who currently have housing leases with high rents, will be so desperately in need of money to make their rent payment, they will take any job they can get in Dickinson, and it will be an employer’s market, wages will go down.

Please do not come to Dickinson right now. There are going to be so many people out of work, so many people looking for work, and no job openings. Housing prices will continue to be very high. You will not want to be here. It is cold here for about seven months each year. There is not a lot to do for recreation and entertainment. The people are unfriendly, not hospitable, and not helpful. There is a shortage of women, and the women here have decided that they are going to be overweight, unattractive, and unfriendly. The police here are determined to cite and arrest out-of-state workers every chance they get in order to try to encourage them to leave.

Women in Watford City, North Dakota

April 5, 2015UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, living in Watford City, Moving to Dickinson, out-of-state worker, Women in Dickinson, women in Watford City, Working in Dickinsonname withheld

In this blog post, I will explain that there appears to be a higher percentage of attractive women in Watford City, North Dakota than in Dickinson, due to the amount of women who have come from out-of-state to work in Watford City. Also, I would like to point out some of the differences between the out-of-state worker women in Watford City and the women in Dickinson.

I have had to work in Watford City, North Dakota for one month now. I stayed at Teddy’s Hotel in Watford City for the first two weeks, and at Roosevelt’s Hotel in Watford City for the second two weeks. I look forward to going back to Roosevelt’s Hotel each day when I get done at work, because Roosevelt’s Hotel has about four very attractive women who work at the front desk, and several nice looking women who work elsewhere in the hotel. When I have to deal with the women at the front desk, like asking them to fax something, extending the length of the reservation, going over a schedule, I can’t think straight, I can’t talk right, I don’t think that I make sense, and it’s because I am distracted by them, in a good way. I wish I had more reasons to stop at the front desk.

I don’t know if the owner of Roosevelt’s Hotel has a charismatic and charming personality, or if the over-decorated hotel interior attracts very good-looking women, I don’t know how or why, but Roosevelt’s Hotel has somehow managed to hire some women that are very, very hard to find in North Dakota. The front desk women are feminine, slender, in-shape, healthy, good-looking, poised, have a positive attitude, and are attractively dressed. Unlike most women from North Dakota, the women at the front desk care about their appearance, they have beautiful healthy long hair, they wear nice modest bits of jewelry that look good on them and match their outfits, they wear tasteful and appropriate dresses, skirts, and slacks.

As I write this, I realize that women in North Dakota make me mad. I have spent about three years of my life in North Dakota, about two years more than I intended. I am in my mid-forties. I feel like my life is concluding in a way that I never would have wanted. I am living in a place that is unpleasantly cold for about seven months each year. The rents and property prices are extremely high, especially considering that it is unpleasantly cold for about seven months each year. There is not a lot to do for recreation or entertainment. The police will get you right away if you try to drink at a bar. And the women.

The women in North Dakota are overweight. They have decided amongst themselves that they are not going to put any effort or care into how they look. They are not going to exercise, stay in shape, stay fit, or stay healthy. They are not going to take care of their hair. They are not going to buy nice clothes. There is not a chance they are going to shop for shoes, a belt, bracelet, earings, necklace, or a scarf, to put together an outfit to match a skirt. I could also say that once these women in North Dakota have decided to be unattractive, that this includes being unattractive in their attitudes, intellect, and speech.

What I have previously failed to write about, it just didn’t consciously occur to me, is that the deliberately unattractive attitude of women in North Dakota has carried over into just about every aspect of life in North Dakota. I have previously written a couple of times about the woman in the Dickinson Department of Motor Vehicles saying to people,”No!, You have to have a North Dakota birth certificate! We can’t take birth certificates from other states!” In this case, the deliberately unattractive attitude of women in North Dakota shows up as hostility and ignorance. I previously wrote about an evening event in Dickinson where about sixty percent of the women were under-dressed. In this case, the deliberately unattractive attitude of women in North Dakota shows up as “We don’t care how we look, we don’t care if we look bad.”

When I have been in Watford City, and I have met women who are from out-of-state, I have noticed that their attitude is different, it is what I would call more normal. I guess that I had been perceiving that their attitude was different by observing their actions, their behavior, what they said, and partly by the way that they dressed. I hadn’t realized until I began writing this post, that when a woman buys and wears nice shoes, nice belt, jewelry, dresses, skirts, and slacks, that it communicates,”I am not ignorant, I care about how I look, I want to be attractive.”

Unfriendliness In Dickinson, North Dakota

March 29, 2015UncategorizedHousing in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, moving in Dickinson, People in Dickinson, renting in Dickinson, unfriendliness in Dickinsonname withheld

Several months ago, I loaned my truck to a neighbor for a couple of days because his truck had broken down. I hate to let people borrow my truck because they think it is an old truck, and they can abuse it. Even though their vehicle has broken down, mine is somehow running. My truck is running because I have replaced the radiator, power steering pump, water pump, timing chain and gear, fuel pump, drive shaft universal joint, front drive universal joints and seals on each side, installed overload rear leaf springs, and bought four new tires. All this cost me about $4,000 over the years that I have owned this truck, so it is not just my good luck that my old truck is running.

About two months ago, I asked the neighbor who I had loaned my truck to, if I could shoot my 9mm pistol on his vacant thirty acres, if I placed my target against the vacant one hundred acres behind it. I explained that I had to take and pass a qualifying exam. My neighbor said no, and that he did not want to allow me to shoot on his other 160 acre piece of property either. I then had to drive seventy miles one way to get to a piece of public land that I knew that I could shoot on. There are two shooting ranges that are about thirty miles away, but you have to go to the shooting club once a month meeting, apply for membership, and pay a $40 membership fee, which is what I eventually did.

About one month ago, I thought that I might have to move to an apartment in town. I have an extra truck and a utility trailer that I don’t think that I could park in town if I were renting an apartment. I drove to someone’s property that I have met before, his property is about 1/2 mile wide by 1/2 mile long. He has several vehicles, several trailers, farm equipment, and other things on his property. I asked him if I could pay him $75 per month to park my extra truck and utility trailer on his property. He said no.

I then went to one of my neighbors who is about thirty-five years old, who has an older house on about one acre, with about eight cars, and four trailers on his property. I told him that I might have to move in to town, that I didn’t think that I would have a place to put my extra truck and utility trailer, could I pay him $75 per month to park them on his property? He said no.

I kind of understand, and I kind of don’t understand. I own a house on five acres in a different state. If one of my neighbors asked to park a vehicle and a utility trailer on my property because they had to move to an apartment in town, I would ask them for how long did they need to park it. I would say that if it was just for a month or two, go park it way down on the north end, just off the dirt road. I believe that if you do not collect any money from an individual, and that if they step in a hole on your property and break their leg, your homeowner’s insurance will cover their injury. This type of thing can happen when anyone walks onto your property to go knock on your front door, this risk is always there. If you receive payment from someone to use your property, you should probably talk to your insurance company about commercial or renter’s insurance or something. If someone was offering me $75 per month to park a vehicle and a utility trailer on my property for more than a couple of months, I would find out what additional insurance I needed, because $75 per month is $900 per year.

Outside of Dickinson, there is more vacant land than I have seen just about anywhere else. There is no shortage of vacant land, there is an abundance of vacant land. There are farms where people once lived, but no longer live there. I asked neighbors adjacent to the abandoned farms who owned the abandoned farms, I would like to find out about renting it, the neighbors replied,”Oh, that is so and so, they live down the road there, people have asked them before to rent it, they won’t rent it out.”

Up until about 1980, there were very few people who wanted to visit or move to North Dakota. It is very cold and barren. There isn’t a lot to do for recreation or entertainment, there hadn’t been very many things to do for employment. The first oil boom in this area came in about 1980 and then went away. During the first oil boom, property prices rapidly went up to a high peak, then went back down to a low price after the oil boom. I don’t know if there is still some anger over this in and around Dickinson, I think that there is. Some people sold their land at the right time, got rich, then were able to buy back equal or better land after the prices went back down. Some people didn’t sell their land, remained poor, and later wished they would have sold their land.

I think that there is a lot of anger, resentment, hatred, jealousy, and greed stirred up in these local people. They have a hard time dealing with the amount of people that have moved here. They have resentment and jealousy that some of their neighbors have sold their land and made money, or that some of their neighbors are getting oil revenue money. They have resentment, jealousy, and anger that these people from out-of-state can come here and get jobs making anywhere from $15 per hour to $30 per hour, when they have lived here their whole lives and never made that kind of money, that aint right, that aint fair. I think that this hatred shows up in the local people’s refusal to allow out-of-state people to rent or use the huge amount of vacant land outside of Dickinson.

Corruption In Dickinson, North Dakota

March 28, 2015Uncategorizedcorruption in City of Dickinson Police Department, corruption in Dickinson, corruption in Dickinson State University, corruption in DSU, Dickinson Mafia, discrimination in Dickinson, DUI in Dickinson, Employment in Dickinson, getting a job in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, out-of-state workername withheld

I have previously written two posts about the Dickinson Mafia, which is a group of men who are business owners and city officials in Dickinson who determine amongst themselves what they want to happen in Dickinson, they tell themselves and each other that what they are doing is in the best interest of Dickinson, but they are advancing their own interests and enriching themselves primarily. I stated previously that the Dickinson Mafia is similar to the Good-Old-Boy Network in the South, though the Dickinson Mafia members are Catholic, and the Good-Old-Boy Network are Protestant.

I believe that I have already stated that the Good-Old-Boy Network in the South, sometimes decides who will succeed in business in a small town, and who will fail. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that the Mormons do exactly the same thing in Idaho, and the Dickinson Mafia do the exact same thing in Dickinson. In this post, I want to describe some corrupt practices of the City of Dickinson Police Department, and Dickinson State University.

The City of Dickinson Police Department posts advertisements for a job opening not on Monster.com, CareerBuilder, Indeed, the “Dickinson Press” newspaper, or North Dakota Job Services, but instead on some obscure website that no one would think to look for. Secondly, the City of Dickinson Police Department will not only hide the job opening where no one will find it, they will post the advertisement for only one week. Why do they do this? They do this so that the only people who will know to apply are the people that they personally tell ahead of time: friends, family members, neighbors, people they owe a favor to, people they want to owe them a favor. Maybe, they don’t want to hire black people, Muslims, Jews, homosexuals, or people from out-of-state, who knows, this practice allows them to discriminate any way they wish because the only applicants will be the people they personally tell ahead of time. If you should accidentally find out about the job advertisement, apply, and meet all of the criteria, they have other ways of eliminating you, like giving you one business day notice to provide your high school transcripts from a school you graduated from twenty-five years ago in a different state. If you overcome that by asking a county archivist to do you a big favor and fax you your transcripts the same day without receiving the required payment, they have additional ways to obscure the fact that you are not being hired because you are from out-of-state.

What else do the City of Dickinson Police do that is corrupt? They like to arrest people, take them to jail, have them post bail, and pay $3,000 up front to local attorneys to represent them in court, even though the person arrested has not committed a crime. For instance, if you are stopped for a DUI in Dickinson, you will likely be arrested and taken to jail prior to having your Blood Alcohol Level tested, and you will still be processed into jail and charged with DUI even if your BAC is below the legal limit, you can post bail, and go pay a local attorney their “$3,000 minimum, up-front fee.” This will happen to you because you are a piece-of-shit, out-of-state worker, this will not happen to local business owners. This arrest process occurs for other offenses, where the arrested person has not committed a crime. This happened once to a friend of mine for “providing a false address to the DMV”, he was found not guilty a couple of months later because he had provided his actual, real address. This happened once to a friend of mine who was arrested for “possession of stolen property”, but he was found not guilty several months later because no item of his property was in fact stolen.

Dickinson State University will advertise a job opening not on Monster.com, CareerBuilder, Indeed, the “Dickinson Press” newspaper, or North Dakota Job Services, but instead on some unknown website, where the only people that know to look there are the people who have been personally told ahead of time. The job will be advertised for a short period, like one week. The only people who will know to apply for the job opening will be the people who have been told ahead of time. This technique of hiding the job advertisement, and listing it for a very short time, limits the applicants to those who have been personally told about the details of the advertisement ahead of time. This practice should be illegal, and I believe that it might be. Why wouldn’t you want to broadly advertise a job opening, for at least two weeks, so that you would have the opportunity to have many highly qualified applicants? Is it because if your family member, relative, friend, or neighbor had to compete against out-of-state workers, who have much more education and experience, for a job at Dickinson State University, your family member, relative, friend, or neighbor would never get the job, so you have to hide the job advertisement? This practice of hiding the job advertisement makes it possible to discriminate against blacks, hispanics, homosexuals, Muslims, Jews, and out-of-state workers, by making the job advertisement known to only people that you personally inform, based on your personal preference of who you think should be hired. I believe that this procedure is illegal.

What else does Dickinson State University do that is corrupt? In approximately 2012, Dickinson State University received nation wide news coverage for awarding bachelor degrees to at least a couple of hundred foreign students who never completed the course work required for that degree. Dickinson State University nearly lost its accreditation as a University because of this. Dickinson State University has also been found guilty of falsely inflating its enrollment numbers. The Dickinson State University Foundation has been found to have been involved in the mismanagement of funds, possibly criminally, and this organization has been ordered by the state to go into receivership.

2nd Post About Women in Dickinson, North Dakota

March 28, 2015Uncategorizedhow to meet women in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, meeting people in Dickinson, meeting women in Dickinson, Moving to Dickinson, Women in Dickinsonname withheld

I have written about women in Dickinson elsewhere in this blog many times. I think that one of the reasons why I write about women in Dickinson so much is because they are so different from women everywhere else. Also, the women in Dickinson have a big effect on what Dickinson is like.

I want to again state that I am not trying to make fun of women in Dickinson, or be cruel. The purpose of this blog is to provide truthful and helpful information to people so that they know what to expect in Dickinson, and perhaps chose not to come.

Recently, I attended an evening event in Dickinson that was primarily a women’s event, with about one hundred women. I was startled that about sixty percent of the women were under dressed for this event. I felt like maybe I should offer to let them borrow some of my clothes. There was not one woman that was over dressed. I was sad that many of the women were wearing cheap and tacky clothing. Before I say anything else, I want to say something that I wrote before, apparently women in Dickinson have solidarity amongst themselves that they are not going to buy nice clothes, they are not going to get dressed up, they are not going to put on make up and jewelry, they are not going to stay in shape, and if they all stick with this plan, the men will not notice that there is anything wrong with the way they look. Just about all of the women at this event were sticking to this plan.

I previously wrote in this blog that I think one of the reasons why women don’t get dressed up and don’t take care of themselves in Dickinson is because they don’t want to attract males. They don’t want men noticing them, they don’t want men admiring them, they don’t want men asking them out, or trying to pick them up. There are way more men than women in Dickinson, the women don’t want any more attention.

At this event, there were about ten women who were moderately attractive. The one that I thought would be the best one for me to mate with, was about one inch taller than me, she had shoulder length brown hair, very pale unblemished skin, narrow set eyes, was slightly hunched over at the shoulders, wearing a tacky leopard spot blouse, she was about thirty years old, not thin, very slightly overweight by about ten pounds. I thought that she had a kind of dignity to her, though she was not hot, she was not trashy either. I thought that she probably had not been asked out a lot in her life, and had had time to develop her mind, intellect, interests, coping skills. I thought she could be a good girlfriend. Like some kind of prey animal, she must have sensed that I was interested in her, because when I happened to be in her area, she turned her head the opposite direction and held her hair up with her hand in order to hide behind it, so that I couldn’t possibly say something to her like,”Hello.” I thought that she was going a bit too far, but for her, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Another woman that I was interested in was about forty-eight years old, she was about two inches taller than me, she was probably the best dressed woman at the event, she had very long beautiful legs, was tan, had a sun aged face, and had nice jewelry. I did not really think that I could get her. She was much more polished and outgoing than me. When she and her friend came over to where I was, her friend was asking about her husband, to which she was saying that he works late, he doesn’t get home until about 1 a.m. At the time, I thought that they were trying to make sure to let me know that she was married, and to forget it. Now that I am writing this, I am wondering why she was saying in front of me that her husband works late and doesn’t get home until 1 a.m., I don’t think that she meant that as a hint, did she?

The third woman that I was noticing at the event, I at first supposed her to be about twenty-five. She had pretty long brown hair, she was young and healthy, with a pretty face and a pretty body, she was wearing nice blue jeans and a nice plain white blouse. I noticed that she wasn’t drinking alcohol, or anything else, or eating anything. I wanted to ask her why she wasn’t drinking or eating, but thought I had better not, she might be pregnant or sick. What if I had bought her and brought her a drink, and it turned out that she was eighteen years old, I am sure that her parents and the other women would have liked that, not. She knew that I liked her, and she spoke to me and was nice to me towards the end of the event. She left with her boyfriend.

At the very end of the event, I turned and almost walked into a very interesting young lady, well, interesting to me. She was about 5′-2″, one hundred ten pounds, very long platinum blond hair down to her waist line, white skin, pretty face. When I almost ran into her, I got the impression that she was kind of like a fairy tale princess, or a fairy tale mouse. She almost ran into me at the same time, and if I thought she looked like a startled mouse, she didn’t quite react like I was a cat, more like I was a startled rat. I said excuse me, and kept going. Later, I talked to her for a while, she was the daughter of one of the people at the event. I don’t know if she was seventeen, or twenty-one, I didn’t ask.

It is strange, weird, and unfortunate, that the women my age at this event didn’t want to have anything to do with me or speak to me, but some of the older women did, and some of the younger women did. The two younger women that I spoke with were very attractive, they did not think that they were too good-looking to talk to me, and they were not too scared to talk to me. There were about sixty women at this event that were my age, most of them were not very attractive, a few of them were moderately attractive, none of them had any interest in me whatsoever, which is even more strange because they had all been drinking alcohol. I will sum up by saying again that women in Dickinson are not interested in getting the attention of men.

Don’t Come To Dickinson, North Dakota

March 27, 2015Uncategorizedeconomy in Dickinson, Employment in Dickinson, finding work in Dickinson, jobs in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, oil field, Unemployment in Dickinsonname withheld

Please do not come to Dickinson, North Dakota. Due to the low price of oil, employers throughout western North Dakota have laid people off, and are continuing to lay people off. Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Marathon, Schlumberger, Patterson Drilling, and many others have recently let employees go due to reduced work, and trying to cut costs.

In the March 26 edition of the “Dickinson Press”, there was an article that said the amount of drill rigs operating in North Dakota right now is 97, the lowest it has been since February of 2010. I believe that this article said that the highest rig count was about 270 in 2013. Elsewhere in this edition of the “Dickinson Press”, was an article about North Dakota hoping to create manufacturing jobs in order to have something for residents of North Dakota to do for employment, but this is a long way off, and just a wish right now.

I was at a community event last night, and one of the event organizers who was speaking to the group, said regarding what the group was doing, that we needed to be mindful that though Dickinson had grown rapidly during the last several years, it was going through a different kind of change right now, and that Dickinson is beginning a period of economic difficulty.

An oil drill rig has about 40 workers directly associated with that particular rig, where that rig goes, they go. There are about 200 drill rigs that have been parked and are not working in western North Dakota. That means 8,000 drill rig workers have been laid off. These are the highest paid workers in the oil field, they make about $100k per year more or less. Many of these workers are young, many of these workers are from out-of-state. I think that a lot of them have bought new trucks for themselves, new vehicles for their wives, and have bought homes back in the states that they came from. They had the expectation of making $100k per year, for the next several years, so did the car dealers, so did the banks. Every one of these drill rig workers probably has a least one large truck payment each month, if not two vehicle payments and a house payment.

Because there are about 200 drill rigs that are not working, there are many other trades that are not working. Excavation and site work contractors that employ equipment truck drivers, dump truck drivers, dozer operators, scraper operators, and laborers are not preparing drill sites. Fence contractors are not putting up fences at these sites. Loader operators are not very busy at quarries. Heavy equipment mechanics, service trucks, tire services are not busy in the oil field. The water truck drivers do not have work when there is no drilling and fracturing. The truck drivers who deliver the tank batteries do not have work when there is no fracturing. There will be less work for the work-over rigs. There will be less work for the pump jack installers. There will be less work for the electricians who install the underground electric, instrumentation, controls, and pump jack motors at the well sites. Much less work in the oil field.

Property owners and mineral rights owners in North Dakota have begun to receive much smaller payments from oil companies for the wells on their property. The price of oil is down, plus the oil companies don’t want to pump as much oil when the price is down.

Because the North Dakota property owners, truck drivers, heavy equipment operators, heavy equipment mechanics, service truck drivers, fence installers, laborers, electricians, pump jack installers, and rig workers have less money and are spending less money, all the retail stores, car dealers, and restaurants make less money, and are less busy.

In the “Dickinson Press” on Thursday March 26, there were two jobs listed in the Help Wanted section of the newspaper. At this time of year, one year ago, there would have been about twenty to thirty jobs posted.

UFOs in Dickinson, North Dakota

February 20, 2015UncategorizedDickinson Air Force Station, Living in Dickinson, Moving to Dickinson, Radar Base Hill, UFOs in Dickinsonname withheld

Because it is winter, and there is not a lot to do, I will tell you about UFOs in Dickinson. If you are from out-of-state, and you ask a local person about this, they will not know what you are talking about. If you were to find a local person that was living in Dickinson back in 1970, and if they are still mentally sharp, they may know exactly what you are talking about, but there is about a 95% chance that they will tell you they don’t know what you are talking about.

If you are from out-of-state, you may or may not know that in Montana and North Dakota there are Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles with nuclear war-heads, in underground launch facilities, spread out across these states. If you do some searching on the internet, you can get a general idea of where the launch sites are in North Dakota. Minot Air Force Base acts as a central command and control location for the ICBMs in North Dakota. The missiles are below ground level, sitting in a vertical position. Adjacent to a missile or group of missiles, is an underground command and control center that is manned 24 hours each day, every day of the year, ready to initiate a launch. You can drive by these launch sites in the northern part of the state, and all you will see above ground is a chain link fence surrounding a small ventilation structure and a small entrance structure.

In the late 1950s, Dickinson Air Force Station was constructed on a butte four miles northeast of Dickinson, and it became active in 1959. For years and years, the Air Force told the people of Dickinson that the station was a weather radar base, and people in Dickinson believe that to this day. The truth is that the Dickinson Air Force station was equipped with search and height finding radar that was used to detect unidentified objects and provide range, direction, altitude, and speed to guide interceptor aircraft to reach the object before it reached the missile launch sites. The Dickinson Air Force Station was designated as a Ground Control Intercept and Warning Station. The site contained barracks for housing, administrative buildings, control buildings, operations buildings, radar towers, generator plant, club and gymnasium building. You can look this up on Wikipedia, and there is a satellite photo of this site on Wikimaps from 2015, and you can zoom-in on the satellite photo to get a better view.

According to what I could find, the Dickinson Air Force Station was closed in 1965. I believe that there is much more to this facility below ground, and I have spoken to some local people who also believe this. In approximately 1980, more or less, I don’t have an exact date right now, the site was sold at public auction in Dickinson. I have been told that it was purchased by Mr. Fisher, owner of Fisher Industries in Dickinson, for approximately $45,000. Fisher Industries is a local company that is a sand and gravel business, that has grown into other industries and other states and is now estimated to be worth $100 million. Mr. Fisher is said to have sold all of the industrial equipment that remained on site for $45,000, and then he re-sold the property. The owner of the site, according to some local residents, had to agree to the condition from the government, that people would never be permitted to live in any of the structures on the property. I do not know if this was because of lead paint, asbestos, or some other reason, but this appears to be the case to this day.

In the 1970s, perhaps earlier, farmers in the New England area about twenty-five miles south of Dickinson, were sighting UFOs at close range, and in some cases UFOs landing. Farmers in the New England area were also experiencing cattle mutilations, where cattle were killed in an unknown manner, by unknown perpetrators, and organs had been surgically removed from the cattle. The farmers discussed these events locally with each other and with their neighbors, the town of New England had less than five-hundred residents. The person that was explaining all of this to me, was living in New England at that time, and he heard these events directly from the farmers themselves who experienced this. It came to the point where the sightings and mutilations were so numerous, that the Air Force came to New England. The first thing that the Air Force did was to find out every farmer who had seen something, then the Air Force went to speak to each and every farmer who had seen something. Then, the farmers no longer wanted to talk about anything that they had seen. When the farmers were asked by local residents about their UFO sightings, they would say from then on, that they did not want to talk about it, or that it never happened. The Air Force then built some kind of installation in New England, and had personnel stationed in New England for at least several years, then the Air Force went away. I have spent several hours searching on the internet for any record of the Air Force installation or activities in New England, but have not found any mention of it. I can not find on the internet any report of the UFO sightings or cattle mutilations in New England in the 1970s. This is kind of surprising, and it kind of isn’t. The person that explained this to me, that had lived in New England at that time, asked another person with us if they had remembered all of this going on in the New England area, and they replied that they did, but this other person did not want to talk about it.

The Air Force activity in Dickinson and New England in the 1960s and 1970s, is not talked about, it is probably forgotten by most people. The size of the Dickinson Air Force Station makes me believe that much more was going on at that location, because the number of personnel on site was much more than that at a missile launch site. The barracks, the off-site family housing, the equipment and infrastructure at the site appears to be much greater than would be needed if the only function of the site was to operate the radar.

Prostitution in Dickinson, North Dakota

February 19, 2015UncategorizedBack Page, escorts in Dickinson, getting arrested in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, meeting women in Dickinson, Moving to Dickinson, prostitutes in Dickinson, shortage of women in Dickinson, Women in Dickinsonname withheld

When I first came to Dickinson, North Dakota in May of 2011, I became bored and lonely. There was not a lot to do, and I did not know very many people. I did not see very many pretty women anywhere that I went in Dickinson, and most of the women were not friendly to me. It became apparent that there was a shortage of women in Dickinson. I had never wanted to look at an internet dating site until I came to Dickinson, but at this point, I thought that I would try it.

At first, I set up a free user profile on “Match.com”. On “Match.com” I found that there were very few women within 100 miles of Dickinson, and about 9 out of 10 of them were unattractive. I then set up free user profiles on “Mingle.com”, “PlentyOfFish.com”, “DateHookup.com”, and “SeniorPeopleMeet.com”. Using these four additional dating sites, I found that there were still very few women within 100 miles of Dickinson. One of the reasons why there were so few women from Dickinson on the dating websites, was because there was a shortage of women in Dickinson, the ratio of men to women was probably 3:1, women here did not have a hard time getting offers for dates.

In the evening after work, I would look at the five different dating sites to see if any nice looking women from Dickinson or the surrounding area had joined, but they hadn’t. For entertainment, I began looking at the profiles of women in other states. Very soon I began to see some things in the profiles of women that upset me. At first I thought that I had just come across some bad, shallow women. But after several weeks of reading women’s profiles, and reading about two hundred profiles, I found that I hadn’t understood women at all, and this was very upsetting to me because I was forty years old.

What had started out as me trying to meet some women in Dickinson by looking at internet dating sites, really changed my life and opened my eyes. I thought that I had understood women, but I hadn’t understood them very well at all. In person, in magazines, in books, in movies, and on television, women talk about romance, true love, a spark, a connection, chemistry, finding their soul-mate, commitment. But apparently what they say and what they want are entirely different things. The internet dating sites, prompted the women to select the specific things that they were looking for, which revealed what women were really looking for.

Most women were looking for a guy with a high income, a high paying profession, a higher education level, who was good-looking, athletic, in-shape, liked to travel, and above all, most important, was tall. I thought, “What the fuck? Yea, there are guys like that, but they get to date models, they don’t date 40-year-old, short, plump women with four kids at home, like you. No wonder you are divorced, you’re crazy.”

Me, I don’t care if a woman is 5′-0″ or 6′-0″, if she is 18 years old or 50 years old, if she is a hotel maid or a medical doctor, if she didn’t graduate from high school or has a PhD, if she is poor or if she is wealthy, I don’t care. When I saw that most women have an income, occupation, and education requirement for men, I realize that most women want someone to pay for everything they want. When most women have a height requirement for men, I guess that most women must be scared that something or someone is going to get them, and they need to be protected. Does that sound like a child to you, someone that has never grown up, wanting someone else to pay for everything and protect them? Now, I never had less interest in dating or getting married. Maybe I should just hire a prostitute? That would save me a lot of time, energy, effort, and trouble.

Some older out-of-state workers in Dickinson told me to look on a website called “Back Page”, and look under “escorts”. I did look. There were some nasty looking women, but also some hot looking women. I said to the older workers that were around,”Some of these women are good-looking, but how many men do you think they are with each day? Do they take showers after every guy? This is kind of gross.” An older guy answered, “These women are professionals, they know what they are doing. You are much more likely to get a venereal disease from some easy girl that you meet in a bar, than you are from an escort.”

I started doing research on prostitutes, and I found a website titled “The Honest Courtesan, by Maggie McNeill”. This is a very informative website, Maggie McNeill is one of the best writers that I have ever read. I am sorry to take the mystery out of it for you, but Maggie McNeill is not her real name, she grew up in New Orleans, she went to Catholic School, she went to a University in New Orleans, and I believe that she graduated with a degree in English. She was a librarian I believe. When she got to be about 30 years old, she began stripping because her ex-husband had left her with a lot of debt, then she found out that she could make a lot more money as a prostitute. She admits that she had always liked having sex, even from a young age, and that she had had sex for money for the first time when she was in college. If you ever wanted to know anything about prostitutes, read her website, because that is all she writes about, you can ask her questions.

I asked Maggie McNeill some questions, she was very nice. When I went to work in other states, and when I came back to North Dakota, I would look at the website “Back Page” because I was tempted. I was tempted because I don’t like women wasting my time, I don’t mind being nice to women, but I don’t feel like playing stupid games with stupid women, I don’t feel like tricking young women, I don’t want to lie to older women who want promises, and I don’t feel like misrepresenting myself to women who expect to gain something. I also don’t want to get any woman pregnant accidentally. It would be easier for me just to pay an escort $250. You could get a nice looking woman without all the frustration and stress, and then be left alone. There are two reasons why I never did, one was that it is just so unappealing to be with a woman that has already been with four guys that day. The second reason is getting arrested.

I read some of Maggie McNeill’s website posts that have some information on how to not get arrested. Some of the commenters to her posts have been in the military and they have some good advice on how to not get arrested. If you read Maggie McNeill’s website, and you read other newspaper articles on the internet, you will see that very often the police will put their own ad for an escort on “Back Page”, when you show up to meet your escort, you are arrested. This is what happened in the beginning of February in Bismarck, North Dakota.

I am so tired of Dickinson, I am so tired of there being a shortage of women in Dickinson. I don’t want to have sex with some local guy’s wife because she is trying to get back at him, or she is tired of him. I have considered going over to Bismarck to meet an escort so that I am not going to have difficulties here in Dickinson. But I was watching the local television news in early February, and the asshole police in Bismarck were so proud that they had sixty-five callers in response to their “Back Page” ad for an escort. The asshole police in Bismarck were saying, “Obviously, there is a greater demand than there is a supply, we were not even able to arrest all of the callers, we were so swamped with calls.” No Shit you stupid asshole cops! What do you think you have accomplished?

There are way more men in Dickinson than women. Most all of the truck drivers, construction workers, and oil field workers have realized that the women working as cashiers, waitresses, and bartenders are tired of being hit-on all the time. The men have realized that the housewives in Dickinson don’t want to be bothered when they have to go to the grocery store. So, the men look at the ads for escorts on-line, they call to make an appointment, they want to meet an escort at a hotel in Bismarck so that they don’t get into trouble here in Dickinson, and the brilliant police in Bismarck arrest them.

The truck drivers, construction workers, and oil field workers are trying not to bother or accost women in Dickinson when they decide to spend $250 on an escort and make an appointment with an escort. If the police are going to arrest men in this area for making an appointment with an escort, I hope that men in Dickinson will begin to proposition women at work and housewives like never before, unceasingly and inappropriately, including the police wives. Since the police don’t want there to be prostitutes, I hope that men start bothering the women in Dickinson all day long, every day, everywhere they go, so that the women and the police wives will start screaming at the police,”Let them have their prostitutes you stupid fucking assholes!”

A Few Things To Do This Winter In Dickinson, North Dakota

February 18, 2015UncategorizedAstoria Hotel, Don Pedros Mexican Restaurant, Living in Dickinson, Moving to Dickinson, things to do in Dickinson, where to meet women in Dickinson, winter in Dickinsonname withheld

There is not a lot to do in the winter in Dickinson, North Dakota. I will give a few things that I think you will like. There are not very many good restaurants in Dickinson, and if you have read some of my previous posts, you will already have heard some of my complaints, especially about poor service, and even no service. I want to recommend a restaurant that always has excellent service, and excellent food. Don Pedros Mexican Restaurant is just to the west of Ace Hardware. The wait staff is the most professional of any that I have seen in Dickinson. Before you place your order, you are served tortilla chips, salsa, and bean dip, which is very good. Everything that I have ever ordered has been very good. Every time that I have eaten at Don Pedros, I have had to take the rest of my food with me in a to-go box, there has been more food than I could eat at one time, and it is too good to let it go to waste.

Sometimes after I get done eating in Dickinson at night, I am not ready to go home yet, especially if half the purpose of me going out to eat was to get away from the other people back at my house. The movie theater in the Prairie Hills Mall usually has movies that start after 9:00 p.m. I saw several good movies there including “American Sniper” and “The Judge”, and I even saw some movies that I did not want to see, just to have something to do. It is a nice, clean, seemingly new movie theater, and after 9:00 p.m. there are mostly only adults.

In a previous post, “Surprise Sighting of Attractive Women in Dickinson”, I wrote about going to the Chili Cook-Off at the Astoria Hotel back in January, and that there was an enormous amount of good-looking women there. On February 14, I went to a fundraiser for an animal rescue shelter at the Astoria Hotel, there were a lot less people, but the catered food was very good, there were very good-looking bartender women, and there were some nice looking women in the Astoria Hotel bar and at the event. So now, in the winter, I recommend going to the events that are hosted inside the hotels in Dickinson, the large events attract a lot of good-looking women, and even the small events are worth going to. On February 21, there is a Gumbo Cook-Off at the Quality Inn, I recommend going to that.

Lastly, I am again recommending that everybody go to the West River Community Center. They have the indoor hot tub right next to the indoor water park pool. They have the indoor lap pool, two indoor tennis courts, four indoor basketball courts, indoor volleyball court, three indoor racquetball courts, weight training area, rock climbing wall, and indoor track. If you are wearing jeans and a jacket, you can still walk the indoor track, five laps equals a mile.

The Dickinson Mafia

February 17, 2015UncategorizedCatholic Church in Dickinson, Dickinson Mafia, DUI in Dickinson, Good-Old-Boy Network, Living in Dickinson, Out-of-state worker in Dickinson, starting a business in Dickinson, Trinity High Schoolname withheld

I have not wanted to write about the Dickinson Mafia until now. No, I am not joking about the Dickinson Mafia, though they are a joke. They are a group of business owners and a few of the city leaders that try to decide and control what happens in Dickinson. Though I could name them, I won’t, yet.

The Dickinson Mafia have agreed more or less amongst themselves what they envision for Dickinson. They tell themselves and each other that they are looking out for the best interest of Dickinson and its citizens, but it is amazing how this coincides with making themselves richer and trying to control other people for their benefit and to maintain their power.

Two of the members of the Dickinson Mafia own large local companies. Even now, their wages are low in comparison to what out-of-state companies and corporations operating in Dickinson pay. These two large local companies attempt to pay skilled tradesmen and educated professionals the same wages as entry-level workers at Burger King, Wendys, and Wal-Mart here in Dickinson. For the last thirty years they have treated their workers like slaves, paying them meager wages so that they live pay check to pay check with no chance of saving enough money to start their own business, or to leave Dickinson and not live pay check to pay check. Paying low wages ensures that these workers have no choice but to be obedient, they have no money saved up to afford to be without a job, and should they not be obedient and lose their job, the Dickinson Mafia will try to make sure that they don’t get hired elsewhere.

Though these large local companies try to make their employees believe that the low wages they receive are just a matter of economics, what the company can afford to pay and remain in business, these large local companies have their names on the walls of the St. Joseph’s Hospital, the West River Community Center, and the Dickinson State University for their donations of millions of dollars. It disgusts me that wealthy people deliberately pay their workers low wages so that they have no option but to work their whole lives to provide the bare necessities for themselves, so that the wealthy can make large profits, so that they can give away their extra millions like they are such lovers of mankind, yet really they are slave drivers.

In 2010, when work began to pick up in Dickinson, local workers in Dickinson began to see that they could earn higher wages from out-of-state companies that came to operate in Dickinson. Many workers quit working for the locally owned companies. The Dickinson Mafia did not like this, they did not like this at all! In the past in Dickinson, a local worker could only afford a tiny apartment, or if his wife worked, they could afford a small plain house or a single-wide trailer. This was how the Dickinson Mafia wanted things. If you could just barely afford a place to live, you had to go along with what the Dickinson Mafia wanted: you had better do whatever it is that they told you at work, you had better not cause any problems around town after work, you had better not try to start any business without their permission, you had better not try to compete with them in business, and you had better not try to do or say anything against them politically.

In the South, there used to be what was called the Good-Old-Boy Network. If you came to a small town in the South and tried to start a business, let’s say a construction business for instance, your success or failure would depend on what the Good-Old-Boy Network wanted. You might not have known, that the concrete company owner, the lumber company owner, the building inspector, the fire marshal, the city engineer, the bank manager, and the mayor had already gotten together, discussed it, and decided that you were not somebody that they wanted to succeed. Consequently, you would have problem after problem, and the Good-Old-Boy Network would make sure that you went out of business.

In the South, if you were conservative, Christian-Protestant, not a criminal, not pushy, and assured some of the members of the Good-Old-Boy Network that you were not going to do anything crazy, they would probably let you do business. There is an expression, “People like people, who are like themselves.” When I lived in Idaho, I came to find out that the region I lived in was about sixty percent Mormon, and I also came to find out that you were not going to get a good job, succeed in business, or go on a date with a good-looking Mormon girl, unless you were Mormon. In Dickinson, the Dickinson Mafia is associated with the Catholic Church. The members of the Dickinson Mafia grew up Catholic. They associated with each other growing up at Catholic functions. I suppose this is why they are called the “Dickinson Mafia”, I didn’t make the name up. The Dickinson Mafia give preference to people who graduated from Trinity High School in Dickinson. Trinity High School is a private Catholic school in Dickinson, some of the members of the Dickinson Mafia went to school there, most of the members of the Dickinson Mafia send their children there.

The Dickinson Mafia use their association with the Catholic Church to further their agenda in Dickinson. I already stated that the Dickinson Mafia share a vision of what they want Dickinson to be, and though they tell themselves and each other that it is for the good of Dickinson and the well-being of its citizens, it coincides with making themselves richer and controlling others to benefit them and maintain their power. I will try to give a few examples of the Dickinson Mafia at work, where they use their association with the Catholic Church as a tool to achieve their goals.

If you are an out-of-state worker, you already have a home in another state, if you would have wanted to move to North Dakota, you would have done so years ago. You are here because the economy is bad in the state where your home is. You would rather be home where it is warmer, and there are trees. You are only here because there is work here. You would just like an affordable place to stay while you are here. You don’t want to stay in a $150 per night hotel, or a $1,500 per month one-bedroom apartment. Back home, $1,500 per month would rent a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house. There were developers that proposed temporary housing for workers in Dickinson, so-called “man-camps”. The city/county council members and zoning boards voted against “man-camps” in Dickinson and Stark County. There were concerned citizens in Dickinson that were worried about “all those men in those man-camps”, surely they would be raping women in Dickinson. I remember the discussions of “man-camps” in Dickinson in 2011. The citizens of Dickinson were saying that for the safety of the families in Dickinson, for the safety of the women and children, for the well-being of Dickinson, and to not destroy the God-fearing morality of Dickinson, that they be spared from the wickedness and the lawlessness of the “man-camps”. How did everybody in Dickinson get so worked up about the wicked and lawless man-camps? What happened is, apartment developments got approved and built instead.

I would like to point out, that the same wicked and lawless oil-field workers that would have lived in the man-camps on the north side of Dickinson are the same people that rented the newly constructed apartments on the north side of Dickinson. The Dickinson Mafia put the word out and got it into people’s heads, particularly the church-going people that were determined to fight evil, that the man-camp dwellers were savages, but the people that would rent apartments were the kind of people Dickinson wanted. Keep in mind the people were the same workers whether they lived in a man-camp or in an apartment. The difference was, that the Dickinson Mafia wanted to force the purchase of acreage rather than the leasing of acreage. The Dickinson Mafia wanted millions and millions of dollars to be spent on the construction of permanent apartments, and the permanent property tax assessment on those apartments.

Another thing that I think the Dickinson Mafia and the Catholic Church have initiated are the over-zealous DUI arrests in Dickinson. The Dickinson Mafia and the Catholic Church want you to go to work, then go home to your family, and stay home until you are ready to go to work again the next day. They do not want you to go out in town and get into any trouble after work. Your life is work, and your family. As far as the law in the United States goes, it is not illegal to go to a bar, have a couple of drinks, and then drive home. But in Dickinson, the police will get behind you with the intention of finding something, anything, any reason to pull you over, so that they can ask you if you have been drinking, give you a field sobriety test, then arrest you for DUI, even if your blood alcohol level is below the legal limit. Why do the police do this in Dickinson? It is because they have been directed to do this. The police would not do this unless they had been directed to do this and they were backed up and supported by those in power in both the business community and the dominant church community. They have a vision for what Dickinson is going to be, and they have decided to control other people to benefit them.

If You and Your Family Move to Dickinson, North Dakota

February 15, 2015Uncategorizedco-workers in Dickinson, Dan Porter Toyota, Employment in Dickinson, kids in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, Moving to Dickinson, Prairie Hills Mall, relocating to Dickinson, rent in Dickinson, Sax Chevrolet, school in Dickinson, shopping in Dickinsonname withheld

I received a comment on my blog from a reader whose family is going to relocate to Dickinson, North Dakota. I would like to answer some of the reader’s questions, and offer my sincerest advice. In this blog, I have mostly written about what it is like to be a man in Dickinson, but in this post, I want to write about what it will be like for a wife, and for a teenage son or daughter.

I believe that it is probably difficult for a teenage son or daughter to leave their friends and familiar high school behind, and relocate to some place that is new, and have to start over again. One of my friends who lives in Williston had to do this many times during his childhood because his father was in the military. He did not have a very good time in school, he felt that he was picked on because he was an easy target, he was always the new kid in class.

In general, lately, about 30% of the time in Dickinson, I feel that I am not treated very nicely by the local people, because I am not from here. I want to caution parents that if your son or daughter enters school in Dickinson, they may experience some negativity from school administrators, teachers, and students. School administrators and teachers are probably tired of new students from elsewhere, having to review and incorporate each new student’s academic records, having to determine what classes to enroll them in, and evaluate where they are in comparison to other students. Even though adults in the education system should be above directing negativity towards students, it may happen. Students may be negative towards a new classmates because they may copy the attitudes of their parents, or they may take out their anger on someone who is an “easy target”, because they are from somewhere else, are not settled in yet, and don’t have any friends. It might be inappropriate to be as blunt as I am putting it, with your son or daughter. I would try to say something like,”It can be difficult to start over at a new school. It is difficult when you are not familiar with the town, with the people, and you don’t have any friends yet. The first days may be hard, but things will get better.” Please advise your son or daughter, if they are confronted with an administrator, teacher, or classmate that is picking on them, try to not say,”Dickinson sucks!, I wish that I never moved here!” This is a normal thought, but don’t say it out loud. Some days in Dickinson, it feels like everyone is against you, but if you make it through the day, you may find that tomorrow you have a better day. In Dickinson you sometimes run across more than several people in a row that are unfriendly towards you because you are from somewhere else, but eventually you meet some people that are more friendly.

In order for your son or daughter to not be depressed, to have something to look forward to doing, to meet people, or to keep to themselves if they wish, I highly recommend having them go to the West River Community Center every day. The West River Community Center has an indoor rock climbing wall with safety lines, three indoor racquetball courts, two indoor tennis courts, four indoor basketball courts, an indoor track, two indoor swimming pools, indoor volleyball court, and weight rooms. If they don’t feel like talking to anyone, they can swim, lift weights, walk the track, practice racquetball, or practice basketball. It is a very good place to get exercise in the winter, and it is safe for kids and adults. There are a lot of housewives and moms that use the West River Community Center throughout the day, and these women seem to have an above average positive attitude and they seem to be more outgoing and happier.

Because there a lot of new kids enrolled in school in Dickinson, and because these kids come from all over the United States, I would be very watchful about what kinds of kids my son or daughter was becoming friends with. I would watch out for kids that appear to be too street-smart for their age, or kids that seem to be too mature for their age. I would be concerned that if my son or daughter was raised in a well supervised, caring environment, is their street-smart, and more mature friend, going to take advantage of my more naive son or daughter, going to get them involved in things inappropriate for their age, smoking, drugs, sex. It is probably necessary to try to meet the parents of the kids that your son or daughter is spending time with. Is your son or daughter going over to their friend’s home where the parents are routinely absent for several hours? Does anyone in the household appear to have a drug or alcohol problem? Do the parents appear to be reckless or have an unsafe environment for your son or daughter to be in? Because there are so many new people that have moved to Dickinson recently, you have to be more careful about your safety and your child’s safety.

There are three small Family Value grocery stores in Dickinson, their prices are higher than the Wal-Mart in Dickinson. If you have patience to wait in line, and it is daylight, you can shop at Wal-Mart if you want to. If it is dark or nearing dark, I would not want my wife or girlfriend to go to Wal-Mart, the parking lot walk is too far and too dangerous at night. If it is dark, you are much safer going to the smaller Family Value grocery stores, the parking lot walk is short and safe. In Dickinson at night, a warning for both men and women, you don’t want to be way out in the Wal-Mart parking lot at night, or be at a gas station late at night where you will be approached by what appears to be a pan-handler or beggar. What appears to be a pan-handler or beggar, is actually probably a drug addict and a criminal, who has spotted you before you ever noticed them. They approach you when you are not able to ignore them, such as when you have a long walk to the store, or when you are pumping gas. If they thought that they could get away with it, they would probably take your money by theft or by force, they only ask you for money because they feel they would get caught in a theft or a mugging, but if you are far enough out in a dark parking lot, their odds improve for getting away with a theft, mugging, or abduction.

If you are looking for good warm winter clothing, Runnings Farm & Ranch store has a very good selection of winter jackets, overalls, hats, gloves, work boots, and snow boots. Carhart jackets are very warm and durable, Berne jackets are maybe as good and less expensive. The hardware stores like Ace, Macs, and Menards also have good warm winter jackets. The Prairie Hills Mall has Herbergers Department Store. Herbergers Department Store has nice clothes for men, women, and children. If you have a job interview, a date, or a wedding, you will be able to find shoes, pants, belts. shirts, ties, suit jackets, and winter jackets that are nice and appropriate. The only movie theater in Dickinson is also in the Prairie Hills Mall, and it usually has about four different movies at any one time.

If you have car problems in Dickinson, I recommend that you take your car to the dealer. I have taken vehicles to the Dodge dealer and the Toyota dealer in Dickinson, and both of these dealers have done good work and they have a good reputation. I believe that the Ford dealer and the Chevy dealer also have a good reputation. There are at least several good independent mechanic shops in Dickinson, but the good mechanic shops have a waiting time of about four weeks before they can work on your vehicle. If you have an Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Range Rover, Saab, Subaru, Volvo, or Volkswagen, you may not be able to find anyone in Dickinson who wants to work on your vehicle. I have heard that Dan Porter Toyota may try to work on some foreign vehicles, and that Sax Chevrolet may try to work on some foreign vehicles, but they may not want to work on your foreign vehicle if it is a complicated repair.

When you begin work with an employer in Dickinson, try to be polite, positive, moderate in your behavior, moderate in what you say, and be careful and mindful of certain things. It has been my experience in Dickinson, that your co-workers will try to cause problems for you. Keep in mind that your co-workers may dislike you because you are from someplace else, or because they believe you have more education or experience than them, or because they wanted their relative to get the job that you have. Keep in mind that they would like for you to make a mistake or for you to say something that they could try to damage you with. Be careful not to say anything sarcastic or jokingly, because your coworkers will repeat what you said without adding that you had been joking. Be careful not to give any opinions about work or workers, because you may have assumed that what you said was not going to be repeated, however your coworkers will go tell everyone what you said. Your co-workers will ask you what you think of Dickinson, try to say something positive like, “The West River Community Center is very nice.” The longer you remain positive, moderate in your behavior, moderate in what you say, and refrain from saying anything that could offend anyone, and refrain from giving your opinion on anything, the longer you can keep your job.

And to answer the last question of the reader, I do not think that there has been a recent drop in rental rates or home prices, but this could/should start to occur any day now because there has been a reduction in the number of oil field jobs and the price of oil is still currently low.

Surprise Sighting of Attractive Women in Dickinson, North Dakota

February 10, 2015Uncategorizedattractive women in Dickinson, Entertainment in Dickinson, how to meet women in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, Moving to Dickinson, women, Women in Dickinsonname withheld

On January 24, 2015, I went to the Chili Cook-Off at the Astoria Hotel in Dickinson, North Dakota. There were about twenty companies that served their home-made chili at this event, which was a fundraiser for rural fire departments. There were about four bars that served alcohol. The band “Outlaw Sippin” played from about 9 p.m. to midnight. There were about four hundred to five hundred people at this event.

I have spent about two and a half years in Dickinson, and I have never seen more attractive women in Dickinson than I saw at this event. In fact, the last time I saw that many attractive women in one place, was twenty years ago when I was at a school with over 30,000 students. At the Chili Cook-Off, there were all different kinds of attractive women: tall skinny ones, tiny petite ones, friendly volunteer women of all ages, cow-girls, hot housewives, pretty geeks, off-duty bartenders, on-duty bartenders, out-of-town girls, local girls, college girls, other kinds too.

I have thought about it and thought about it, why did pretty women come out to this event? What made this event different? Three things: large clean bathrooms, tile, and clean, warm, safe environment. I tried to understand why women decided to come to this event, and imagine what their thought process must have been. Here is what they must have been thinking, “I would like to go to this event at the Astoria Hotel, they have nice big bathrooms that are clean, and have tile work, and I can drink and have someplace safe to go to the bathroom. I like tile work. It will be clean, and warm, and dry, and safe, and not nasty. I can eat some chili.”

I have done a lot of complaining about the lack of attractive women in Dickinson. It turns out, that if you have a nice, clean, warm, dry, safe environment, with tile, they will come out. Also, the women at this event were nice to me, which was unusual, I guess they must have been in a good mood and felt safe.

Women in Dickinson, North Dakota

November 17, 2014UncategorizedDickinson sucks, Entertainment in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, marriage in Dickinson, meeting women in Dickinson, Moving to Dickinson, over-eating, People in Dickinson, women's activities in Dickinsonname withheld

I stated that the purpose of this blog was to try to provide truthful information to people about what living in Dickinson, North Dakota, is like. Women in Dickinson, North Dakota, are significantly different from women elsewhere. I feel the need to explain this, not so that I can say cruel things about women in Dickinson, but to let people from out of state know what to expect.

As I have said elsewhere in this blog, there are way more men in Dickinson than women. If you come to Dickinson, you will see that there is a shortage of women. For most people, this is an additional unpleasant thing about Dickinson, in addition to seven months of cold grey weather, lack of places to shop, lack of entertainment, lack of things to do, over zealous DUI citations, and the fact that Dickinson residents and your co-workers from Dickinson do not like people from out of state.

Day after day after day in Dickinson, I go to the gas station, to work, to the grocery store, to the hardware store, to other stores, and I don’t see any pretty women. It gets depressing. I wonder to myself,”What has happened to the Earth?” It is like I am stuck in some apocalyptic movie, living in some dreary, barren land, after some kind of devastating disaster. It’s like I’m on some kind of prison planet. I might as well be in prison, there are mostly men here, not any women. The hardships in Dickinson, make me feel like I am living through the Great Depression, like I’m a refugee during a war, or that I have been put in prison for some kind of crime. Like I said before, if you want to know what living in Dickinson will be like, you need to watch the movies “The Grapes of Wrath”, “Deliverance”, and “Planet of the Apes”.

One of the reasons why you don’t see many pretty women in Dickinson, is because, there aren’t very many. When I lived in warm states like Florida, Texas, and Arizona, women were very concerned with how they looked, they were even competitive about it. In states with warm climates, there are so many more opportunities to go out, for recreation, socializing, entertainment, business. In warm states, people ride bikes, walk, jog, play tennis, play golf, surf, water ski, roller blade, swim, sun bathe. In warm states, people go to movies, plays, concerts, cook outs, cruises, dinner parties, drinks after work. In all of the aforementioned recreational and social activities in the warm states, the women are concerned with how they look. They want to look good in their bathing suit, their golf outfit, their dinner dress, their party dress. The women look forward to shopping for clothes and planning what they will wear.

Without trying to go too deep into the psychology of why women do what they do, in warm states, women want to look good, they try to look good. The women enjoy getting attention from men, they enjoy getting noticed. The women enjoy getting admired for their jewelry and clothing. Women in warm states read “Vogue”, “Vanity Fair”, “Cosmopolitan”, and “People”, in order to see what clothes other women are wearing, what accessories they have, how they are wearing their hair. In warm states, women go to the gym, exercise, diet, pay attention to what they are eating, in order to maintain and improve their appearance.

One of the reasons why women are competitive about how they look in the warm states, is because there are about equal numbers of men and women. The women would like to be able to get the boyfriend or the husband that they want, but there is competition for the better males. In order to be able to get one of the better males, each woman has to try to be more attractive than the other women who are seeking his attention.

In Dickinson, most of the women do not ride bikes, jog, play tennis, play golf, roller blade, swim, or water ski. It is too cold to do outdoor activities for seven months of the year. In Dickinson, most of the women do not go to plays, dinner parties, or drinks after work. What I am saying is, most of the women in Dickinson do not exercise, they do not go out, they do not have any place to go, therefore, they do not care how they look, they do not care very much about what they wear, and rather than being competitive about looking good, I actually think that they are competitive about looking bad.

In Dickinson, I think that the women that are from here, try to look bad. One possible reason why women from Dickinson try to look bad, is so that they will be left alone by the men. There is nothing to do in Dickinson, and nowhere to go, what is the use in a woman looking good in Dickinson, it’s not like she’s looking forward to getting asked out on a date, there is nowhere to go. Why would they want to look attractive? They are not really looking forward to some guy in Dickinson trying to mount them. As far as women being in competition with other women for the better males, I can just hear some woman from Dickinson in her North Dakota accent saying, “I don’t want him, you can have him,…no you can have him,….no, you can have him.”

A second reason why women in Dickinson try to look bad, is to get along with other women and to have solidarity with other women. All of the women have decided that they are going to be anywhere from thirty pounds to one hundred pounds over weight. If all the women do this, the men won’t really know the difference. So when the men in Dickinson see big overweight women, with baggy loose clothing, and unkempt hair, the men think nothing of it, because that is what they are used to seeing. The buffalo are big, the cows are big, the women are big.

Profiles In White Trash, Dickinson, North Dakota

November 10, 2014UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, Moving to Dickinson, Night Life in Dickinson, oil field workers, People in Dickinson, Restaurants in Dickinson, white trashname withheld

In western North Dakota, historically, I don’t think that there were white trash people. Yes, there were poor people. Yes, there were uneducated people. However, due to the difficulty of life in North Dakota, with its very cold and long winters, its lack of trees, its lack of wild animals for food, and its lack of industry, conditions were not right for the creation of white trash people. In order to survive in North Dakota, you had to be hard working, you had to plan ahead, and you had to think of the consequences of your actions, or inaction.

In a cold, barren state, where survival requires hard work, self-sufficiency, accountability, and reaping what you sew, white trash people can not survive.

Unfortunately, there are white trash people in North Dakota now. Unfortunately, I have to admit, that they are from the South. I don’t think that there is anyone that hates white trash more than I do. There are two things about white trash people that go hand in hand, which are the primary ingredients of white trash, one is ignorance, the second is bad conduct.

Ignorance is not so bad, if a person would just keep their mouth shut, stay home, and not have children. In the case of white trash people, they are out and about, and they have the Midas touch in being offensive.

At about 6:30 a.m. one morning not long ago, I went to have breakfast at the Perkins restaurant in Dickinson. Within about a minute of being seated at a booth, I could hear someone with a strong southern accent, speaking overly loudly to a group of people seated in an adjacent, enclosed room. This man, was using language that was not appropriate for a public restaurant, speaking about a subject that was not appropriate for a public restaurant, and was speaking too loudly. He appeared to think, like all white trash seem to think, that he was being witty and entertaining, rather than realizing he was being inappropriate and offensive. The waitress went back to the group after a few minutes to take their orders, she was a pleasant lady, in her sixties. The man began to speak to her inappropriately, asking her if she was married, making a couple of suggestive comments. Even though the waitress did not act offended, I am pretty sure that she was, because she is married, and she is from North Dakota, and is not accustomed to being spoken to like this. As I already said, historically, there were not white trash people in North Dakota.

The adjacent enclosed room, was being occupied by approximately ten workers from an oil field service company. I could tell from their accents, that just about all of these workers were from the south. Though I continued to hear this particular man, speaking overly loud, throughout the time I was eating, I never heard about five or six of the group say anything, one way or the other. Before the boasting speakers had finished eating and talking, about five of the workers excused themselves to go to work. Three of these workers who left early, were black men. I looked at these men as they left, their faces visible to me, but not to those remaining seated at the table they left, their faces had a pained and disapproving look, almost a grimace.

I could tell that just as I was disgusted by the white trash, so were these men. Both they and I grew up in the South, and we knew that this behavior was inappropriate, and we were sorry for it.

Just as I was getting ready to leave, a hostess brought a well dressed man in his late fifties, towards the back of the restaurant, closer to the white trash oil field workers than I was seated, he quickly assessed that group with one look that took less than a second, and said, “No.”, and he immediately turned, and walked to the furthest table in the opposite direction.

Trying To Get By In Dickinson, North Dakota, Part II

November 4, 2014UncategorizedDickinson, Dickinson Police, Employment in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson, Restaurants in Dickinsonname withheld

In my very first post to this blog, I explained why I was writing this blog. I said that I wanted to describe what it was like living in Dickinson, North Dakota. I wanted people to have the truth. If you have read at least several of my posts, you will probably have thought to yourself the following three things: that I am pessimistic, that I am negative, and that I am exaggerating. The last point, that I am exaggerating, no, you will find out sooner or later if you come here, that I am not exaggerating. That I am pessimistic and negative, yes, but this is necessary for survival here.

As far as people who have come to Dickinson, I have fared a little bit better than average. I have been able to make enough money to pay my bills, to keep my home in a different state, to buy an additional vehicle, to buy more tools, clothes, guns, etcetera. I have not been arrested and taken to jail, although I have come close about five times. I have not gotten any women pregnant or gotten any venereal diseases. I got injured badly enough to where I couldn’t work for five months, no workers compensation from North Dakota, but I have recovered about 90% after a couple of years. Currently I have an O.K. place to live here in Dickinson. So all in all, I feel like I am doing a little bit better than average.

Why, you might ask, do I think that I am doing a little bit better than average? Well, I will tell you. Among the people who I know that have come to Dickinson in the last seven years, who I will refer to as: “ES”, “MR”, and “SA”, these three people have been arrested and taken to jail in Dickinson a combined total of five times. “ES” and “MR” have college degrees. Among the people who I know who are from Dickinson, who I will refer to as: “MK”, “CL”, and “DS”, these three people have been arrested and taken to jail in Dickinson at least once each. “MK” and “CL” have college degrees.

Some of you people who are reading this are thinking, “So what about being arrested.” So what? Do you know how much harder it is to get a job after you have been arrested for something? You can either tell the truth, and not be hired, or you can lie, get hired, and then get fired when your background check gets completed. I worked for the government once, and was questioned for five hours by an investigator during the background check, and I didn’t have any arrests, I never would have been hired if I had. It sucks to get arrested, and have that on your record. In the past six months in Dickinson, I have been stopped by the police three times, and been asked for my I.D. and current address.

Regarding being stopped by the police three times in the past six months, do you think this leads to a negative and pessimistic outlook? Yes, it does. The Dickinson Police are just hoping that you have an outstanding warrant, an expired driver’s license, expired insurance, that you have been drinking, that they can spot drugs, or a weapon in your vehicle. That way, you can get arrested, be taken to jail, miss work, lose your job, be unable to make your car payments, your apartment/house payments, and lose everything you own. You see, this is Dickinson, and everything was nice here, before you got here. As far as Dickinson is concerned, you are a piece of shit, oil field trash, out of state worker. As I wrote in a previous post, if you want to know what living in Dickinson will be like, you need to watch the movies “Deliverance”, “The Grapes of Wrath”, and “Planet of the Apes”.

To get back on track with the theme of this post, “Trying To Get By In Dickinson, North Dakota, Part II”, and to stick by my assertion that you need to be pessimistic and negative to survive in Dickinson, I will elaborate with an example. Every time I get in my vehicle, before I leave the driveway, I remind myself that this is Dickinson, and be prepared for some f___ed up shit. This past Sunday morning I was driving to work at 7 a.m., I get to the intersection of State Avenue and 21st Street, which used to be a three way stop up until about a week ago, the north bound lane did not have to stop. About a week ago they installed a stop sign for the north bound lane, and now all four stop signs have a sign that says “all way”. I was going west, and came to a complete stop at the stop sign, here comes a new four door, four wheel drive, black dodge truck going north, I said to myself, “No way am I going”, sure enough, the illiterate, ignorant piece of shit went through the intersection going 30 miles per hour. The oil field truck behind it, came to a complete stop at the stop sign and waved for me to go ahead, the two guys in the front seat were laughing, they saw what happened. About two months ago, the same thing happened to me at the intersection of 23rd Avenue and Fairway, Fairway has no stop sign, 23rd Ave has a stop sign that says “cross street does not stop”, but a lady on 23rd Avenue pulled out right in front of me. I was ready, because I know how stupid, ignorant, and illiterate the people in Dickinson are, they can’t figure out “STOP” and “cross street does not stop”. By the way, if I had gotten into an accident when that lady at the stop sign pulled out in front of me, do you know who would have gotten cited for the accident when the Dickinson Police arrived? That’s right, me, because I am a worthless piece of shit out of state worker, and Dickinson was nice before I got here.

Before you get here, and once you are here, you need to plan on things going bad. As I mentioned in a previous post, you need to be prepared for not getting served in a restaurant, (try looking at the restaurant review site “Yelp”, for restaurant reviews in Dickinson, and you will see that I am not making this up.) If you need to make a bunch of copies on a Friday, and SBM closes at 5:00 p.m., don’t be surprised when both locations are closed at 4:00 p.m., (the only other place to get copies is the UPS store.) If you need to park your car at the Dickinson airport, you may need four wheel drive to get out, (a fifty seater airline aircraft got stuck in the mud at the Dickinson airport in the spring of 2014.) You may not be able to get a hotel room, or your hotel room reservations may not be found, (I know business owners and construction crews that have had to sleep in their vehicles at oil field locations and construction sites.) If you get injured working or get laid off, expect not to get workers compensation or unemployment from North Dakota, ( Happened to me, happened to three people I know: “CL” ,”JK”, “CC”.) Do not drink even one beer, and then drive in Dickinson, you will likely get a DUI. If you have company provided housing, or any housing for that matter, you need to have a back up plan “B”, and a back up plan “C”, (I have seen many, many people, including me, get up shit creek in Dickinson when they lost their housing, it is not easy to find a place, and housing is extremely expensive. For instance, if you get injured and can’t work, you will lose your company housing.) I have met several people who came to Dickinson, could not find a place stay, ran out of money, and then begged the police to take them to jail so that they could have a warm place to stay and something to eat, there is no homeless shelter in Dickinson.

In summary, and I am not joking, I mean it, you have a better chance of surviving in Dickinson if you plan on things not going well. If you come from the south like I do, don’t expect people to be nice to you, you can’t expect that, you had better expect them to be mean to you, because they will be. Don’t you be friendly either, anything you say will be used against you, the people here are just looking for some specific things to dislike you for, they already don’t like you in general. The longer you keep your mouth shut, the longer you can keep your job. Even telling your landlord or neighbor where you are starting work, will result in your landlord or neighbor immediately telling their aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, grandkids, that, “They’re hiring at the college!, they’re hiring at the college!, get down there!”, even though you might have a master’s degree or doctorate, and their relatives didn’t graduate from high school.

What does that leave? Well, you pretty much have to keep your mouth shut, do your job, keep a close eye on your coworkers trying to get you injured or in trouble, don’t go to bars, be extra careful driving, go straight home, and quickly come up with a back up plan “B”, and plan “C” for a different place to live, and a different place to work.

Trying To Get By In Dickinson, North Dakota, Part I

October 18, 2014UncategorizedEmployment in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, Moving to Dickinson, relocating to Dickinson, Women in Dickinsonname withheld

Please read my previous blog, “Like Crabs In A Bucket”, that describes how people in Dickinson will possibly try to impede your life.

Below are some preliminary guidelines on how to get by in Dickinson, North Dakota:

Don’t Say Anything! For reasons that will be explained below, do not say anything! If people in Dickinson learn that you have an education, that you have a foreign car, that you have a pretty wife or girlfriend, that you have a house, that you are from a different state, you will have difficulties!

Try Not To Let It Be Discovered That You Have An Education! North Dakota has the largest number of people with less than an 8th grade education, and the highest per capita beer consumption. So if you hear someone talking about something that is factually not correct, or absurdly incorrect, try not to say anything, so that you are neither agreeing nor disagreeing. It helps to go and do something else, if you feel tempted to say something. Remember, people in North Dakota would rather you had done four years in prison than four years in college!

Do Not Let It Be Known That You Have A Foreign Car! You had better not have a foreign car! What, do you think you are better than us? What, are you too good to drive an American car? Get that piece of shit out of here!

Do Not Let It Be Known That You Have A Pretty Wife Or A Pretty Girlfriend! If you have a pretty wife, or a pretty girlfriend, do not be seen with her. If you are seen with her, this will cause bewilderment, confusion, anger, hatred, jealousy, and malevolence. Most men in Dickinson do not have a pretty wife. Most men in Dickinson have a wife that is overweight. I don’t think that they know their wife is not pretty and overweight, they only have the other wives in Dickinson to compare them to. This is what they are used to. Don’t rock the boat, keep your pretty wife or girlfriend out of sight.

Do Not Let It Be Known That You Have A House, Or Anything! If they think that you have anything, anything!, they will be jealous of you. You must think that you are better than them if you have a: hot tub, drum set, aquarium, etcetera. That ain’t right if you have a: house, pool, pool table, trampoline, etcetera.

You may think, “So what, I don’t care.” Do Not Make This Mistake! You have driven here from a different state and have relocated. Do you want to lose that job that you just got because your wife came by to drop off your lunch? Now everybody is mad, and nobody can get any work done becuase you have a pretty wife. How did you get a pretty wife? Do you have money? Hey!, how much is this new guy getting paid! Yeah, how much is this new guy getting paid that he can have a pretty wife?! That aint right!

Another example: “Hey, I heard this new guy say that he had a pool.” Reply, “Well we don’t need any of that shit around here! These people coming from some other state, bragging about how they had a pool! If their state is so good, then how come they came out here, they probably need to go back there then!” Yeah!!!

Example: “I heard this guy say he used to be an engineer, well we don’t need any engineers around here. I’m gonna drop this board on his head when he walks by. Look here he comes…” “Heh, heh, that’ll teach him.”

Remember, Dickinson used to be nice before you got here! You ruined everything! We don’t need that (meaning anything you have, anything you have done, anything you are) shit around here!

Like Crabs In A Bucket, Dickinson, North Dakota

October 18, 2014UncategorizedEmployment in Dickinson, Housing in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, Moving to Dickinson, People in Dickinson, unfriendly people in Dickinson, what is Dickinson like, Working in Dickinsonname withheld

When I grew up in the South, I used to catch blue crabs in the Indian River. While you were crabbing, you dropped the crabs that you caught into a half-filled bucket of water. If you would look in the bucket after you had caught about five crabs, one of the crabs would very nearly have the tip of one of his claws on the top rim of the bucket. But he never got out, because the other four crabs had a hold of him and were pulling him back down. Dickinson is like that.

When I first got to Dickinson in 2011, I went to work for an oil field service company that was short handed. They hired me, and two other out of state workers. One of the workers never showed up. They hired me because I had a camper on the back of my truck, I had a clean driving record, no criminal record, and had construction experience. In order to encourage me and the other guy to stay, the company management said that they would provide housing for me and the other guy, that is, until the other workers heard that. The other workers, which were from Dickinson, said, “That aint right, why should the company pay for them to have a place to live, they don’t pay for us to have a place to live.” The result, the company withdrew the offer to provide a place for me and the other guy to live. Did that benefit the current employees from Dickinson? No, it only caused me and the other guy to have to live in campers on the company property, it had no benefit to the current employees.

After the offer of company subsidized housing was withdrawn, the current Dickinson employees started to say, “That ain’t right, you get to stay in your camper on the company property and not pay rent. We have to pay rent for where we live.” I explained that I had a house, I had to pay for that house, property tax, homeowners insurance, utilities. My house was in a different state, I did not need or want another house, I just came here to work. I wondered to myself, “WTF, why are these people so intent on making sure that you don’t get anything, when it doesn’t affect them, they just want to see that you aren’t getting anything.”

The second company that I went to work for in Dickinson, I stayed in my camper on the company property. So did a friend of mine who I will call “SA”. “SA” went to the Dickinson DMV to change his driver’s license to a North Dakota license. The DMV lady asked for his current address, and “SA” gave her the construction company address. The DMV lady argued with him that this was not his address, until she did not want to argue any more, and she telephoned the police. “SA” was arrested for providing false information to the DMV. The charges were dropped when the prosecutor realized the address that “SA” gave, was actually where he was living, oops! What benefit did the DMV get from refusing to give “SA” a North Dakota driver’s license? “SA” had a job, he lived at the construction company yard, and he continued to live there for another two years, working for the company. He did not earn enough money to afford $1,500 per month for a one bedroom apartment, plus utilities.

I will give a couple of examples of the experiences of local people, who have lived here their whole lives. A friend of mine, who I will call “DS”, owned thirty acres of vacant land outside of Dickinson. “DS” did not make much money, but due to a circumstance that came up, he had the opportunity to buy a used manufactured home for roughly $3,000, about ten years ago, but he had to get it moved to his property. He checked with Stark County to find out what the rules and requirements were, he wanted to place the manufactured home on his property. He was informed by the county that he could not move the manufactured home onto his property and live in it like he wanted. He accepted their reason. It was not until someone moved a manufactured home onto an adjacent property several years later, that he found out that he had been lied to. He told me that he felt like some people at the county had disliked him, and they just didn’t want to see him get ahead.

A life long resident of Dickinson, who I will call “CL”, who has a degree in business, has told me many stories of trying to start businesses, trying to gain employment, and opportunities in Dickinson. When he was young, thirty years ago, a house or a property would become available, ones in which he figured he made enough money to be able to buy if he really lived frugally, but he could manage. He asked older business people in the community what they thought about him buying that land, if they thought it was a good idea or not. They told him oh no, no, no, bad idea. Sometimes he had an idea to start a business, he would use his money, and borrow some additional money from family members, and he was told, oh no, no, no, bad idea, from business people who had a say in it, like a bank, or a supplier. As he got older, and he saw other people start the businesses that he had wanted to start, and their businesses grew, he said he thought, “WTF, why did everybody try to talk me out of, or try to stop me, from starting that business, or buying that house? Why did I listen to those people? It turns out they just didn’t want me to succeed, they were jealous or something!”

You may or may not have experienced this before, where you live in a town, or work for a company, where people try to block you from something. You may want to buy a property, start a business, get a job, get a promotion, and people try to prevent this from happening, not because they want what it is that you want, they just can’t stand to see someone else get ahead. I used to think of it this way, “They don’t want to put in the time and energy to start a business or get a promotion in order to advance themselves, but, by God, if they can help it, you’re not going to get ahead either!” Just like crabs in a bucket, pulling each other back.

Oil Field Speculation in Dickinson, Part II

October 10, 2014UncategorizedEmployment in Dickinson, employment in Dickinson North Dakota, Housing in Dickinson, housing in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Unemployment in Dickinson, unemployment in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I hope that you have read “Oil Field Speculation in Dickinson, Part I”, but it is not absolutely necessary to be able to follow along with this “Oil Field Speculation in Dickinson, Part II”.

In 2011, I met here in Dickinson a truck driver who had grown up in Gillette, Wyoming. I will use the initials “SA” for this individual to protect his identity. When “SA” was a kid, there was an oil and gas drilling boom in Gillette, Wyoming. He said he remembered new apartment buildings being built and new manufactured homes being brought in. He remembered people buying new trucks, motorcycles, boat, and RVs. “SA” remembered his father standing around with other people, and they were all agreeing,”…this economy here in Gillette is so big now, it can’t fail, it’s big enough now to go on its own, it doesn’t depend on those oil field jobs, we got so many people living here now…”. Within a few years, the trucks, motorcycles, boats, and RVs were being repossessed. Whole apartment buildings became vacant or were never completed. The oil and gas drilling had stopped.

Here in Dickinson, there appears to be the belief that there are so many people in Dickinson, that the economy is big enough to not be dependent on the oil drilling. As an example of this belief, look at the new apartment buildings that have been constructed in 2012, 2013, and 2014. There are approximately eighty new units at the south end of State Avenue, approximately two hundred new units at the north end of State Avenue, approximately eighty new units near the new Menards, approximately one hundred fifty new units north of the North Park RV Park. Just to the west of Tooz Construction there are about one hundred new units. I have probably left out some of the new apartment buildings. The North Park RV Park, the Heart River RV Park, and the South Park Trailer Park have probably doubled in size. There are about four new large “Extended Stay” hotels.

I partly want to find fault with the real estate developers/investors, and then again I don’t. It is good that there are more places to live in Dickinson, it was necessary to have more places to live. If you have read my previous blogs, you can’t stay at WalMart, the truck stops, or Patterson Lake anymore. You can’t live in a tent in someone’s backyard for $700 a month anymore. However, I don’t know how much longer the new housing units are going to be needed. The real estate developers/investors and new home buyers have got to be thinking that the oil drilling is going to continue for more than several years, either that, or they think that the economy is so big in Dickinson now that it is not entirely dependent on oil drilling.

An indication that the real estate developers/investors have seen the possibility of the oil drilling not lasting more than several years, is the extremely high rent prices. You might have read in my previous blogs that a one bedroom apartment will be at least $1,500 per month, and that a two or three bedroom apartment will be $2,000 to $3,000 per month. The high rent, I believe, is in part due to the real estate developers/investors realizing that the oil drilling could stop, and that they need to get back the money they invested as soon as possible, while they still can.

My point in this particular blog, is again, to look at what has happened in the past. In Gillette, Wyoming, there was an oil and gas drilling boom, many new housing units were created, with the expectation that the economy would not fail. When the drilling stopped, apartment buildings became vacant or were never completed. Be aware of what could happen, and plan accordingly.

Oil Field Speculation in Dickinson, Part I

October 10, 2014UncategorizedEmployment in Dickinson, employment in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, oil boom in Dickinson North Dakota, oil bust in Dickinson North Dakota, property investment in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, Unemployment in Dickinson, unemployment in Dickinson North Dakota, Working in Dickinson, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I arrived in Dickinson, North Dakota, in May of 2011, stayed for eight months, then came back in May of 2013, and have been here since. I have become friends or acquaintances of several long time residents who are now in their 60s, “DS”, “IB”, and “CL”. I have to use these initials to protect their identities. Each of these individuals had business and social dealings with each other, so I have been able to cross check what each of them has told me.

In approximately the mid 1980s, there was an oil boom in Dickinson. Many local people were making a great deal of money. “CL” was about thirty years old, and at this time he bought a new truck, a new car, and a manufactured home in a twelve month period. His friends and acquaintances did the same thing. Within a few years, “CL” had to move back in with his parents, and had to go to work at a grocery store, because that was the only job he could get. The same thing happened to his friends, they went from having their own homes and new cars, to living in apartments and driving beaters. The oil field jobs went away, and it was hard to find even a low paying job in Dickinson.

Within a couple of years of the oil field jobs going away, property prices had fallen tremendously in Dickinson. “IB” and a business partner were able to scrape enough money together to buy some warehouses on several acres of land for about $6,000 each, even though it was very hard to earn money in Dickinson at that time. “IB” and his business partner had worked in the oil field and they strongly believed that eventually the oil drilling would have to come back to Dickinson. “DS” was about forty years old, and he was able to buy 30 acres of land that nobody wanted for about $20,000.

When I got here in 2011, “IB” and his business partner were getting about $30,000 per month in rent from the different warehouse buildings that they had bought, I was told. Once I found out which warehouse buildings they were, and what they were charging for rent, that dollar amount was approximately correct. “DS” had his property for sale for about $3 million.

Both “IB” and “DS” were stressed individuals. They had had to go through a lot to buy their properties when money was scarce, and hold onto their properties through bad economic times, over about twenty years. Nobody knew when or if the oil drilling would come back. If it would have been a sure thing, real estate prices would not have gone down, and everybody would have bought property.

Rather than this being a lesson in investment, I want this to be a warning. The oil drilling came to Dickinson in the past, everybody was making money for a few years, and then the oil drilling went away, leaving many people broke. Many people spent the money they had made very quickly because they thought that their jobs would last longer than they did, and that they would have the chance to pay off everything that was bought on credit: cars, motorcycles, boats, homes. Keep in mind also that real estate prices dropped tremendously within a few years. There were very few jobs in Dickinson then, and the jobs were low pay. Do not fail to understand the lessons of the past, please try to remember what has happened before and plan accordingly.