Culture? Heck, We Defined Culture In Wallace.

Growing up Wallace certainly had some complex moments, but overall, life was fairly simple, and we liked it that way. We lived by the code of live and let live, a philosophy that is lacking so much in many parts of the nation. In school, the children of muckers were friends with the children of mining company presidents, doctors, lawyers, bankers, and bartenders. There was no class warfare because of social or monetary differences, at least in the schools. 

Over the years I have heard many comments from friends and even family members that it must have been really boring growing up in such a small town, and that we must have been culturally deprived. Heck, some seemed to have us placed culturally somewhere between the Beverly Hillbillies and the Flintstones. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. We had culture, and plenty of it! Wallace and the rest of the Valley had several very fine piano teachers, a fabulous ballet studio, a program called Showcase of the Arts, civic theater groups, and a plethora of the finest teachers in School District 393. 

Culture is definitely one of those subjective things, and Wallace also had a very distinct culture outside of ballet, theater, music and education. It was a mining culture that entailed very hard back breaking work, and a very hard corresponding play time. Unless one was born and raised there, one cannot fully comprehend it. It was the culture of Wallace. We had our own code, our own way of doing things, and our own way of just being. 

It was the ultimate simplicity blanketed in a complex web of tradition.