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Since I started writing these columns over six months ago, a consistent theme has emerged: Calls to our Mahoning Valley to grow in the virtues of hard work, personal responsibility, collaboration and creativity.
After months of writing on these subjects, I finally realized how I became so passionate about them.
I married a South Dakotan. Yes it is, indeed, a real state. The curious thing about being from South Dakota, in my perspective, is that no one believes it’s actually a state, or that people actually live there, until they meet someone who grew up there. At least, that was the case with me.
My wife grew up in a town of 700 people, more than an hour away from a Walmart or a McDonald’s. (So all of you with kids and grandkids who complain about this small town, well, let them know they have it good – we have a Target and a Chipotle and a Starbucks.)
Her father was a large animal veterinarian and owned his own practice; her mother worked in the practice.
I’ve come to realize that South Dakotans are really great people – the best byproduct of the American Dream. Their values, if adopted by our region, could transform us.
Here are just a few of the things I’ve learned from being married to a South Dakotan:
First, hard work. My wife is tough. When you’re raised out on the plains of America, surrounded by men and women who wake up at dawn and work 18-hour days with no guarantee that their labor will bear extravagant fruit, you quickly adopt a hard-working attitude.
Second, collaboration. People from agrarian communities have to rely on one another heavily if they are going to succeed. Families work the same land for generations, and so uncles and nieces and sons and sisters all work together toward the same goal. They rely on hard-working veterinarians (like my father-in-law), capable farmhands, and timely deliveries to keep their livelihoods working. When something goes wrong, it’s ”our fault.”
Contrast this with a view of our area, which is ex-industrial, where others are viewed with suspicion and quickly thrown under the bus when something goes wrong.
Third, personal responsibility. Even though they’ll say it’s ”our” fault, someone always takes personal responsibility. When a farmer has no crop at the harvest, or when his herd goes uncared for, at the end of the day, it’s no one’s fault but his. No blame games; no finger pointing; just more hard work.
Fourth, perseverance. If you ever want to see someone who works hard for a long time with no guarantee of success, drive west on Interstate 90 for 20 hours and stop when you see a house.
In a culture that increasingly teaches us that we can have what we want when we want it, South Dakotans have learned the secret of patience and perseverance, especially in the face of trial.
Remember, these are the descendants of men and women who loaded their family into a wagon and stopped when they found a tree. In October, an unusually early snowstorm struck the state, and wiped out thousands of cattle that were still out to pasture. You haven’t heard them complaining, and my father-in-law never once mentioned a government bailout. You just keep going.
Fifth, and finally, my South Dakotan wife has taught me how to drive in the snow, which became a highly valued skill in the course of this simply terrible winter. Don’t oversteer. Don’t brake too quickly. Out on the plains, they’re tough: My wife didn’t see a salted road until she was in college.
I noted earlier that South Dakotans are the best byproduct of the American Dream. These hard-working, persevering people are just what the American Dream sought to create. If we can capture these virtues in our work and life here in the Valley, we have the opportunity to gain what our forefathers wanted for us: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Tennant is a Warren resident. Email him at editorial@tribtoday.com.