Webblog

This website for HIST 431/631 is inactive. The materials in it are those for the fall 2007 offering. I expect to offer the course on campus again in fall 2008. Feel free to look around.

Every time I see a school bus drive by in my hometown of Perham, MN I wonder what it is like to drive on the Great Plains. What sparks my interest most is what the winter months are like for the drivers. I also wonder if they like their jobs or if they would rather do something else. I decided to interview Bill Bauck who is the manager of the busing company in Perham. I touched on a few subjects such as community life in Perham, his experiences with running the bus company, and driving in the winter months.

There are many tests that a person has to go through to become a bus driver. They have to pass a couple written tests, a driving test with a school bus, undergo an entry level drug test, and be subject to random drug tests throughout the time they’re involved with driving school buses. Many of the tests they have to take are given by the state and local government. They must also follow the discipline actions enforced by the school. From what Bill told me, these drivers take on a load of responsibility the moment they have one child step on the bus.

Bill has lived in Perham, MN his entire life; he lives just a ½ block from where his great great grandfather grew up. He discussed how the town has prospered since the time he was born. The streets in the main part of town used to be just like township roads; they weren’t asphalt and actually had ditches. He stayed in Perham because he became involved in the family business; running the bus company. He does dislike the town somewhat though because it’s small. His wife and he enjoy bigger cities, so to compensate for living in a small town; they travel to much bigger cities when on vacation. They have visited many cities in Europe and Finland which is where his wife is from. He did say however, that it has gotten easier to live here because the town has prospered so much. 50 years ago there weren’t many job opportunities for young people; girls could clerk in a story or work at the hospital and guys could work on their family farms. Because Perham is a desirable place for couples and families the community has had to adjust and there have become many new jobs available and that’s because the community is willing to accept new people. Having more and more families moving into the community has added more children to our school district. But on the downside, because families nowadays are much smaller we have seen a decline in enrolment. I wondered why people want to move to a smaller town and Bill said that out town has much more to offer than surrounding communities. For instance, we have a very nice community center that was founded through just donations which says a lot about the people who live in Perham. We also offer many lakes, a good school district, and a great community life. He said that the community is involved in many school events and participates in holiday seasons such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the summer holidays such as the 4th of July. I then went on to talk about what driving a school bus on the Great Plains was like. Bill said that he has been involved in the busing company for 58 years; he manages the family business and also drives buses although he has slowed that down over the years. He said that driving the bus isn’t relaxing; it’s a very stressful job because of all the responsibility. Young people don’t respect authority much any more and it’s hard to discipline them because there are many more rules dealing with the issue than there used to be. Another stressful fact is driving in the winter months. He used to have to wake up at 3:30 when there was expected bad weather to go and check the driving conditions, then call the superintendent to give his opinion of what they should do for school that day. Sometimes when the weather wasn’t bad enough to cancel school, Bill would get calls from one teacher yelling at him because she indicated the teachers couldn’t get out of their garages however, all the bus drivers were already at the station ready to go. He said that having to be the one to call in the road conditions was probably one of the most stressful parts of his job because he was constantly getting second guessed. Sometimes the superintendent would decide to keep school on but when the buses were out driving and called in some bad roads, they would decide to cancel school for the day. This was another stressful part of his job because all the kids that had been picked up had to be dropped off again. However, some of the parent of the younger children had already left for work, so Bill would have to contact the parents and inform them of the cancellation so that they could make other arrangements. He also mentioned another reason he doesn’t care for driving in the winter months is because of the darkness. When they leave early in the morning and it’s dark and there’s a lot of snow, it’s difficult to tell where you are. Sometimes you think that you’re on the road and have plenty of room but you’re actually about to go into the ditch.

Hearing all of this information made me realize how truly hard it is to perform well at a job like this. I never had any idea that bus drivers had to go through this much; I guess it was something I overlooked. Knowing that you’re in charge of so many children that get on and off of the bus everyday would make me so nervous; I would never want that kind of responsibility. I really learned a lot from this interview, not only about bus drivers but also about my community.

Bibliography:

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos242.htm
http://www.ladylike4.com/
I also contacted other bus drivers and the school to acquire back ground information.

Dances With Wolves begins with the star, Kevin Costner, playing Lt John Dunbar , a wounded Union soldier being told that his injured leg must be amputated. After starting off on what seems to be a suicidal ride on his horse, Kevin almost accidentally leads his troops to the battlefield where they obtain victory over the Confederates. Dunbar is rewarded with medical care and the choice for his next post for helping out the troops. He chooses one on the Western Frontier, upon reaching his new post he comes to realize the last two men that were at that post died, and he will be alone.
Dunbar has his horse and a wild wolf to keep him company. He later starts to organize his camp when he has his first encounter with the Lakota Sioux and they try to take his horse. In attempt to communicate with the Indians Dunbar in turn makes friends. He first enters the Indians camp after he saves a white woman who was adopted by the Sioux at a young age. She later becomes the translator for the two. After spending little time at his fort anymore and more time with the natives, and the white women with whom he begins to fall in love with, his fellow soldiers start to assume him a traitor and track him down.
Dances With Wolves shows the different views of the plains landscape, the damaging influences of white settlement against the beauty of the landscape, the battle between the white abuse of natural resources and the Sioux living within them. Also the extreme violence of war against the loving and family orientated Sioux.

The Searchers is a movie starring John Wayne as Ethan Edwards, a Civil War veteran that fought for the Confederacy living on his brother's land in Texas in 1868. Edwards is wandering, and people do not know what he has been since the end of the Civil War. While Edwards is out, the Comanche launch a raid that devastates him. His brother, sister- in-law are killed while his neices are gone and the farm house is burned to the ground. This is a major turning point in the whole story of the movie. This makes this movie turn from triumphant homecoming to a showdown. Edwards tracks the Comanche with help from his adopted nephew, Martin Pawley played by actor Jeffery Hunter. They continue to search until they find the the oldest niece dead, but not the youngest one. The youngest one is married to Scar, played by Henry Brandon, the leader of the Comanche. He has the same hatred for white people, as Edwards has for Indians. Edwards hatred switches from Scar to the youngest daughter. They are eventually found by the Texas Rangers.

This movie shows that racism is rampant for both cultures. This shows a common theme in American History. Indians and whites have a deep seeded distrust of each other. This is show in other movies like Thunderheart. I think that this is changing, but time will tell.

Based on the novel by Larry McMurtry Last Picture Show the film is set in a declining town in the early 1950's. It tells the story of two high-school seniors, Sonny and his friend Duane, who is upset over the closing of the towns theater due to the invasion of television. Due to the slow decline of the town there are few things to break the monotony, mostly sex and drinking. The boys mentor Sam the Lion gets through life by living in the past, most often by telling stories of events that happened years before. One of my favorite scenes, and the most poignant, were when Sam takes Sonny and his handicapped friend Billy, fishing at the "Tank" a small pond outside of town where according to Sonny there arent any fish but only turtles, to which Sam replies that is fine because he doesnt like anything about fish, he just fishes for the scenery.
This film reminded me alot of my home town. The townspeople seem to either be young people struggling to grow up, or old people struggling to stay young. Due to the fact their isnt much to do in town the most common distractions are the gossip about who seems to be cheating on their wife now or drinking. I thought it was ironic how some of the films that were played at the Royal Theater were some of the movies we were supposed to watch for this class because they tell the legends of Texas that in the film seem to be a era long past. The black and white filming of this movie and the constantly barren and windswept streets of the town depict the plains as Webb would have liked arid, level, and treeless and the fact that the town is barely alive and stagnant is a depressing look at alot of small towns in the plains that seems to tell me change and keep with the times or get blown away by the wind.

I just wanna say, I had a real good time in this class, it seems that this semester flew by too fast. I hope you all have a safe semester break and good luck on finals next week.


ttyl peace

Open Range starring Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner, is about two free grazers, Boss (Duvall) and Charlie (Costner). It begins with Boss and Charlie moving a herd along with their hired hands, Button and Moses. They take their cattle, and graze them on the open prairie, and then once a place is grazed off, move on to another place, and eventually sell the fat cows. Moses is sent into town, and runs into trouble with the local cattle baron, who loathes free grazers. Boss and Charlie go and rescue him, but then the cattle baron (Baxter) sends men out to kill them and scatter the herd. Moses is killed, and Button is severely wounded. Boss and Charlie take Button to the town doctor, and then they settle down to take justice into their own hands on Baxter and his men, who are going to come after them for defying Baxter. Boss and Charlie settle in for a gunfight, and Charlie happens to fall for the doctor's sister. The next day the gunfight shapes up, and Boss and Charlie clean house with Baxter and his men. The movie ends with Charlie proposing to the doctor's sister, and she accept. Then Boss, Charlie, and the recovered Button set out to sell their cattle and return to the town to settle down.

This movie shows a lot of good scenes of the country, and the town seems to be pretty authentic to a plains town. One of the best thing it tells about the plains is that the men who live there must be willing to defend themselves and their property against bullies like Baxter, or they will lose everything.

Corner gas is a television show based in a fictional Canadian town called Dog River. Things in Dog River are often slow and uneventful and the townsfolk like it that way. In the first few episodes one of the main plots is the new owner of Ruby's Cafe, Lacey, trying to run things a little different than the townsfolk are used to and meeting some hostility. Brett, the main character and the owner of the gas station is the main character who tries to keep life simple but is usually the character who ends up going through to most trouble. His interest in Lacey drives him to do alot of things he normally wouldn't even try such as babysitting to try and impress a girl. Most of the plot lines follow along the lines of odd and everyday things such as the signs in the bathrooms in the gas station and getting a new cell phone.
I Can see why this show is called the Seinfeld of Canada. Seinfeld prided itself on being a show about nothing and Corner Gas follows along these same lines. Much like alot of the small towns in North Dakota, and on the plains as a whole, the townsfolk like things the tradition way they are and when those things change for whatever reason they are usually met with confusion and often hostility. I cant speak for every town on the plains but being from a small town i have witness this hostility myself many times. My town often prides itself on trying to be open to businesses and opportunities but whenever anything new comes to town it is usually met with alot of scepticism and more that a fair share of hostility that makes it tough for new businesses whcih in my opinion is partly to blame why the population of our town is slowly declining. In my opinion a small town needs to be open to change in order to survive and im not sure Dog River would survive for long in the real world.

Lecture ten was about politics on the plains. Being I tend not to follow politics much, I got to be honest this was my least favorite of the lessons. Political ties on the plains have always been mainly republican excluding Oklahoma. On the political map these state every year are displayed as red states, possibly the only states in the nation that are actually close to deserving that title. Plains politics have always been slightly weird, I will explain of course. On the plains we typically send the republicans to our state offices, but for some reason year after year we send democrats to the senate. While other regions have had their political trends described by scholars the plains have not been able to do that like other areas. Sure one man is currently trying to make an attempt however lets just say that things are not looking hopeful. It was a short lesson but more interesting than I thought it would have been.

By: Justin Nygaard

Capote is about the cold blooded murders that took place in 1959. These murders happened in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas. Two men entered a small farm house in a effort to get ten thousand dollars. They did not want to get any evidence of their crime so they kill the whole family. Truman Capote learns about these murders when he was writing for the New York Times. He went to this small town to write an article on these murders, but the more he discovers, the more he wants to know. He figures out that this could be the foundation for a great novel. After the two murders are captured, Capote schedules several interviews with these two men. He befriends both of the murderers, but starts to develop a relationship with one of the murders, Perry Smith. Capote starts to help these two individuals, by getting them a new lawyer. Capote soon realizes that he needs these two men to die before his book can be finished. He starts to feel very drained by this whole thing because he wants to finish his book, but he has strong feelings for the men as well. Towards the end of the movie, Capote is even reluctant to tell Smith the name of his book, In Cold Blood, because he doesn't want him to feel bad. The two men are finally executed in 1965. Capote was present at the execution and is finally able to finish his book. It was a huge success and Capote never wrote any more books again.