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NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
October 28, 1999
Tom Isern, Professor of History
North Dakota State University
©1999 Plains Folk
"Heck of a way to spend your vacation," says Dennis, glancing my way before turning back to concentrate on piloting the semi alongside the lifter and tractor. A honk from Larry in the tractor cab signals him to pull ahead a bit farther, thus distributing the load of beets back in the trailer. A black-and-white-striped pole extending lance-like ahead of the tractor is Dennis's gauge for positioning himself in response.
"We're getting there now," says Dennis, meaning the trailer is about full. The tractor and lifter stop while the truck and trailer forge ahead toward the edge of the field, staying in low until the road because the field is soft. Now we're pulling onto the blacktop, shifting up, headed for Minn-Dak in Wahpeton with this load of sugar beets, and the 40-mph speed limit for trucks gives us time to talk during the 17-mile run.
Dennis, who grew up on a small farm in Minnesota, works year-round for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, and this interlude in the beet fields is, in fact, his vacation. The rest of the year he does inspection work, places highway signs and plows snow. Come October and the lift, he drives this truck for his cousin who contracts to haul beets. He's done this the past six years--"I was gonna do it one time," he says. His shift is 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. "The truck runs round the clock," he explains, "just stops to check the oil and for fuel."
If not for the lift, Dennis would be running today in the Twin Cities Marathon. Instead he's working another sort of marathon in the Red River Valley.
Drawing on my own experience in the wheat harvest, I'd say the beet lift is fundamentally different. Both situations involve long hours and a hard pace, but in the wheat harvest there is more social contact throughout--moments to chew the fat with other crew members in the field, slack time at the elevator, waiting time in the dewy morning hours.
This beet lift just goes on and on, and drivers are pretty much wedged behind the wheel throughout their shifts. Dennis has his lunch in a cooler behind the seat. Trucks return from the factory, or from the Tyler Piler just in time to swing in beside the lifter again. The talk over the radio is devoted entirely to the business of coordinating people and machines.
At least the temperature is right for the lift this year. The worst times are like three years ago, when the beets kept freezing in the box. A frozen load is a hazard for unloading because the beets stick together and then topple out in dangerous clumps. "You have to bump and shake them a little bit," Dennis says.
We're weighing in at the refinery, and Dennis has just a word or two with the cheery young woman in the scale house window. "This gal always has a joke," he points out. I see the yellow sheet taped to the window. It begins, "Viagra has a new candy bar out ..."
The wait at the piler is not long today. Dennis pulls in and awaits the gold arrow signaling him to raise the bed. The bouncing beets ride the towering piler to the highest hill in the valley, the piler distributing them across the crest of this new geological feature. At the exit, waiting for a ticket, Dennis checks the endgate.
Now we're making better time on the return trip. We're driving blacktop but gazing across the country. Clouds of dust are boiling up from gravel roads all around. We are in the middle of a landscape churning with activity, but we work mainly in isolation. There is plenty of coordination, not a lot of companionship.
Across the plains and throughout the calendars of its commodity cultures, work and life have their distinctive movements and tempos. Today the Red River Valley of the North is in the allegro.
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Source: Tom Isern (701) 231-8339
Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136
Click here to download a photo of Tom Isern suitable
for printing.
(isern.tif - 512KB b&w photo)
Click here to download a photo of Tom Isern suitable for printing.
(isern-h.tif - 426KB b&w photo)