Dean Butler With Fans at LauraPalooza Ice Cream Social

As part of the build up to LauraPalooza we’re going to be presenting our favorite things about the conference or what we’re looking forward to most.

Although there wasn’t enough time to just visit, which has been corrected in this year’s schedule, my favorite thing about LauraPalooza was just talking with other fans. It was great to see old Laura friends, to finally put faces with the names of others, and to meet brand new Laura friends. It’s so wonderful to talk with people who get “it” and don’t think you’re strange for trying to track down the oddest things or exact facts about Laura’s life. Before LauraPalooza started it was only at odd and unexpected times I ran into Laura friends. Events like the Wilder Conference at the Hoover Presidential Library and the big De Smet event sponsored by South Dakota Humanities a few years ago are few and far between. To have a regular meeting place is a great boon to the Laura community. For example, the Pa’s Fiddle program that we’ve been talking about started as a conversation at LauraPalooza between Dean Butler and Dale Cockrell. Great things can happen when Laura friends come together and after all “We’re all good friends together.”

As a slight adjustment of the future conference schedule has been made to more closely align with major anniversary dates coming up,  there won’t be another LauraPalooza conference until 2015. I hope as many as possible of you will attend this time. See you there.  Remember, registration is now open!

Sarah S. Uthoff blogs at TrundleBed Tales; look for her on Twitter and YouTube and Blog Talk Radio
Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association, Vice-President and Membership Chair