It may seem like a funny title for a blog post, but it captures the city. How Fargo of You: Stories from the Northern Prairie that People Who Haven’t Been here Will Never Believe is a title to a book by Marc de Celle, who moved to Fargo and discovered the Upper Midwest way of life and people. There is Minnesota nice and the same attitude applies to North Dakota people. East coasters tend to view the Upper Midwest as flyover country, especially North Dakota.
We meet many well-travelled people living at Charlestown and we can count on one hand how many people have been to North Dakota. They will say we have been to see Mount Rushmore. We say, “That is in South Dakota.” Dan is used to it. People think that the movie, Fargo, represents the city. In reality, only the opening bar scene takes place there although the snow exteriors were filmed in ND. The rest of the movie takes place in Minnesota.
We took our trek to see Dan’s hometown, Sheldon, ND 46 miles from Fargo and had lunch at D’s Dear Stand Bar & Grill. It is the only place to get food and drink in town. As we enter, Dan sees a local he knew from high school. We enjoy lunch with Roy and his wife. D’s is known for their “loaded” hot dogs. You will not leave hungry.
We then head to Enderlin to see the Museum. Dan donated his father and mother’s wedding clothes about five years ago. They are nicely displayed. The Museum is an all volunteer effort. The new restroom opened in time for the All-Class Reunion held in June. We helped fund it. Now they are working on fundraising for an elevator annex. We stopped to see Gloria Bunn, the widow of Dan’s classmate, Arlan. She moved off the farm to live in the town of 888 people a few years ago.