Over the past few summers I've been spending my time at Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere Iowa. It was there I learned about Bonnie, Laurie, and Valerie. Laura didn't spend much of her time in Iowa. She only spent a year when she was 10 years old. Her family ended up fleeing the town in the middle of the night because of her father's death. This isn't a part of the story that's told very often because it doesn't make him look very good. Laura was a daddy's girl and always wanted her father to be portrayed in the best light so they were cut from the books. Not many people knew they were in Burr Oak, Iowa. The people who did know were pretty interesting characters. I have several stories about the attendance. Someone asked if they could buy a desk. A different woman asked if she could buy a brick from the house where Laura's youngest sister Grace was born, but overall it was an amazing experience. What was more amazing were the women I worked with.
Bonnie
My family moved from Iowa to Milwaukee this past summer and when I told Bonnie where we were going she drawled on saying, "I went to Milwaukee once for a tradeshow. They had all sorts of things: butterflies, hats, lemonade, birds, taxidermy, birds, oh my goodness they had so many birds my favorite of all the birds was the American bald eagle. I just love birds so much they are so pretty and you know I wanted to take a few of those taxidermy birds home but you know my husband he wouldn't let me and so it was. It was just so horrible. I just wanted one of those birds so badly but Darold said no, says they creeped him out. You know we got a bird living in the house right now. I found her the other day. She was just lying over by the horse pit and I was like I don't want this poor little birdie to die so I did the only thing I could think to do and I found an old Cool Whip container and I picked that bird up and I put a right in there. I've been leaving her outside in that area, hoping somebody who loves her will come and see her and I know you're not supposed to touch the birds. Otherwise you'll scare away the Mama, but I can hope. I remember seeing her when I was looking for chokecherries. Oh my gosh I just love chokecherries. You know you can do so much with them. Jam syrup, cook them down and eat them raw. I do love choked cherries, but you gotta leave enough for the birds. Otherwise they don't get much else to eat. I just love all those pretty birds at that tradeshow and I just wanted to bring one home so bad and so I've got my real bird right now and she's doing OK but I worry I don't think she would do well living in the house, but you know Darold can't say no to this bird she is so much pain and she just needs somebody loving to care for her and that's what I've got. I've got all the love for these little birdies. There's some birdies living in the horse trailer. I gotta get them out before Friday or else we're gonna have to have them travel with the horses and move around. We don't want them to travel with the horses. They'll freak out and they're gonna be stuck in there. I just love looking at those pretty things so much. Those birds are just so beautiful, but you gotta get them out of there cause birds and horses. They don't mix and we need to show our horses at that show. We can't just not show them. I wonder if maybe that little bird in that Cool Whip container belongs to them and maybe they're hiding and not looking for her. Something must've spooked em.”
Laurie
One day Laurie says to me, “You know, on quiet days like this it really makes you think. My ex-husband was a mean mean bastard. He wouldn't hit me but he'd say the nastiest things. “Oh you'll never amount to anything” or “how can you be this stupid” and I would just shrug it off but one day I finally had enough and I left his ass. Then I went to Luther College in town but at that time there was no place for single mothers to live, so I had to go to the dean and complain. ' But they didn't want me in married housing. Having no husband and a baby back then was a bad look. But I eventually went through to them and then I lived there with my baby and got my degree. I used it and taught music classes for 30 years and eventually I met Doug and we had more kids and dammit if he doesn't love Sarah like she were his own.”
Laurie was only thinking about what she needed to survive but at the same time she was changing the culture of a tiny town and small religious college. Now unwed people and their kids can live in that housing now and it's not just limited to married couples. Laurie didn't realize it but she changed society a bit with her actions.
On a different day she told me about Doug. “You know my husband is a long haul trucker, so he's not home very much. But I like it that way he's responsible and when he is home, oooo, dammit if I don't love him more everyday. He's so self sufficient, he cooks his own dinner, does his laundry, and takes care of the trash. He's like a house plant, one of those little succulents where ya only need to water it once in a blue moon.”
Valerie
“You know my brother, he's this little five foot nothin Jewish guy from California. He married this beautiful Latina woman from New York. She was gorgeous, tall, leggy, an ass that wouldn't quit and massive knockers. Well they weren't a love match but they stayed together for a while. It was a tempestuous relationship, but I just loved her ughh! We could gab for hours. Once, we were at an event and we went to the bathroom and my stall was out of paper, so I say to her “dear would you pass me some tissue” and the wad of paper she passes back was sooooo large I don't know what she thought I did it there but it would have been something that made even the devil blush. Well anyways, after the divorce she and I remained in contact for a little while and one day we were gabbing like old times and we realized that we were gonna be in the Panama Canal at the same time, on separate ships of course, but they would cross paths. So we made an agreement that we would wave to each other and finally after months of prep, packing and general insanity the date arrived. But right before I could go up to wave it was dinnertime and I was sooo hungry and they were serving fresh fish, it was so good. But then I wasn't able to breathe, I knew I was choking on somethin! It was a fish bone, so I ran to the infirmary on the boat. They were sticking their hands and tweezers all in my throat and by the time they got that damn bone out I had one minute to get up to that deck. So I ran like all hell, up two flights of stairs and onto that deck… then I waited. And waited. And waited. And she never showed.”