Mary Beth Writes

4/29/2022

The Lakota call this land "mako sica" which translates into "badlands." They and many other wanderers and settlers named it this because it is so hard to travel through.

The first time I saw Badlands was July of 1962. I was in the middle of the backseat of our family’s boiling hot Pontiac and I was trying to see out the windows past my sister and brother. I remember how urgently I whined to my dad to pull over, pull over PUL-LEASE, so I could get out to touch and climb those crazy striped hills. He didn’t pull over. Dad was driving us to the Seattle World’s Fair and there were 1200 miles to go.

I remember the Space Needle and nothing else about the Fair. Which is about the way kids work, right? Move heaven and earth on their behalf and what they will remember that thing you didn’t do.

I think that’s when the Badlands became my Brigadoon - a rare and inconvenient place of magic and power.

In 1984 Len and I visited the Badlands and Black Hills. I loved it all though what I mostly remember are the spectacular naps I took with the car window open while Len and Brother the dog walked around and did actual things. I was four months pregnant so that’s how that went.

The next few times we visited the kids were 4 and 2. Then they were 7 and 12 and 14. Len and I visited in 2014 before we retired. Talking in the car on the way home is how I decided I had to quit my job that was making me so angry and frustrated. Speaking of the inconvenient power of some places.

Each time we hiked short and long hikes. Scrambled up hills. Slid down on the seat of our pants. Tried to walk up the log ladder at Notch Trail and lost my nerve. Camped one rainy night and caught a big cold. Camped with the kids once; I took the kids swimming in that campground’s cement block pool. They were cooled off in about 45 minutes and when we got back to our designated tenting spot, Len was still hammering pegs into the cement-like caliche.

We visited a soddie house that was a family home into the 1920’s. Watching dirt gently drift from the ceiling, listening to the rustle of mice in the walls, standing at the door to gaze out at that dry harsh moonscape where men and women lived their whole lives – that was the first place where I asked myself what people were leaving behind that made this a better choice. It’s where I first understood that American history is as much about what people were leaving as what they did when they got to their next place.

The sky at night is a holy thing. The heat on a hot day will bake your shoes. There are mountain sheep and coyotes and birds that cackle like demented old men in nursing homes. The setting sun turn the hills red, tawny, greenish gray, bluish grey, and those soft colors of cut peaches and apples.

We are leaving in a few days for the Badlands. We have an Airbnb reserved in a town with a population of 65. We have a friend who will spend a lot of time here with our cats and Len says I should mention that person is an ammo-strapped Marine.

So anyway, I was nine years old the first time I needed to get out of the car in the Badlands and I still do. 

Do you have a place that calls to you and you don’t know why?

 

 

Tags

Comments

Safe Trip!!!

The first and only time I visited The Badlands was by accident. My husband and I visited South Dakota in 2018 to fulfill a dream of mine to see the places in that state where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived as a girl and young woman. We were coming back from the Black Hills where we visited the town Carrie Ingalls lived after marrying and off to the side of the highway I noticed large cuts in the land that seemed deep and wide. I was intrigued as this East coast girl had never seen anything remotely similar to this. We saw signs for The Badlands and pulled off. Amazed, astounded, awestruck...all of the above. In addition to the strange and dramatic landscape, this was where I first saw a Prairie Dog, in fact, hundreds of them. We walked a few trails and drank in the beauty. We held hands and stood speechless looking down into a canyon. We drove and drove, not wanting to leave anytime soon. The National Parks were celebrating their birthday that day so we were also treated to cake and freshly squeezed lemonade at the visitors' center. I am so glad we pulled off the highway that day, a day I won't forget.
Mary Beth's picture

This is a wonderful comment! Exactly, there seems to be a cut off to the side of the road - and suddenly you are staring out over miles of canyons. Prairie Dogs - for several years I wrote a weekly newsletter which I called the Prairie Dog Quadrilateral. I do love small community members who watch out for each other. And did you go to DeSmet? We took the kids there. Laura Ingalls Wilder was our spirit animal when we were kids, right?

Yes, we did go to DeSmet, that being my primary destination. We took a tour of the Ingalls "town" house and their homestead. We also visited the cemetery where Ma, Pa and other family members are buried. I stood there and wept, not so much out of sorrow but gratefulness for the lessons of what a wonderful home and family life they were able to give their children and then impart them to me through Laura's words. It seemed like all hell was frequently breaking loose in the house I grew up in. I know the Ingalls family were poor but it seemed to me they were still able to provide a home where love and stability abounded. Ha ha...love that Laura was our spirit animal when we were kids! Absolutely!

Add new comment

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Y is for Yellowstone

9/27/2023

Back in February I asked you to give me topics to write about that would correspond to the alphabet. Sometimes several of you sent ideas for one letter and sometimes I wrote about all of them (I’s and S’s) Here we are at letter Y for which your suggestions are Yummy Food and Yawns. The word yawn absolutely makes me yawn; no way I could write about that - I would yawn for hours. I worked on Yummy Food but could only find a scolding voice about Americans eating too much sugar. Bah. True but not interesting.

So, I gave Y a go again. Y is for?

"I was Scott Simon's teller."

9/22/2023

First of all - Thank you to those of you who came to the Wisconsin Writers Association zoom gala last night. I HAD received an email a week ago which said I would be reading my whole story. Cutting it in half while I was reading was awkward! It was still a happy event for me and the other writers. Thanks for being there! 

X is for Xeriscape

9/20/2023

Xeriscape is pronounced ‘zeer-eh-scape’ and it means landscaping with little to no irrigated water. Readers in the west already know about this. Those of us who don’t live in arid or desert places need to wake up to the incredible resource that water is - then begin to accommodate ourselves to “water all around and beneath us all the time” is no longer our reality. Nor is it our right. We’ve got to get smarter and do better.

W is for Wonder

9/13/202

To whomever suggested Wonder - Thank You!  ‘Wonder’ has been bobbing in my mind like a frog in a pond.

However, I have FOUR suggestions from you guys for X - but I do not want to write four X essays. These are the suggestions:

1.) X signature substitution

2.) xylophone on a string pulled by a toddler

3.) xenophobia

4.) Xmas. 

If you have an opinion respond with the one you would like me to attempt. I will choose whichever X gets the most comments.

There will be no gerrymandering in this election.

GNTL - NAMI

9/7/2023

Grownups Noticing Their Lives

NAMI

Most of you know about my former weird and lovely job of coordinating an employability skills program for Huber-qualified inmates in the Racine County Jail (that’s a mouthful). Early on I realized that most of the people I would work with were people with 1.) huge addiction problems, and 2.) underlying and over-the-top and to-the-side just lying around mental health issues.

V is for Vocabulary

9/6/2023 

For those who are new here - This year I am writing about topics, in alphabetical order, that were suggested to me by readers. Sometimes this is hard! 

IRTNOG

My cousin-in-law Dave has some powerfully thorough avocations (for fun and profit he earned a PhD in biochemistry; you will notice this in his list). This year, among other pursuits, he has been collecting words which have appeared in our culture since 1945, which was the year he also appeared in our culture.

Tag Cloud

9/11 17 minutes 500 Words A-Z AARPtaxes AAUW abortion Acadia accident Accountable Advent aging Alaska anniversary antibiotics antlers apples appointments Arrows art Ashland August Augustine aunts baby Badlands balance Baldwin Barbara Barkskins Beauty Becky Becoming Esther Berry birthday bistro BLM Blue BookReport books boy scout Bread BrokenDays BuyAngry Cabeza de Vaca Cahokia calendars Canada canoe cat romance cats cello Chicago China Choosing Christmas cilantro Cinnabuns circus climate change clouds Clowns clutter Colonialism comet ComfortZone CommonSense community consumerism Cops Corvid-19 Courage Covid-19 Crazy creditreport creosote CrimeShows danger DarkRiver death Debate December DecisionFatigue decluttering democracy dentist depression Destination Today Detroit Didion disasterprep dogs dollhouse Dreams Duty Easter eBay Echoes Eclipse election EmilyDickinson eschatology Esquipulas exit polls eyes Fable FairTrade family farmer Fata Morgana ferns firealarm Fitness Five Flatbread Flexible flu Food Pantry Fort de Chartres frame Franc FrancGarcia friends frugal FrugalHacks Frugality frustration Ft.Ticonderoga fungi fusion Galena Gannets Garden GarfieldParkConservatory Gaspe genius geode GeorgeFloyd gerrymandering ghosts gifts girls GNTL gorgons goulash GovernorThompsonStatePark Graduation grandkids granola groceries Guatemala gum guns Hair happiness HaveYouEver? hawks healthcare Healthinsurance hearings heart heaven HelleKBerry heroes hike History home HomeRepair Honduras Hope HowCrowGotOutofJail humor hurricane Ice Cream idiosyncrasy igloos impeachment Innkeeper Instincts integrity InternetPrivacy Interview InviteMe2Speak James Baldwin Jan 6 Janus jewelry JoyceAndrews Judy JulianofNorwich Jump justice Karen kites ladder Lady Lamb LangstonHuges LaphamPeak laundry LeeLeeMcKnight lemming Len Light Lincoln Little Women LockedOut Loki loneliness LouisArmstrong Love Ludington Macaw macho Manitoulin MargaretFuller Maria Hamilton Marquette marriage Marsden Hartley masks Mayan MayaWorks meme Memories men Middlemarch MilesWallyDiego MindfulChickens Mistakes MLK moon Mother MothersDay mounds mouser movies museums must-haves Mustapha NAMI Nancy Drew Newfoundland New Mexico New York City Nomadland nope observation OBUUC Ocotillo OnaJudge ordinary OscarRomero osprey Outside oximeter Parade mayhem PastorBettyRendon Paul Hessert PDQ Penny persimmon photos Pi Pies pineapples poetry Preaching privacy procrastination Protest QE2 Quern quest Questions Rabbit holes racism reading recipe recipes recommendations Remember RepresentationMatters Reruns responsetoKapenga Retirement rhubarb Ricky rime RitesofPassage romance Rosemary Ruether Roses Roti Ruth SamaritanWoman Sanctuary Sandhillcranes Santuario de Chimayo SaraKurtz SaraRodriguez satellites ScottSimon sculpture Seasons Sermon ServantsoftheQuest sewing Shepherd Shontay ShortStory shoulder sick sickness Slower snow Social Security SofritoBandito solstice South Dakota SpaceShuttle spirituality spring square feet staining stars stele Stereotypes stories StoryStarts stream monitoring stress Survival swim Talent taxes teenager thankgsgiving Thanksgiving TheBridge TheMaid ThePerpetualYou therapy ThreeBillBoards Three Thing ThreeThings Three Things TidalBore TimeBeing toddler Tom tortillas Trains travel Traveler Tubing turtle Twilight Bark Tyrone Ukraine Ulysses Grant Umbrella UnrelatedObservations Up North urgency vacation vaccine Valentines vanilla Vietnam vision VivianWokeUpDrowning Vocabulary vole volunteer WalkingAndSeeing Wampanaog war WarsanShire weather weaving Webs wedding whines WhyAttendChurch Wiley Willa WillaCather Wisteria Won! Wonder words Xeriscape Yellowstone
Ad Promotion