Go Home to Your ‘Dying’ Hometown

And yet I feel a fierce defensiveness for this place. Particularly since the 2016 election, I hear the national media — or even my friends back in Portland — dismiss my rural colleagues, family and neighbors as out of touch, hateful, fearful of immigrants, and doomed to a life of boredom and poverty. But they don’t know my friend Sarah Calhoun, who started a women’s clothing company and a music festival near White Sulphur Springs, Mont. They’ve never been to the country church in Underwood, a few miles east of Fergus Falls, whose congregants are starting conversations about race, gender equity, climate change and more. And they haven’t read the work of Nikiko Masumoto, an artist who is rethinking food systems while working alongside her family on their organic peach farm in rural California.

This is the rural life that I know exists all over the country: It can be stimulating and rewarding, a place for bold creativity. I am more involved in politics, and more outspoken about social and racial justice, economic development and feminism than I ever was in Portland. And incidentally, I have not had much time to garden, go fishing, or learn how to can food.

I worry about the anthropological attention to rural America. It has ranged from exaggerated or even fake “Trump country” exposés, to well-intentioned but out-of-touch efforts to mend the “urban-rural divide,” to patronizing television contests in which viewers vote for the “best small town” in their state.

My guess? If the NYT bothers to follow up in about five years, they will discover that Michelle and her family have decamped for Minneapolis, Portland, or some other larger city, having discovered the rurals had little use for her arts projects and similar activities.

I grew up in a small farming town in Missouri. The kind of place where they rolled up the side walks at eight o’clock and most people were in bed by 10—the night owls stayed up long enough for the late news and Johnny Carson’s monologue on the Tonight Show. It was early-to-bed and early-to-rise because most of the residents worked hard; on the farm, in local factories, or running their own businesses.

By Michelle’s standards, they were probably uncultured and even uncouth, but they build a better life for themselves and their kids, giving them the opportunity to run off to the big city and build a career working for non-profits on projects that, in the larger scheme, don’t amount to a hill of beans.

I don’t make it back to my hometown much anymore. My parents are gone and my brother lives in California. I have a few friends from high school who decided to stay (for whatever reason), and they’ve watched the town slowly fade away. The factories are gone; Wal-Mart closed a couple of years ago and legalized gambling wasn’t the panacea everyone thought it would be (what a surprise). Many of the people who stuck it out no drive 20 or 30 miles (one way) for a decent job. Many have just gone on the dole (perhaps the only growth industry in the area).

Not sure if any Michelles have returned to my little town, but if they did, I’m sure they didn’t stay. Once the grant from the NEA or the NEH ran out, there was no incentive to stick around and do the real work needed to rebuild. Organic peach farming isn’t really an option in an economy built around cotton, wheat and soybeans.

What’s stopping them?

The commute. Most high-pay and tech jobs are still in or near the cities. If you want to buy a single family home with an actual yard, you either have to pay through the nose or be willing to drive 45+ minutes.

It’s mainly jobs.

Capital needs a minimum concentration to be profitable and which is why most factories don’t locate to easier access in the rural areas near the interstates. It’s getting there slowly, but the payback isn’t enough of an incentive for most to do it wholesale. Companies also need a larger labor pool then can usually be provided by a small town to remain cost competitive.

Without the jobs the younger generation doesn’t have opportunity and has to seek elsewhere. It’s what happened to me. First the Navy and then had to find a job to support the family.

My dream is to earn enough money to buy a small company in the city and relocate at least part of the operation to my home town. If something doesn’t happen soon it could well disappear within just 2 generations. I came close last year to leveraging my 401k/IRA to do just that, but wife and I decided the risk was too much with the kids still in college. I look back now and realize I made a mistake not going all in...ah well...

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