Weekend in Grand Forks

Le Chateau coat (c/o) (similar)
H&M sweater (similar)
Sezane skirt (similar)
Acne Studios boots
APC bag
Calvin Klein gloves
RayBan sunglasses
Old Navy earrings (c/o Ivanhoe Cambridge) (similar)
Location: Kem Temple – Grand Forks, North Dakota

Late last November, we took an impulsive weekend trip to Grand Forks, North Dakota. I had vacation time to use, but our plans to visit somewhere more exciting, like Chicago, were thwarted by Ian’s work schedule. Grand Forks is just a little more than two hours away by car, even with the required US border crossing stop. It was our best, and only, option if we wanted one last holiday for the year.

I grew up taking weekend trips to Grand Forks. Ian did, too. The extreme proximity of the city to our respective hometowns makes it the easiest destination for a getaway, even in the unbearably cold winter months. Grand Forks offers all of the American things that Canadians find novel – an enormous Target, improbable flavours of our favourite junk foods and, well, part of me feels like I should come up with a third item to add to my list, but the truth is, that about sums it up.

The closer you get to anything – a person, a place, even a pair of shoes – the harder it is to see it clearly. We went to Grand Forks because we had always gone to Grand Forks, because it is close and convenient. It was one of the first cities that Ian and I travelled to together. It was the first place I holidayed without my parents to make bookings or supervise the trip. When we moved back to Winnipeg last year, we took for granted that we would visit again eventually. It’s what Winnipeggers do. What we didn’t realise was that, with ten years between our last visit and this one, that we would be seeing Grand Forks as strangers for the first time. And what a view it was…

North Dakota is a red state. I originally wrote that they elected a former WWF wrestler, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, as their governor. This is incorrect; it was Minnesota that elected governor Ventura. It was, however, North Dakota that allowed known Nazi-sympathizer Ralph Engelstad to finance a stadium for their University hockey team. (In the eighties, he hosted not one but two parties celebrating Adolf Hitler’s birthday.) Engelstad threatened to revoke his funding when UND attempted to change the name of their hockey team from the overtly racist Fighting Sioux to something more culturally sensitive. The issue of the hockey team’s nickname continued to be debated for a further ten years after Engelstad died. It was finally retired in 2012. But the so-called “Indian head” logo remains an icon of local culture.

In 2016, state residents voted en masse for Donald Trump. As of last month, half of North Dakota residents still approve of his presidential policies. It is worth noting that the state population is an overwhelming ninety percent white. The vast majority of that ninety percent is also Christian. Whether or not stores should be allowed to open before noon on Sundays remains a contentious issue in the state senate.

I knew all of this, before we booked our trip. But there is a difference between reading statistics and experiencing the reality they represent mathematically first hand. There are pockets of beauty in Grand Forks, particularly in the ageing and neglected downtown, whose architecture hints at, if not a prosperous past, then a past wherein the locals aspired to greater things. But mostly, the city is a dismal conglomeration of all that is worst about America – a barren countryside whose only landmarks are big box stores, strip malls and chain restaurants serving sweet, fatty but otherwise tasteless food. Despite omnipresent reminders of Jesus’ love, in the form of billboards and road signs, the place is somehow entirely devoid of soul.

After a lifetime of visits, I doubt we’ll go back again.