Life Along the Mississippi, cont'd
©2013 Text & Photos by LeeZard
Saturday September 7 – Keokuk, Iowa-Caledonia,
Minnesota
With the exception of some high speed U.S.
Highway driving today, I will be mostly on county and state roads running
parallel to, but several miles away from, the Mississippi River. This is still
Iowa and, except for the occasional “corn fed” beef on the hoof, it is again
cornfield after cornfield, interrupted by the occasional cornfield. I still
prefer it to freeway/interstate driving.
As I near the Minnesota state line the straight
roads and cornfields begin to give way to more S-curves, hills, thick stands of
trees and then forest. The occasional farm always a presence as well.
Sunday September 8 – Caledonia, Minnesota-La
Crosse, Wisconsin
My plan for today doesn’t include a trip back
across the Mississippi River to La Crosse, WI but as I survey downtown
Caledonia, MN this morning it dawns on me that I’ve seen and written about too
many Caledonia’s; towns with populations of 1,500-2,500. Farms surround them;
many of which are doing well while the downtowns are deathly quiet with For
Rent signs in empty stores all along their main Streets. La Crosse here I come.
In this neck of the woods La Crosse is THE big
city with a 2012 population of 51,647. It has a long history, beginning with French
fur traders who traveled the Mississippi in the late 17th Century.
There is no formal written record of any visits to the area until Zebulon Pike
– yes, that Pike – explored this part
of the Mississippi under the American Flag in 1805. Pike wouldn't reach his Peak until 1806.
And, guess what! According to the Wisconsin
Historical Society, Pike actually named the location for a game he noticed the
natives playing. The sticks with which they were catching and tossing a small
ball resembled a bishop’s crozier or, in French, a La Crosse. The first White
settlement in 1841was a fur trading post. La Crosse became a city in 1856. The
city’s thriving Historic Downtown began to grow from that point in time.
My research shows La Crosse is one of those
places that weathered The Great Recession better than most. One reason is the
fact that the two largest employers are the Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center
and The Mayo Clinic Health System. The city also is home to three regional
colleges and universities. Several major corporations have their international
headquarters here as well, including:
- Trane, the air conditioning company now owned by Ingersoll Rand
- City Brewing Co., formally Heileman.
- Kwik Trip, regional gas and convenience stores (believe me, they are all over the midwest)
- Logistics Health, Inc., health care solutions for government and commercial customers.
Other indicators also show La Crosse’s
endurance. Home sales remain steady, running mostly between 600-700 over the
past five years although new home construction permits are half of their peak
49 in 2004.
In 2010 the Wisconsin Council on Children and
Families studied the recession’s impact on La Crosse County. While unemployment
was up, it was still nearly 4 percent below the national average. The loss of
jobs, ironically, meant a loss of health insurance in this health-care-centric
city.
Still, I hear some intriguing stories as I enjoy
a latte sitting outside of a small downtown espresso house (Only one Starbuck’s
shows up in my La Crosse search!). The most interesting tales come from two young
sisters headed for lunch at a nearby restaurant. They look like students and,
while there are some stories worth telling in this group, there are also so
many who hardly have a clue about the recession or its affects.
Twenty-two year old Kelsey is a recent college
grad who holds a part time job running an after school child care program. “It
took probably more than a year of relentless searching before I could find this
job,” she tells me.
Kelsey’s employer is a non-profit organization
and, while she runs an after-school program, the organization relies primarily
on federal grants for its funding and, “The day school education programs we
can offer are diminished. The purse strings are tighter, cuts in staff, cuts in
programs and cuts in benefits.”
“Luckily I don’t need many of those benefits right
now because I’m young enough where I can still mooch off my parents insurance
and, my husband recently left the military and he still has some benefits.”
“Still,” she continues, “my husband is a full
time student now and we are living pay check to pay check. It’s rough.”
“Do you have any kids?” I ask.
As she begins to answer, Kelsey looks up as if
the realization just strikes her. “No,” she starts slowly, “and I probably
couldn’t afford it if I wanted to.”
Younger sister Brook displays a savvy maturity
that belies her 19-years. “I’m still a full-time student,” she says, “and I am
working as a server in a restaurant to pay my entire way through. I even worked
my way through high school.”
“So,” I observe, “the recession began while you
were in high school; probably didn’t affect you.”
Brook spears me with laser eyes as if I just
fell off the turnip truck, “Are you kidding? It was almost impossible to find a
job. People much older who were losing their higher paying jobs were going down
to take the jobs that high school kids would normally take.”
“I didn’t work my entire freshman year (at Brigham Young University) because I
couldn’t find a job. I had to use my own savings to pay for school. I’m lucky;
most students paying their way through school didn’t have savings. I spent
probably $5,000 a semester.”
This determined young woman reminds me of
something I’m seeing all around the country; we are strong and resilient. As
The Great Recession continues to blow through The Real America, we will bend in the wind
but we will not break.
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