South Dakota, my home

The Spirit of South Dakota; The National Park Series; Randy Petersen, composer

CBS News used to have a feature called “Eye On America”. The local CBS affiliate in South Dakota, KELO in Sioux Falls, did their own take on the large media conglomerate’s nightly five-minute commentary that they called “Eye On KELO-land”. I was featured once on “Eye On KELO-land” after my acceptance into “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band”. As I recall, they did a really nice job.

Some time in the mid-1990’s, I watched an “Eye On KELO-land” segment that took place in Ree Heights, South Dakota. I don’t remember the subject of the larger story, but I do recall that they focused for a while on business at the local grain elevator. Now and then, transactions necessitated the use of a FAX machine. When such occurrences required them to plug the machine in, they had to sweep the town with the message, “Don’t use your phones for the next twenty minutes.” The telephone lines in this town, and in most small towns in the rural upper Midwest, were, as I used to say, steeped in antiquity. The phone lines weren’t designed to do anything more than carry the sound of the human voice. Subsequently, it took them ten minutes to receive each page during a FAX transmission. If somebody, anywhere in town, talked on the phone during this time, the FAX process would take longer.

I don’t know if the problem has been solved. I doubt it. The real solution, it seems to me in my limited far-sightedness abilities, would require the laying down of hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable in order to provide Americans that live in low population density areas with an efficient method of using communication devices. And, by the time they’re done with this expensive process, who knows if this will still be the way that we electronically and digitally interact? Perhaps we will have learned to read minds!

What I remember most from the news piece, however, is that the South Dakotans who had to do business this way didn’t do any complaining. They acknowledged the inefficient way of accomplishing something fantastic; the notion of receiving a copy of something from over a thousand miles away in mere minutes – wow!! The end result was impeccable. But they had to jump through a bunch of hoops to do it.

The perception of the average South Dakotan as a Neanderthal unwilling to part with his string and coffee can telephone, bear skin and bat-shaped hunting club doesn’t hold water. South Dakotans don’t live where they live in order to stay away from progress and technology. The problem lies in the ability, or lack thereof, for progress and technology to come to them. Americans in South Dakota, North Dakota or any other state that suffers from an undeserved backwoods, clodhopper reputation are, in all actuality, just as willing to shake hands with their American brothers and sisters in Florida and New Mexico as Americans in any other part of the country, whether in the form of an actual easy and friendly handshake or a warm, affectionate e-mail.

Then why would anyone want to live there?

Anybody who asks that question has never put themselves in the sights of that type of query. We all have our needs and priorities. Some people have to live where it’s affordable. Some have to live where they can get work. Some people have to live where they work. Some people need to be surrounded by people. Some people need to live where it’s beautiful. And, if that’s the case, well, as they say, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. So some need to live near mountains. Some need to live near the ocean. Some need only a twenty-foot by thirty-foot back yard. But some people need a five thousand square foot back yard.

Credits: To the people of South Dakota. You have a nice home.