As a Minnesota native, I lived in adjacent WI for graduate school and adjacent SD for this launch pad to my meteoric career. Interestingly, these two neighbors couldn't be more different. WI is like MN generally, urban blue, rural red, lots of farms, high taxes. SD, however, is extremely red. Still is, check out their governor. The yuge motorcycle / drump rally still continues its superspreader ways. The one paralell: booze is so prevalent, it's everywhere. Both states. Everyone drinks. Every. One.
Example. Remember this was in early 90s. I'm in the break room of the signage company eating lunch with 5 or so others. Someone mentions the Clintons, as Bill was then el patron. One or more than launch into a vicious verbal on Hillary. Note at the time she wasn't nearly as high viz as the hubs. She was just a successful lawyer in her own right. Maybe that was the problem, not sure. But it was just open hostility, she's a dyke, she's insane, she's this, she's that. I realized then never mention anything that says I'm I blue voter, at least to strangers. Another example was the topic of seat belt & helmet laws. These were a government intrusion on our rights, yadda yadda. That's what it's like there, everywhere.
Anyhoots. $20k/yr doesn't go far, even with $150 rent. Still had student loans, fortunately not too much. So I did 2 things to make a bit more: I got a 2nd job, and I got gas / mileage credit for doing the Huron / Aberdeen circuit each week. 25 cents/mile meant another $75/week which I needed. But here's the weird story of how I got a 2nd job and what it was. After landing in town not knowing a single person, had plenty of free time, other than working all 3 shifts, 5 days a week. There's a community college branch there, a legit branch of a state school. So it occurred to me maybe I could teach a Psych class. I was qualified to teach that, at the undergrad level at least. So I cold call them, saying I'm in town, new M.S. in psych, etc.
They reply, 'we already have a psychology professor; our problem is we have nobody to teach statistics.' I shout, 'that's perfect!' and they fell out of their chair. I ring them out of the blue and they began clapping in glee. Or something. So I go there, interview, the fall semester is starting soon, they tell me giddyup get started on syllabus, pick a textbook, whatnot. And for that fall semester, every Monday eve, I had a 3-hour lecture. Every teach a class? Imagine prepping for a 3-hour lecture. The textbook I selected had a sense of humor. It opened with a quote from anon student 'if I had one day left to live, I would spend it in a statistics class as the day would seem so much longer.'
1st lecture they walk in petrified, about 15, as it turns out the prior prof was bad, nasty, something. the class was infamous. Those on the biz track had to take it, and pass with at least a C. Most of the 1st class was me telling them to not drop it, you'll survive. Just don't fall behind. In stats, if you fall behind, you're sunk. Most were my age or older, as it was an evening course. That day I gave them an assignment for next week, in addition to the reading: bring in newspaper headlines that misuse data. That went well, a good tiptoe into the fascinating use of data to lead astray (sometimes).
One of the students was a tall skinny guy who was dating the hot blonde who worked in the office. Somehow, I got to know her as friends, and she told me he said if he ever saw her out with another guy he would 'drag me out of the bar by my hair.' And other threatening stuff. He wasn't kidding with her. He was my student. Sweet jebus. The semester went well, I was pro, did my prep work, gave tests. Teaching intro stats is no picnic, some people pick it up quick, others struggle mightily. I recall teaching standard deviations, or trying to. I drew a big bell curve on the chalkboard with various cutoffs. About half got it, half didn't. I tried and tried. Finally, I walked to the back of the class with a big piece of chalk. I threw the chalk, hard, at the board. It exploded. Everyone jerked straight up. I then said, 'if I throw this chalk 100 times, it will hit inside this area 95 times.' Every single person started nodding and some out loud said 'aha!' Damn I'm good. But let's focus.
I made several friends whilst there, two named Dan. One was a team lead in the signage company. Razor sharp business mind. Very conservative views, but everyone in SD is like that. I hung out in his office passing time and we chatted politics, investing, whatnot.
The other Dan was also from MN, and he was a sales guy (actually the only sales guy) at the software startup. He was very fun, talkative, laughed a lot. Also like me, he liked to drink. A lot. Also like me, he liked the ladies. He was far more successful than I in this department, as he looked exactly like a young Liam Neeson. Quite the Dapper Dan, as it were. He & I would prowl the bars in what passes for nightlife there. He was an entertainer, for sure. Always drew a crowd. He was also the sort of guy who would chase after any girl I knew, no matter who they were. No boundaries. Not trustworthy. I should have told him to cool it, but I recall being so amused by it I didn't care.
There was a music store at the mall where I would peruse CDs. One visit the ee was spinning #1 Record by Big Star. I actually stopped in my tracks as I was so gobsmacked by this. We chatted fave bands & whatnot. We ran around for a few months actually. Anyone with a proper taste in music I dig, automatically. Personal rule.
One of her oddities was to go on long solo car trips, through the day & night. I never understood that, still don't. Aimless driving, wasting gas, sitting sedentary. Another was to eat 2lb bags of peanut M&Ms. The entire bag. Sidebar, her ma ran the local women's shelter for abuse victims. She invited me there once; said I was the only male she ever permitted on premises.
10 years later I was in a bar in downtown St. Paul, drinking & waiting for the Janes Addiction concert that eve. My date that night was someone so whacked out I could write an entire article about her. For example, during the Jane's show we hit on a joint being passed around. I wonder if it was laced as I got way twisted off it. We went out on concourse to get water or something and she went in ladies room. I got water and when walking back to get her I saw women coming out of there pointing and then a security guard went in there. I debated waiting there and thought screw it, I'm going back to the show. Endless drama with her. Maybe a full hour later she returned to her seat next to me. Later on, she broke my front door after I escorted her outside, then left a threatening vm to one of my female employees, for no reason whatsoever. I pre-emptively informed HR about it (they didn't care). She had a large tattoo of a scorpion on her lower back, which I viewed, um, frequently. A year later I heard she was hooking, then jailed for stealing a prescription pad and writing scripts. Jelly? Let's focus.
Anyhoots, back to the bar, and lo, there she was with a bloke. Went over, chatted, said hiya. Exchanged info. Must have called her as I went back to Watertown, 10 years later, talk about memory lane. Then, on a whim, I booked a cheap trip to Italy and she joined me. That trip also worthy of a separate article. It was Jan of '02, ergo soon after 911. A week in Rome, with flight & hotel, for $700. Unreal. Italy had just converted to the Euro and they were pissed. Change doesn't go over well there. Trip went well (e.g., toured the Vatican) but we did our own thing. She had a habit of sitting on the ground or stairs, wherever she went. Me being a dirt/germ freak was horrified by this. In Italy we were at an internet cafe and she sat on the floor next to me. Utterly filthy tourist internet cafe. Filthy floor. That was it for me. I split to Florence for a day to meet a stunner who lived in Milan, that I had met in a pub in Galway, Ireland during a bike trip a year or two prior. Touring Florence with a local is highly recommended. I bought 2 super nice pair of dress shoes there, she did the haggling for me. Stop me when this gets too exciting. When I told her I was splitting to Florence for the day, she let out a loud scream in the hotel room. I thought 'it's Italy' people scream, it's nbd.
Where were we? Oh yes: SD. So teaching all these classes, night & day, in a company town, I was pretty well known. When I'd go bar hopping people would point, not in a bad way. Folks got a kick out of my classes. I did odd, funny things. There was a time back then I was spinning the CD of Hole - Live Through This a bunch. I was teaching a mellow class one Friday eve, 2nd shift, in Huron, and I said to everyone: 'hey it's a nice sunset, let's go outside and I'll play you a ditty.' Sure as shit beats working, heads nodded, and the 10 or so followed me out to my car, where I had these moveable speakers on wires. Put them on my car roof, and played Miss World or something. We're in the middle of nowhere, SD, during a spectacular sunset, listening to music that Kurt Cobain secretly did the arrangements to (which is why it's so good). Anyhoots the point is, I was a pretty cool teacher. But let's focus.
So one of the plant's students back at home base saw me out in a bar one night, and literally ran up to me, where she stayed next to my side all night and into the morning back over the paint store. That went on for a few weeks. Once she was coming over, but didn't arrive til midnight or later. I was actually sleeping when she crawled into bed. I said 'so where you been?' and she started crying and said 'with (drinking buddy Dapper) Dan'...then said she loved me, was so sorry, yadda. I found all this quite amusing. She loved me? Strange way of showing it.
The other groupie I met on a smoke break at the plant. She was an Apostolic Lutheran. Not knowing what that was we chatted. Alcohol bad, nicotine ok (she was smoking), women didn't cut their hair, actually she looked & dressed like a hot Amish chick, if that's possible. We chatted periodically. She lived outside of town in some sort of compound. She had family in Mpls and I gave her a lift there at some point. We agreed to crash at my pop's place, which we did, and I drove her to where she needed to be the next day, then back to SD day after. We were strictly platonic, until that night. And a week later. She'd never even kissed a bloke. I've sometimes wondered if I'm going to hell for that one. But I was nice to her, always. So there's that.
There was an incident that made me quit the job. During my weekly triangle circuit to Huron & Aberdeen, I stayed at same hotel. I got into an arguement with the maid in Huron. I was having brekky or something outside, came back and 2 maids were in my room cleaning it. I said 'hey folks I need to take a shower, pack up and split.' One said something like 'no we're cleaning now; you need to wait.' I replied something like 'Get out. Now.' So they left. But I started talking about it in my classes on customer service or something. That was nbd. However, for some reason, I wrote & mailed a letter to the hotel manager, repeating what happened. Also nbd. However! In the letter I mentioned I was using the incident in my classes. Yeah, that last part. The hotel owner knew the owner of the manufacturing plants. Naturally. Small towns & CEOs. This I found out from my boss, the head of HR, who told me this was a mistake. Shit rolls downhill. She mentioned defamation, which is of course bullshit, but I decided this was a sign. I gave my 2-week notice. We met one last time for the exit interview, and no joke, she spent the entire 20 minutes talking about a book she was reading and how great it was. I may one day write a blurb about my experience with HR managers: untrained secretaries who hung around and got promoted. Nowadays it's different; HR is taken far more seriously, as it should be.
My very last class was in Aberdeen, it was me and 15 women. I recall that part vividly. I was a pro to the very end. Nobody knew I was leaving let alone my last day, in Aberdeen anyhoots. After that class I drove back to Watertown, stuffed my car with all I owned which, remained the same: small stereo, clothes, nothing else; and drove back to Mpls.
Just before I moved, my grad school prof, still friends to this day, rang me up and said he needed an assistant, back in Mpls. He split academia 2 yrs prior. Stayed there (NCS) for a few years, wrote about it earlier.
In a life reversal, now I can't stand big cities and much prefer, and live in, a small town. The smaller the better. That's what happens when you dislike people more and more. The fewer the better.