Summer Waning Strawberry Moon
I found this on the Minnesota Conservation website. It is the last of five questions asked of John Camp, aka, John Sandford. It’s hard for me to get a grasp of what people think of Minnesota since I imagine, and I think Sandford confirms, people often don’t realize we exist.
When you travel to promote books, what do people ask you or tell you (if anything) about their perceptions of Minnesota, its climate, and/or its natural resources?
Mostly people ask why I live there, when it’s so cold. The perception of Minnesota involves climate and a kind of backwoods fishing culture. There’s also a perception that we have good cultural facilities, probably because of the constant banging of the drum for the Guthrie. But that’s about it.
When I talk about it, people are really curious about why anyone would choose to live there. I tell them that we live much better than the average person in California or New York City — that we have much nicer houses for the prices we pay, etc., but they really don’t pay much attention. I’ve told them that I live in a house that if it had the same conditions (size, view, water, dock) would cost $10 million in California, but I bought it for about $400,000…but they really sort of don’t believe it. For a lot of them, I think, the Upper Midwest is a kind of blank spot on the map.
