Walnut Grove

Few girls growing up in the 70's did not want to live in Walnut Grove. I wore my "Laura dress" at every opportunity. I walked around the house with my eyes closed pretending to be blind like Mary. I wanted to throw Nellie Oleson in the mud and beat all the boys at baseball. I wanted to carry my lunch to school in a pail and dance to Pa's fiddle. Monday nights at 7:00 were always set aside for my viewing pleasure.

Yesterday, I went on a day trip with the Deli-Subs to see where it all happened. I must admit I had a hard time reconciling the Walnut Grove in my head (which is, of course, actually in California and just a TV set) and the Walnut Grove where Laura Ingalls actually lived. And, Laura really doesn't look much like Melissa Gilbert. Who knew? In the end though, it was all very cool.

We left Hutchinson and drove past a whole lot of farm land. Then more farm land, and more, finally ending up in New Ulm. That's right. New Ulm is real.



Sadly there was no sign of Harry Connick Jr., but the weather was beautiful.



After more farmland, we arrived at a house near Sleepy Eye that had houses built in their backyard like those that the Ingalls' would have lived in. The owner works for The History Channel and they built the houses as part of a show they were doing. They had lots of hands on things for the kids to try.







We continued on from there, passing more farms, and arrived in Walnut Grove. It's still a very small town. We went to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum where they had a lot of things that belonged to the Ingalls family, as well as a lot of memorabilia from the TV show. We perused the displays, played with the period toys, then ate dinner from Nellie's Cafe at Plum Creek Park. (If ever you go there, I recommend trying the Walnut Grove Bar and Grill instead.)



After a full day of all things Laura, it was time to go home. We all left with a greater appreciation of pioneer life (and not having been born at a time when we had to live it), and of a girl who just wrote down her memories and unexpectedly became a part of the lives of so many.