We have 151 pre-registered for LauraPalooza. This is quite a jump from my original vision! I have since upgraded the space we’ll use for most events to a larger area–the ballroom–in the Centennial Student Union. This has allowed us to offer more slots on a first-come, first-served basis during the conference. Day passes will be sold until they run out–there are about 80 slots each day available–starting at 7:30 a.m. each day. Cost is $30. Saturday’s pass includes activities at the Betsy-Tacy houses in downtown Mankato. Day passes include admission to all presentations.

We regret there are no more tickets available for either the Recognition Banquet or the Tin Pail lunch, nor is there space available in the dorms.

What about parking at Minnesota State University, Mankato?

If you view the campus map available here,  you will see all the campus parking lots noted on the second page. The Green and Purple lots hold free parking during the summer. While there is a new freshman orientation occurring simultaneously with LauraPalooza on Thursday, there should be ample parking available in Lots 16 or 13, which are closest to the Centennial Student Union, Sears Hall, and the Carkoski Commons dining area. Optionally, there is a visitor’s pay lot directly across the street from the CSU, which might be a better option for some who are simply coming for the day.

I’m staying at the dorms; do I need to bring linens?

No. Sheets, towels, and pillows are provided. There is no daily housekeeping service, such as you would find in a hotel, but you can get fresh towels at the front desk if you’d like them.

I need special accommodations for a disability. What’s available?

All three spaces are in full compliance with accessibility standards. Those staying in the dorms will be on the second floor; there is handicapped-accessible parking right at the side entrance of Sears. There are also elevators for those who can’t take stairs. Handicapped-accessible parking at the CSU and Carkoski also is available. The ballroom, which is where all LP events will take place in the CSU, is on the second floor, but again, there are elevators–in this case, two banks on either end of the ballroom area.

What about technical needs?

The campus is wireless with guest access available. In the dorms, you will need an ethernet cord for your laptop computer to access the MSU network as a guest.

I can’t go this year! Will you do this again?

Let’s see how this goes! But based on excitement and enthusiasm, it’s certainly possible. Right now, we’re focusing on getting this first LauraPalooza off the ground and running.

Laurapalooza 2010

Saturday July 17

Walnut Grove, MN

Itinerary

About 2 p.m.: Arrive in Walnut Grove

11 a.m. to 6 p.m.: **Family Festival, Walnut Grove City Park

**Art Exhibit                                    3 p.m. to 8 p.m.

**Museum Tours                        All day until pageant starts

3:30 p.m. Dean Butler Speaks, Museum

4 p.m. Load at WG School for bus tour to Plum Creek.

6 p.m.  Pageant Supper

8 p.m.  LIW Pageant Singers, Pageant site

9-9:30 p.m. Start (Dusk) LIW Pageant

**These activities are interchangeable.

Amy here: All ticketed items were included in the trip fee, and those who registered for the trip will have a special stamp on their name tags indicating they’ve paid for Walnut Grove. We’ve left plenty of time in the schedule for shopping, looking, and enjoying the area.

Looking forward to it!
Amy

What should she wear this summer to LauraPalooza?

This question, fraught with potential faux pas and challenging for those flying in, deserves a deeper discussion here on Beyond Little House.

Presenters, of course, should dress up for their presentations. None of us wants to look unofficial or unapproachable.

The official Beyond Little House/LIWLRA T-shirt would work well for those not presenting. Laura attire of all sorts will be encouraged. We will have two other T-shirt designs to pick from this summer, available in the LIWLRA booth in the vending area. One focuses on Laura’s Farmer Boy; the other is the conference T-shirt. Members get 10 percent off these items. Any other home site tees or other Laura-related attire would work if you have it, but it’s not required. Business casual dress would be ideal.

We will also encourage people to dress in period attire, if they have it and can fit it in a suitcase, for the Ice Cream Social Wednesday night and for the Spelling Bee, to be held during the Tin Pail Lunch on Saturday before the Walnut Grove field trip. (By the way, those who participate in the Spelling Bee will be eligible for prizes, including a Laura bobblehead courtesy of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove.)

Good walking shoes for Friday morning activities at the Betsy-Tacy Society and the Walnut Grove field trip are encouraged, also. Plum Creek is clear and pristine, but it’s still a creek, so be prepared to clean  your feet off if you choose to wade in it as Laura did.

No matter where you’re coming from this summer, think business casual this summer. And think cool–while all our buildings are air-conditioned, including the Sears residence hall, July in Minnesota can get HOT. And humid.

Bonnets are optional.

But what do prairie roses look like?

I took this picture Sunday, during a trip to see the Pipestone quarries at Pipestone, Minn., now a national park. The quarries, which are accessible only to American Indians, yield the stone that many consider sacred to their religions. They use the stone to create pipes and other materials.

The quarries sit in the middle of the prairie, and a long trail takes one through the quarries, to surprising sites such as Winnewissa Falls and the initials of the Nicollet expedition engraved in rock. Along the route, different plants are identified by signs, and this plant was clearly identified.

Prairie Rose.

In its beauty, we can see the love Laura had for her daughter.

Depending upon the number of seats available after that date, we will likely offer a limited amount of day passes at the door for admission to the speakers and panels. No meals or housing will be available after May 31.

Are we excited??

Costumed volunteers will join our residential attendees for Wednesday nights ice cream social, and Julie Shrader, executive director of the Betsy-Tacy Society, is planning family activities for Friday morning, July 16, of the conference, to run concurrently with educator and craft workshops. In the works? A walking tour of Betsy’s neighborhood, with young Betsy escorting her new friend Laura around her town, storytelling, and other surprises.

Additionally, the Betsy-Tacy houses will be open for tours and other activities, including a visit from illustrator Cheryl Harness, on Saturday afternoon.

Betsy and Tacy, the two little girls at the heart of the series of books written by Mankato native Maud Hart Lovelace, were based on Maud and her childhood best friend, Bick. The two lived across the street from each other in Mankato, and these houses have been lovingly restored by the society. A third friend, known as Tib in the books, lived around the corner and down the street from Betsy and Tacy. Her childhood home is currently for sale, and the society hopes to purchase it.

The Betsy-Tacy books are all currently in print, and the final six books were recently reissued in new editions with forewards from famous fans of the books such as Anna Quindlen.

Since Maud wrote her books just after Laura wrote hers, Maud is said to have refused to read the Little House books in order to avoid any accusations of plagiarism. Both women wrote about young girls and women growing up in the Midwest. One story suggests that Maud, then living in California, waited until she was completely finished with the series, then went to her library to say, “NOW I can read the Wilder books.”

I can only hope she enjoyed them!

Join us in Deep Valley this summer.

About half of the Sears Hall beds have been reserved. I’ve been assured that I can add more beds for those nights if necessary, but if that’s your housing choice, I’d make reservations soon.

We open this chapter with Laura and Mary working on their needlework projects in the sunny front room of the story building, expecting the company of friends Minnie Johnson and Mary Power. Mary Ingalls, in talking about the possibility of going to college, tells Laura she wishes that Laura could go to college, too. Laura counters that it’s likely she’ll be teaching school, and “I guess you care more about it than I do.”

Mary, in one of those rare moments of self-actualization, declares she really does want to go, and study “on and on.” She really hopes and prays that college will be in her future, and Laura encourages her.

Right until Laura can no longer see the stitches in the lace she’s knitting. The light is gone, the “air was gray and the note of the wind was rising.”

Pa had been out at the claim to haul in hay, and there’s a moment when all the women in the house, Ma included, fear for his safety. But before they can worry too much about him, Pa appears through the back door, laughing about his near miss.

Ma’s not laughing. But there’s not much she can do about Pa at this point, anyway, I suspect.

He goes out to do the chores while Ma gets dinner, and Ma’s question about whether the trains will get through stops the action. Pa responds cheerfully about how they’d lived without a railroad before, but gives Ma a warning look. And we’re all now worrying about the trains, in that one warning look Pa gives Ma.

As if it’s not enough to be enduring the blizzard, after supper, Pa uses the fiddle to repeat the melody of the winds outside. Ma’s had enough for the day, and quietly says, “We’ll likely hear enough of that without your playing it, Charles.” I get the feeling that Ma’s a little tired of Pa and his cheeriness.

Laura asks for music to warm them up, and Pa plays a variety of marches and jigs as Laura and Carrie dance, and even Ma’s toes are tapping.

At bedtime, no one wants to leave the cozy room with its music, but they dutifully march upstairs to a room so cold the nails in the ceiling are fuzzy with frost, making Laura feel “much colder.” Laura wraps hot irons from the stove in flannels to warm the beds, and the girls change quickly. Mary ducks under the covers first, and in another rare I’m-a-real-person moment, says, “God will hear us if we say our prayers under the covers.” Must’ve been cold!!

While Mary and Carrie snuggle down in their beds, shivering, trying to warm up, Laura goes to the window. She wants to see if she can see any kind of light at all. But “in the roaring night outside, there was not one speck of light.”

Mary’s grumpy at this point, and entreats Laura to come to bed to help warm it. The pair talk for a minute about Laura’s inability to see even the light from their own downstairs window. Carrie, with the help of the warm stove pipe beside her bed and the warm flatiron, was asleep as Ma brought Grace upstairs to tuck in next to her.

Ma asks if her girls are warm enough. They say they’re getting there.

And Laura contemplates this feeling of aloneness as she settles into bed. No light can be seen; no cry from outside, besides that constant wind, can be heard. The storm, she thought, had wild voices and an unnatural light of its own.

Though she was finally warm, Laura shivers. The family is truly, truly, alone.