Join me for a little lunch. Or something. Sometimes.
The truth is out there about the jar of pickles on the side of the road near Des Peres, Missouri.
Meh to the stiletto.
Red Wing, Minnesota is one of few places in the United States where you can train to repair and care for brass band instruments.
When I left Stearns County to live in New Zealand, one of the things lost to me was cherry pie.
How is it that I never knew about fairy crosses, even though you can find them on the banks of the Blanchard Dam?
Clothing for all weathers is essential in Minnesota. Parkas, mittens, sweaters, boots. Plus boogers in the shoulder seasons.
It’s a word used across the United States and even internationally, but maybe not as comprehensively as in Stearns County, Minnesota.
A flowering crabapple tree is a sight to behold.
Back then, I didn’t know I would have my first and only child at 40 and call her Lily.
She was trying not to judge, but her voice gave her away. Sister Paulette Laufer hated my bright blue eyeshadow.
Lena and Mina were my grandmothers – Stearns County, Minnesota women who grew up and raised families in small towns around the Lake Wobegon Trail. Born in the USA, they spoke German and had German accents. As did my parents, who spoke only German until they went to school. As do some of my cousins, who have never lived anywhere but Stearns County. We’re quirky folks, like those in Garrison Keillor’s fictional Stearns town of Lake Wobegon. I’m Laurie Hilsgen, and if you’re reading this, you might be Wobegonian, too. Let’s celebrate our loony ways. Oh ja!
