Three C’s: Colleges, Cereal and Contentment
Last weekend, my younger brother graduated from Carleton College, with a B.A. in economics. Since I missed his high school graduation, I really wanted to see him graduate from college and hang out in a community I haven’t spent much time in at all, even though half of my family has lived there at some point.
What’s this community? Northfield, MN, population 17,000. Seriously. To put it in perspective… that’s just north of the number of faculty (2,500) and staff (14,000) for the University of Texas, Austin.
Northfield’s got a few cool things going on for it:
1. Colleges: Home to St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges, Northfield seems to have a pretty good relationship with the colleges, academics, and parents that come visit. The picture above was taken from Division Street, the main street in town. Both colleges have programs that help students get active in the local community. One of my brothers worked on a project coordinating joint St. Olaf & Carleton volunteer/outreach efforts. Both schools are small liberal arts colleges and very well regarded - St. Olaf is a USNWR Top 50 National Liberal Arts College & Carleton is a Top 10.
Carleton even has an arboretum!
2. Cereal: Have you ever heard of Malt-O-Meal? Malt-O-Meal is a major employer/driver of the Northfield economy and they sell cereal in plastic bags for less money on a by-weight comparison to Post, General Mills, and others. I drove by the factory on the way to St. Olaf, and it smelled delicious. It reminded me of being a little girl and triggered a milk craving.
3. Contentment: People in Northfield are apparently happy. I don’t blame them. I’d be pretty happy too, if nice grandmotherly-types gave me flowers for driving by. Oh wait! They did! 
Seriously. I was running errands, and these nice ladies gave me some potted peonies that now sit on my mom’s balcony. I gave them a hug when they wouldn’t take money.
Other random awesomeness from my trip:
To address my sociological tendencies, I also drove by Northfield’s public housing facilities. Interesting to note, they differed from other public housing facilities I’ve seen (Chester, PA & Columbia Heights, Washington, DC) in that these public housing facilities had yards with green grass instead of concrete.
Coffeeshops took cash or check. Even out of state checks. Also, wifi bandwidth was widely available and a large cup of coffee could be had for less than $2.00, including tax.
I had a great time - check out Northfield if you’re doing college visits throughout the midwest, like your coffee with plenty of bandwidth, and find yourself wondering what cereal smells like.
Or just check it out because you can or you want to.