Here & Now

What It's Like for Kids to Live in Small-Town Wisconsin

Frederica Freyberg:

Now we turn to a reporting project funded in part by the Otto Bremer Trust, where we’ve been working to examine a mix of rural issues. As part of this project, we’ve gotten help from the students from the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Lab at Black River Falls High School. One of the issues we’ve been investigating is the population decline in Wisconsins rural counties. In this report, we caught up with five high school students in Jackson County and talked with them about what it’s like to be young and living in rural Wisconsin.

Nana:

This is the first year we get to pick our name.

Haylie Schmidt:

Yeah, this was —

Zac Schultz:

When Haylie Schmidt was growing up, softball was everything.

Nana:

She’s just so confident. I don’t know if that’s because of what we did or if just that’s the way she’s made.

Zac Schultz:

Winter in Black River Falls is long, so her nana’s basement doubled as a practice field. Just as her nana doubled as a coach.

Haylie Schmidt:

She showed me what it’s like to be, like, dedicated to something. I found that passion because of her.

Zac Schultz:

Haylies connection to Nana is more than just sports.

Haylie Schmidt:

When I was really young, I lived with my Nana and my papa because my mom and dad both were alcoholics and drug addicts. So I could not live there.

Zac Schultz:

When her mom stopped using substances, Haylie lived with her at Eau Claire and found the schools overwhelming.

Haylie Schmidt:

You pass people in the halls and you’re like, I don’t even know who you are.

Zac Schultz:

Around the time her mom started using drugs again, her dad was in recovery.

Haylie Schmidt:

After that, I moved back down here with my dad. He’s seven years sober now, eight this year.

Student:

Good morning, Tigers! It’s Thursday, February 3rd and we have a senate meeting this morning.

Zac Schultz:

There are only 500 kids in the whole high school.

Haylie Schmidt:

Now that Im in high school here, I would never wish to go anywhere bigger, because I pass everyone in the halls. I know everyone.

Zac Schultz:

The city of Black River Falls has about 3500 people, and Haylie says the familiarity is comforting.

Haylie Schmidt:

This town is so small that it’s almost like a big neighborhood, if that makes sense.

Paige Blackdeer:

I have not lived this far north before, and I don’t think Ive been this cold before.

Zac Schultz:

Paige Blackdeer moved to Black River Falls seven years ago from Arizona.

Paige Blackdeer:

Did you get natural log of 10 minus natural log of 9?

Zac Schultz:

Paige says making friends at school was easy but after living in a big city, there was no adjusting to small town life.

Paige Blackdeer:

I still don’t think Ive really got used to that, because I never fully committed to living in this town, because even though I technically live here, we go to Onalaska or like anywhere multiple times a week.

Zac Schultz:

She was surprised at how many students had never traveled, and how closed-minded people could be.

Paige Blackdeer:

Even if you’re not given the opportunity to go somewhere, no one is stopping you from learning. Like we have the internet, we have books. Nothing is stopping you except for your own mindset and beliefs.

Zac Schultz:

One of the reasons Paiges family moved to Black River Falls is her dad is Ho-Chunk and got a job with the nation. But she says there’s a disconnect with that part of her heritage.

Paige Blackdeer:

I fit in with who I want to fit in with but Ive never — like, Im not fully white but Im not fully Ho-Chunk either. I don’t fully partake in everything like a typical white person would but I also don’t take place in every like traditional Ho-Chunk thing.

Zac Schultz:

She’s managed to fit in, even if the fit is only temporary.

Paige Blackdeer:

Ive definitely warmed up to it. So I do like it here, but aside from that, Im ready to go.

Jacob Ward:

Pull! I don’t like the town. I don’t like towns.

Zac Schultz:

There’s no disconnect with Jacob Ward. He grew up country. And wouldn’t have it any other way.

Jacob Ward:

The air is different. Like I get out of my truck at school and the air is just different. I mean, out here, it’s just nice and breezy, where in town, you can smell stuff.

Zac Schultz:

Jacob couldn’t imagine not being able to shoot trap off the back deck. Or ride his snowmobile to school in winter.

Jacob Ward:

People in the city can’t really ride their snowmobile to school every day. Where when I have enough snow and I’m able to, I do.

Zac Schultz:

Jacob has no problem making friends with kids from the city.

Jacob Ward:

I have a lot of friends that live in town. I mean, we all get along the same. We all kind of have the same beliefs, all that type of stuff.

Zac Schultz:

He says white students and Ho-Chunk students get along fine.

Jacob Ward:

The natives, there’s the good and the bad obviously, just like everybody else. But they do a lot for the community.

Zac Schultz:

He doesn’t mind visiting big cities like Minneapolis and Chicago. Just don’t ask him to drive on the highways.

Jacob Ward:

Never again. Never again. There are too many people. Just too many things to worry about.

Lilli Wirtz:

I have always liked the idea of, like, a big city life.

Zac Schultz:

Lilli Wirtz is the youngest of four kids, and her older sister has shown her what awaits after graduation.

Lilli Wirtz:

She has always sent me videos of, like, her nice apartment and she’s got a view of the skyline. Im like, oh, that just seems so nice.

Zac Schultz:

In some way, Lilli defines who she is by what she’s not. For example, she’s not country.

Lilli Wirtz:

Country kids, you know, like camo, like orange jackets, like, you know, all that stuff, like hunting. Those are always the kids that lived in the country.

Zac Schultz:

But living in town doesn’t really make her a city kid.

Lilli Wirtz:

City, again city but, yeah, I guess.

Zac Schultz:

Instead of getting a job at Kwik Trip or Wal-Mart, she called the owner of a downtown coffee shop and asked if she could come in after school and bake.

Lilli Wirtz:

Usually I have like 2 1/2 hours just in the kitchen alone. I can put my music on, just do whatever I want, and that’s — yeah, that’s probably the best part for me.

Zac Schultz:

Creating your own path can be liberating in a small town. But an independent streak can lead to isolation.

Lilli Wirtz:

Someone go out already. I’m bored. It’s very difficult to come in as an outsider if you know that people just aren’t always going to be like, welcoming.

Zac Schultz:

But that doesn’t mean Lilli wishes she went to a bigger school.

Lilli Wirtz:

I never actually wish for more people. I just wish for different people, you know, because the number of students was never the issue, it’s just that sometimes I didn’t mesh with people there.

Reese Cowley:

I think Black River is definitely a closed-minded town and, like, if there’s someone different from you, it’s kind of hard for you to accept that.

Zac Schultz:

Reese Cowley thought he was well liked and accepted in Black River Falls. Then he came out as gay.

Reese Cowley:

A lot of people also have been, like, taught that that’s not okay since they were, like, little, and that’s when they’re like, oh, well, this is what my family taught me so Im not going to be nice to them, Im not going to accept them.

Zac Schultz:

Reese has been attacked, verbally and physically.

Reese Cowley:

Every time you go in the hallway, you get some sort of comment or just, like, people making fun of, like, me online.

Zac Schultz:

He knows if he lived in a larger city, he likely wouldn’t be the first openly gay male his classmates had met. But he is. So he’s showing everyone that he’s just like any other student, playing sports, joining clubs, and just being a kid.

Reese Cowley:

I kind of put myself out there, get involved in a lot of different things just so that Im not — I mean, I still am looked at as the gay kid but I try to make myself more than just that.

Zac Schultz:

It’s working.

Reese Cowley:

I gained so much more confidence. I really just kind of like stopped — for a while I just acted like I didn’t care but then I realized I really don’t care what other people think.

Zac Schultz:

Reese just finished his freshman year, so he has plenty of time to ponder his future. But he already knows it won’t be in Black River Falls.

Reese Cowley:

Definitely want to live in a big city for the rest of my life. I just think cities at nighttime, Im a night owl, I think they’re really pretty at night.

Zac Schultz:

Reese isn’t alone. Paige Blackdeer will be heading to UW-Madison in the fall.

Paige Blackdeer:

I kind of just always knew that I wasn’t going to stay here. Like, I just got my acceptance letter from Madison, going to go to Madison in the fall. And I don’t really plan on coming back, like, no hate to the town, but this is not where I want to be for the rest of my life.

Zac Schultz:

Lilli Wirtz wants to study science in college and doesn’t see how that can lead her back to Black River Falls.

Lilli Wirtz:

I think that there is not a ton of opportunity here. We have like a tech college but we don’t have like actual businesses that can, like, hone on specific skills.

Zac Schultz:

Even Jacob Ward is ready to explore a different part of the country.

Jacob Ward:

Can’t wait to get out of here, really. It gets — it’s a lot of fun and everything but I kind of want to move on. I’ve been in school for 12 years now and kind of want to get on with life, get working type of thing like that.

Zac Schultz:

Haylie Schmidt has had those conversations with classmates.

Haylie Schmidt:

There’s definitely a few kids where they’re like, Im bigger than this small town, Im going to go out of here and Im like, you do that because Im probably not.

Zac Schultz:

But she knows the city is not as welcoming as it may seem.

Haylie Schmidt:

There’s definitely kids that want that adventure, I would call it, and I honestly think it might be because they’ve never lived in a bigger city. Like, Ive lived there, Ive done it, Im over it. So Im not going do it again.

Lilli Wirtz:

If you want young people to be here, you’re clearly not doing what you need to.

Zac Schultz:

Lilli says if the locals want rural communities to grow and for everyone to feel welcome, they should listen to why the kids don’t come back.

Lilli Wirtz:

A lot of the adults that live here have lived here, like, a majority of their lives, and I think that’s telling because most of the kids coming out of here get away as fast as they can.

Zac Schultz:

Reporting from Black River Falls, Im Zac Schultz for “Here & Now.”

Frederica Freyberg:

Next week, Zac talks to young adults about why they decided to stay in Black River Falls, and what lessons we can learn from their experiences.