The Radiator Springs Effect

How newcomers can find community and integrate into small-town life.

At the beginning of Pixar’s 2006 movie Cars, cocky race car Lightning McQueen is in transport to a tie-breaker race in California. Lost on the way, he winds up stranded, and impounded, in Radiator Springs — a forgotten, bypassed town lost in the dusty stretches of the Arizonan desert.

He hates it there.

During the course of the movie, however, McQueen’s attitude changes, and by the end, he leaves his fast-paced life in Metro America to live among his new friends in Radiator Springs.

As many in our region know, this sort of thing happens all the time in real life. Many come here as visitors and are first enraptured by the raw beauty of the land. But later, like McQueen, they move in because they fall in love with those living here. I’ll call this the Radiator Springs Effect.

Many people in the world are starving for that sense of community and friendship that can only be found in small towns like Radiator Springs. In McQueen’s experience, finding that turned out to be ideal. But some who have moved here have been disappointed — describing the people here as “cold” and “uninviting.”

My family and I moved to Escalante four years ago. And I can attest that the people here are not cold. In fact in our experience, they rolled out the red carpet for us.

I wanted to know what makes the difference for some people: why some newcomers feel embraced, while others feel rejected. No, it isn’t religion, and it isn’t politics. So as a new person, how do you integrate? 

Here’s the bottom line: it’s not up to the community, it’s up to you.

It is up to you to say hello. It is up to you to be respectful. And it is up to you to serve. If you do this, you will be met with reciprocation at every level.

So if you are new here along the Byway, welcome! If you are here because you are seeking community and friendship, and if you love and care about people, this list of suggestions is for you.

If you don’t care about people and prefer basking buck-naked atop an Entrada hoodoo, that’s ok too, but this article won’t be helpful.

Say Hello

As an introvert I could have done well enough without people in my life. Except I found being with people to be a true pleasure — and loving them, the greatest joy in life. 

Say hello to people. Don’t wait for them to do it — they’re probably just as introverted as you.

When you lived in the city you could get in and out of the convenience store in less than two minutes without saying a word to anybody. Not here.

Don’t be alarmed when you walk out to find the sun in a different position and your sub sandwich spoiled in its own bag. It’s worth the cost because you’ll have friends!

Just show up. Merely being present and talking to people speaks volumes about your intent to integrate. We can’t see you if you stay home, and we can’t build a relationship if you prefer to be alone.

Be Respectful

When in Rome…

Respect and friendliness are rooted in love. 

Too often, people move here without experiencing the true Radiator Springs Effect — they only saw the pretty desert, and not the good people. They haven’t actually fallen in love. In fact they may have some level of disdain for “the locals” like McQueen had.

Preach not! Instead, ask questions and learn.

Listen, not necessarily to be changed or persuaded yourself, but rather to understand your new neighbors. You may find our religiosity startling and our politics disagreeable. If that’s the case, keep yours to yourself for now: just keep asking questions, earning locals’ trust that you can handle civil discourse. You will have a chance to share your beliefs in not too long.

Many wanderlust twenty-somethings love to travel the world to taste new foods and new cultures. In third-world countries, they immerse themselves into the culture for a time — just to understand it.

Here however, visitors and newcomers typically don’t treat our culture with such deference. Because of this, you may find some old-timers distrustful at first. Show them you care, and be patient as they get to know you.

Everyone is different, and newcomers are diverse. But locals aren’t asking for homogeneity. They’re asking for harmony. 

Adopt the local culture. Use proper place names, and adopt local language when you hear it. When you hear someone lives under “the Dump” (Tropic), or someone is “down on the desert” (Hole-in-the-Rock), or that she’s going “Down-county” (toward Hanksville), try saying it that way too.

Escalante has a built-in indicator on whether someone has properly integrated into local culture: it’s how they say the town’s name. Some newcomers tell us we say it wrong, but this isn’t helpful.

One woman who has lived here eight years once told me, “I call it Esca-lawn-tay just to make people mad.” We don’t typically correct peoples’ pronunciation, but I recommend trading discord for harmony in your attitude.

Serve, Serve, Serve

The most important way to find belonging in our small towns is to roll up your sleeves and get to work. The people living here are already familiar with this concept, and our conservative, responsibility mindset permeates our culture and local governments. 

This comes as a surprise to some newcomers who typically come from larger cities offering far more services. These people frequently show up to city council meetings to complain — but they need to remember they moved here voluntarily!

In finding service opportunities, here are three of the best places to get involved in our small communities: church, school and civic. Why these three? Because that’s where everyone else is serving, and you can serve alongside them.

The most important is church — and specifically, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because it is the predominant religion and where most of the work gets done — by virtue of its sheer size. You may not be a believer, but you want to integrate, right? Show up and serve.

Outside church school is another great place to serve. You may not like kids (bummer for you) or you may not have kids, but it’s such an important element in our small towns that you can’t ignore this as a fantastic way to get involved.

Third, you can get involved in civic service. Show up to town meetings and county meetings.

Don’t come to complain. Instead, come to offer your service. Some of our most liberal friends bristle at this concept and are continually frustrated our governments aren’t doing more! These people should remember John F. Kennedy’s inaugural advice: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” 

And thus it is for our churches, schools, towns and counties. Show up to city council meeting, tell them you think Main Street is a mess, and then offer to organize a volunteer group to clean it up. It’s not the government’s job to do this: if you want it, then it’s up to you to make it happen.

You will find great joy in serving. And you will also find great friendships, and strong community. 

You may say that you are not that kind of person to show up to church or to a school volleyball game. But really, why don’t you just show up?

You don’t have to be a believer. You don’t have to be a sports enthusiast. Just show up to make friends, and get to work! The doors are wide open at both places: do not shut the door on either and then complain about the lack of community.

Ok, maybe you’re not a church person or a school person and you feel going there isn’t worth the friends you’ll make there. But remember with that attitude, you are the one walking away.

Conclusion

I said in the first part that newcomers are totally responsible for making friends and finding community. But the secret is that the “locals” also are 100% responsible to be good hosts. Maybe more on this another day, but the most fundamental principle here for both sides, is to show love and caring.

Our region sees an enormous number of visitors who love coming here.

But I am surprised, still, at the number of people who chose to move here 10, 15 or 20 years ago and still have not been able to integrate. They’re still here for the slot canyons or the hoodoos.

In a sense, they are still just tourists because they have not yet discovered our true value.

This region has so much more to offer than vistas, outstanding as they are. You can also find friendship and community. The people here are loving and inviting, and if you are willing to explore that aspect of this area, you too can experience the Radiator Springs Effect, and enjoy the fullest of the good life we have here.

– by AJ Martel

Feature image caption: Lightning McQeen gets “help” from his new rural friends in a battle against hiccups. They really are just trying to help! Courtesy Tales from Radiator Springs, Pixar/Disney, 2013.

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Read more from AJ Martel in Write or be Written About.