Winds of Change in a Small Town

The following was written by Lynn Loucks Newnam, who graduated from Plentywood (Montana) High School after I did. She posted it to Facebook, and since she doesn't have her own blog, I asked if she would allow me to repost it here to give it a potentially wider audience. Dave

Like so many others who were born in raised in Eastern Montana, my family homesteaded our farm over 100 years ago. My grandfather broke his first 40 acres walking behind a plow. He and my grandmother lived in a sod house that first winter in 1908. Over the years they raised 6 children on that piece of land. My father and all 3 of his brothers served when their country called and their sisters taught in schoolhouses in towns that no longer exist. The ghosts of that time still echo in the rotting timbers of the old barn, the rusted metal of an ancient thrasher and the worn dates on tombstones.

In the past few years, our governor has come to Eastern Montana twice to speak at high school graduations in dying towns that have one graduating student. These were communities that used to be bustling with church socials, community square dancing, and swelling with pride when their basketball teams won. Today, the governor shows up for one student? Why didn’t anyone show up when the price of wheat was $2.25 a bushel? Why didn’t anyone show up when farmers were auctioning off their land for pennies on the dollar? Where was our governor when those schools were graduating 20 to 30 students? Why show up for the requiem when you never bothered to show up to celebrate the life of rural Montana? A message of hope rings hollow in a rural community where people drive 40 miles to the nearest grocery store and 300 miles to the nearest trauma center.

I heard the governor speak to a group of high school students once. He said, “The future of Montana lies in Eastern Montana. We will not forget about you.” I guess that’s the problem with words. They are so easy to say, but so hard to mean. Teacher’s make $22,000/year starting pay in Eastern Montana, correctional officers make $15 an hour, and over 500 oil field workers have been laid off in the Williston Basin in the last 6 months. Most of these guys were locals – home owners and contributors to the local tax base. To add insult to injury our government just made it easier for these same oil companies to hire Mexicans with Mexican driver’s licenses to drive trucks and work on rigs here in the Williston Basin.

I too left the comforts of rural Montana for the excitement and lights of the big city. I moved to LA and I lived there for 15 years. I took a $30,000 pay cut to move home, but I’m home now. It saddens me that we our losing our rural culture, a way of life, and the opportunity to make a living and a future for our children.
We reminisce about the “old days.” My dad reminisces about buildings, businesses, post offices, schools and towns that just don’t exist anymore. I hope that my children and grandchildren we be able to experience the places I reminisce about and not just hear about them in stories.

George Bernard Shaw wrote, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Some philosophers think this statement suggests that turbulent change doesn’t affect reality on a deeper level…….I guess they’ve never seen a farmer covered in the day’s sweat and dust praying at sunset for rain.