NOTES FROM THE VAGABOND JOURNAL A VISIT TO RUGBY, NORTH DAKOTA JANUARY 20, 2003 CONT'D - (16)

This is where it started: my first visit to the first community: Rugby, North Dakota, January, 2003. Why does one go to Rugby in January, you ask? If you want to see what a town is made of, you have to see it in the tough season, as well as the sweet, and January in Rugby is the tough season.

Earlier in the day yesterday,

I'd gone into downtown Rugby to get some supplies. I walked around the streets for awhile. And while the temperatures had moderated considerably, it was still cold enough I didn't want to walk for long, but drove the length and breadth of Rugby to get a sense of how it lays upon the land. You have to admit this is a community made by the railroad, the way a river town is made by the river. Here the tracks run right through the heart of downtown. Back when Rugby was founded, the railroad had the power to create communities like Rugby, the power to determine which settlements thrived and which died.

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At breakfast yesterday, I sat at the Cornerstone Cafe lost in my own thoughts. I was pulled back into the room with suddenness when I heard an old fellow behind me say: "And that's what you had to do when you had no money." I'm sorry I'd missed what he'd said before that - these Rugby people tell a good story.

Later, I heard a woman say: "I don't feel sorry for them. They don't feel sorry for me either."

And this exchange. One woman said: "I want to tell them 'we love you, we just don't want to talk to you;'" another responded: "My children were strange too."

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I stopped to see Matt Mullahly at the newspaper this morning, then spent an hour and fifteen minutes at the library. I went to the Lions' Club meeting at noon as the guest of Lila Brossart of KZZJ Radio. Lila is the only woman in North Dakota who is sole owner of a radio station, and I'll want to do an interview with her on a future visit.

On my way downtown this morning I stopped to see Don Sobolik to thank him for all his help. He is back at work and feeling better. I also stopped at Pamida and bought $20 worth of 90-minute tapes (14 tapes), as I seem to be running out. I don't know why?

To be continued....