[sense of place]
Killdeer Fire Department volunteers in front of Wetsch Bros. Red & White Store, 1939. Left to right: Lawrence Malmstad, Senster Anderson, Manley Malmstad, Arba Lawhead, Ed Oukrop, Earl David, Fire Chief Anton Wetsch Sr., Jack Jesty, Jim Olijnyk. (Photo courtesy of Dunn County Historical Society & Museum).
ENDANGERED SPECIES By Jennifer Strange
The produce aisle at Hinrich’s SuperValu—Killdeer’s rundown and overrun grocery store—is ripe for socializing. Today I’m visiting with Verna
Wolf, a sixtysomething transplant from Minnesota whose family tree is rooted in Bohemia. She moved here in 1967, the year I was born, and is one of a handful of people I’ve met on the Western Edge whom I would call a trusted friend. Both wise and naïve, Verna usually prefers to go along to get along—it’s called “North Dakota Nice”—but every once in a while she’ll say her mind about politics, about greed, about prejudice, about the paradox of despairing the oil industry while benefiting from its financial opportunities. Verna’s yellow V-neck flatters her blue eyes, and her short, gray-and-brown hair bobs with a fresh perm. She clutches a bag of spring greens, eagle-eyes its list of ingredients. “I’m trying a new recipe tonight—a salad with peaches and basil and walnuts,” she says. Satisfied with what she’s read, she puts the greens in her cart. “Not that Rodney will eat it; he just doesn’t like to eat at all.”
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