Back in school, I’m sure that you
learned of the concept of a “melting pot”, a place where people
of all different locations and backgrounds come together. The U.S.
as a whole has been described as a giant “melting pot”, while
various cities within the country have the same designation. Can I
put forward a concept along those lines? Here goes--
Marquette is the melting pot of the
U.P.
After you stop laughing, I want you to
think about it for a bit. I based my conclusion on callers I get
when I do “What’s Up, U.P.” every afternoon. Very often, the
winners come from Marquette, while the questions have something to do
with Upper Michigan communities other than Marquette. And when I ask
the caller how they know the answer, more often than not they reply
“I grew up there” or “I’m from there” or “my grandparents
lived there”.
And when you think about it, that’s
not much of a surprise. I mean, how many Upper Michigan high school
graduates come to Marquette to go to Northern? How many Upper
Michigan residents come to Marquette to work in medicine or education
or the arts? How many Upper Michigan residents come to Marquette to
be closer to other family members? Heck, how many people move to
Marquette just so they don’t have to drive very far to shop?
Okay, maybe I’m being a bit facetious
with that last one, but I don’t think I’m that far off the mark.
Marquette seems to be one of those places that has a highly fluid
population; people are moving in and out all the time. And it seems
like those people are coming from (or leaving to) other locations in
the U.P. Think about it--in my case, in just the last 24 hours, I’ve
talked with people born in Calumet, Carlshend, Escanaba, and Munising
who now live in Marquette. And those are just the people I KNOW. I
can just imagine the others with whom I’ve spoken who were born in
Ontonagon or Kingsford or, say, Traunik.
And that is in NO way a bad thing. At
a time when people young and old are leaving the state of Michigan,
it’s nice that there could potentially be a place close to home
where at least a few people feel they can find a future. If that
place is Marquette, well, we welcome you with open arms to our new
Yooper “melting pot”.
Amazing what you find out answering
contest questions on the air, huh?
No comments:
Post a Comment