Cultures Collide
A common battle between city and country
Rebecca Sprague
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Country or city, the Midwest has it all. $250,000 combines working the land, grazing cattle and rodeos, to groups of strangers socializing on the riverfront, packed streets and full shopping centers.
Country life is filled with the sounds of tractors, the roar of diesel pick up trucks and the occasional "moo" drifting through open land.
Chance Nolte, 22, is from Dayton, Iowa. Nolte and his family started trading, buying, and breeding cattle to produce quality-bucking bulls for rodeo events.
"We've been working since 1991 to get the best bloodlines and we've been putting on rodeos and stuff," Nolte said.
Nolte participates in calf roping, bull riding, trail riding and riding 4-wheelers in his free time. He has been bull riding since he was five starting out on sheep then riding calves and now 1,800 pound bucking bulls. Nolte describes Dayton as a small-farm-town of approximately 2,000 people where everyone knows each other and will help out neighbors when they need it the most.
"We had a tornado hit town real close to where I live and it basically wiped out half the town," Nolte said. "Everybody was out of the field and in town helping they had their tractors unhooked completely shut down harvest."
"All the small farmers are there whether they like the guy or not because one day it could be them," Nolte said.
Kyle Bumsted is an from Ute, Iowa, where he is building up his own herd of cattle. One difference he notices between country and city people is how they spend their money.
" A lot of my money comes in once a year, when I sell my calves and when I sell my grain," Bumsted said. "You've got to learn how to budget your expenses."
"You have to think out long term-you have to think one year two years three years five years," Bumsted said.
Whether it is bull riding every weekend, hunting, fishing, riding a horse, being on a 4-wheeler or just cruising the town in a pickup to be followed by a late night bonfire Nolte and Bumsted both agree that they would rather be outdoors.
Both Nolte and Bumsted also agree that farmers are often misconceived as being rich or that farming is easy. Nolte encountered kids from high school who stereotyped farmers as rich people who make their money off the government.
"Even the kids that that I went to school with go, 'farmers are nothing but rich, spoiled people, who get everything they want and they get it all from the government,'" Nolte said.
Shonte' Byrd is a student from St. Louis. Byrd described the differences of a bigger city like St. Louis to a much smaller college town as suffocating.
"Going shopping I have to go outside of the city," Byrd said. In St. Louis there are designated spots such as the riverfront which is a gravel strip along the Mississippi River where countless numbers of people gather to hang out and have fun together, many of whom don't even know each other.
"We just congregate over there by the riverfront and everybody turns the music on and has a good time," Byrd said.
St. Louis, like most major cities, has a diverse culture mindset. Some city people see the behavior and everyday actions that small town people take and to them it would seem to be common sense and unsafe.
"Its really shocking to me how people just leave their doors open, people leave their cars running I feel like they're being na've," Byrd said "They feel like because they are in a smaller town where everybody does know everybody that not a lot can happen."
So whether you just want to sell cattle for a living or work in a skyscraper the Midwest has plenty of places for any lifestyle.
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