Dear Editor
I have no argument with "It does not serve them right," but I might have a reason for the coffee row attitude pointed out therein. It's an attitude that has been created by, well, attitude!
Some coffee row sitters might have been victimized in the past, as was my mother, by those oil company landsmen who were trained to lie, intimidate and cheat landowners. Now those guys had attitude!
It's only a few months ago that a redneck type told me it doesn't matter if farmers live in heavy dust from oil traffic. Aside from the driving hazard, that dust is a health hazard to humans, livestock and wildlife. Crop yield is down along the dustier roads and the crops are hard to cut. And I repeat, those were that person's exact words. Attitude indeed.
I was told by a person in a certain trade that he had to move out of Boomtown because of the attitude of people who were making big money while still young. Although there should be nothing basically wrong with that, they had motor homes, speedboats, power toboggans, ATVs, all the usual ostentatiousness, and looked down on him because he didn't have those things (didn't want them) and made daily life unpleasant.
And speaking of ATVs, gangs of those owners think they are entitled to smash gates on the Manitou Lake Sandhill pasture and protected lands and rip and tear all over, ignoring large signs. Should a cattle grazer see them and confront them, he is often as not surrounded and threatened. Now that's an attitude guaranteed to create a reactionary attitude.
As for people working in the oil field not saying "serves them right" when there's hard times in agriculture, it's not a case of them being nice, it's indifference! If they don't have an agricultural background, they won't notice. Case in point, two or three times I've asked certain parties if they knew that three years ago, grain farmers couldn't move much, if any grain, for a year. There were no grain cars on the railroads that were carrying hundreds and hundreds of oil tankers. The reply was always that they didn't know about that.
I think I can easily slide into talking about an attitude that develops in boom times. It is the "who cares about you, there's plenty more where you come from" attitude or syndrome. This was really brought home to me more strongly than ever when last year there were so many good workers on this farm. They were prompt, honest, hardworking and skilled. It was so very fine indeed. Too often I've been dumped by the, "We'll be there Tuesday" types (it's always Tuesday). Tuesday has never come. These people never call, even though they're hung with phones, to say they can't come.
And as for leaving a message offering a job, forget it. If the person or company has on their phone, "Your call is important to us and we will get back to you,” I hang up. It should be, "Your call is important to us, if we consider you to be important." In fact, I've quit leaving messages for anyone.
Then there's the company where a receptionist is hired who can lie with a sweet voice. "He'll call you back." "He's away right now.” "He will be out your way next week.” Maybe Tuesday?
But the worst of all is the type who will say, "But you're way out in the boonies!"
Well, times will get worse before they get better, and people with that attitude shouldn't come looking for work in the "boonies.” The "boonies" don't need people with that attitude.
And as for the break-ins and vandalism in this area, I find it hard to understand the people who say, "Well, they're out of work." They are thieves and vandals whether they are working or not.
It's a far cry from the stories I was told about The Depression, when men thrown out of work would knock on farmhouse doors with, "Could I do some work for you for a meal?" Different times, different attitudes, in every walk of life.
Christine Pike
Waseca
