A storefront window display at Books on Central promotes an upcoming holiday reading. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo December 2025)
THE CADENCE AND RHYTHM of a book read aloud or a story told appeals to me. It’s as if the words become living, breathing characters, the setting vivid real-life scenes. Such is the power of the voice in interpreting words.
Wednesday evening, December 17, at 6 pm, two skilled local storytellers, Sam Temple and Tami Resler, will share their talents during a literary event at Books on Central in the heart of downtown Faribault. Holiday stories will focus their storytelling in the cozy bookshop centered by a chandelier inside a former jewelry store.
But the gems for the evening will be the stories that are sure to sparkle with the skills of Temple and Resler. I know both storytellers. They are genuinely kind, caring, joyful individuals who add much to our community.
Sam Temple, as Alexander Faribault, shares local and Minnesota history during the Riverside Rendezvous and History Festival in Faribault earlier this year. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo May 2025)
Temple, who heads Steamboat Media Company and manages Northfield Public Broadcasting, is big into local history. He’s created documentaries about Faribault history with fellow creative Logan Ledman. He’s portrayed town founder, Alexander Faribault, numerous times. He’s also acted and directed and does improv comedy with Little Fish Improv. I’m sure I’ve missed something. But you get the idea. Temple brings tremendous talent and knowledge to anything he does.
Tami Resler is a multi-talented artist. Here’s some of her pottery showcased in a gallery. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo March 2021)
Likewise, Resler, a ceramics artist and educator at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in Faribault, sparkles. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Tami without a smile. Her enthusiasm, I expect, will shine in expressive telling of holiday tales during the reading.
I encourage you, if you live in the area, to take a break from holiday preparations and settle into a chair at Books on Central this Wednesday evening. Relax. Delight in the comforts of a good story. Remember when you were read to as a child or when you read to a child. I hold fond memories of an elementary school teacher reading the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder to our class each day after lunch. And I have read countless books to children, still do.
There is joy in books. And there is joy in listening to gifted storytellers who bring words to life with their voices.
FYI: Light refreshments will be served at this event, which is free and open to the public at 227 Central Avenue North, Faribault.
Learning about pirates at the pirate ship sitting near the Cannon River. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
TO READ ABOUT THE PAST is one thing. To learn about history via people passionate about the past is quite another.
Folk singers Curtis & Loretta from Minneapolis perform Sunday morning. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
The past came alive over the weekend at the first-ever Riverside Rendezvous and History Festival in Faribault organized by the Rice County Historical Society. I spent four hours of my Mother’s Day roaming the festival grounds alongside the Cannon River at North Alexander Park. Listening. Learning. Connecting. Questioning. Observing. And photographing.
Many rendezvous feature medallions (like these for the Faribault festival) which participants post on their tents. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
This re-enactor taught kids and adults to stitch mini leather pouches. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
Small handcrafted leather bags for sale. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
The Rendezvous covered 1701-1900 with participants dressed in period costume. Think top hats, mountain hats, head scarves, long skirts, lots of leather and fur.
Before shooting off three cannons, this re-enactor talked about cannon balls, loading and firing a cannon, and safety. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
Firing one of three cannons. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
Before the cannons were fired, fest attendees were told to cover their ears “like fish.” The boom was loud. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
The re-enactors shared their period skills from blacksmithing to hat making to cannon shooting, rug weaving, leather stitching and much more. There was a lot to see, a lot to learn. And a lot to do, if you chose to participate.
Spools of colorful string for rug weaving fill a vintage suitcase. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
Folks gather around Lori Feltis as she weaves on her portable loom and talks about rug making. She operates Bohemian Rag Rug Studio near Stewartville. My grandkids enjoyed some hands-on weaving with Lori. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
A narrow strip woven on Lori’s loom. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
I left the hands-on activities to others, including two of my elementary-aged grandkids. They joined many kids trying out new skills, making memories. School classes attended the festival Thursday and Friday. So many lessons taught and learned.
Valin with his “pet” skunk. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
My biggest personal lesson of the day came in an unexpected way, and not until I arrived home. While walking from one tent to another at the Rendezvous, I crossed paths with Valin cuddling his pet skunk. I’d never seen a real skunk up close and I was rather excited to photograph Little Stinky. I even called my husband over for a close-up look. Valin assured me Stinky’s stinky part had been removed. Back home, Randy revealed to me that Little Stinky was a pelt. “Didn’t you see his (Valin’s) hand underneath moving the skunk?” Uh, no. I can only imagine the story Valin told around the evening campfire about the lady who thought his skunk was alive. This is now the stuff of laughter and legend for my family. Lesson learned: Everything is not as it appears.
Sam Temple presented about early Minnesota history with a focus on Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
That humorous moment aside, I did appreciate the honest and informative storytelling of local historian and documentary filmmaker Sam Temple. Smartly attired in a top hat and dress clothes, he talked about early Minnesota, about Indigenous Peoples, about the illegal French Canadian fur traders who came here first—about their relationship of interdependence and co-existence with Native Peoples and how a new mixed race culture developed.
Scraping a beaver hide, the woman in this tent focused on the Dakota, their connection to nature and how that wove into their way of living. They traded furs for goods. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
Temple shared much more before shifting his focus to Faribault town founder Alexander Faribault, of mixed race (his mother was part Dakota) and a licensed fur trader by age 21. Alexander arrived in a multi-cultural community with “a foot in both worlds,” Temple said. Wood-frame houses and teepees stood side-by-side. As I listened, I considered my multi-cultural community today. Getting along, but not always. By the time Alexander Faribault, who was historically-influential both locally and state-wide, left Faribault, “the teepees were missing and his mother’s culture was gone,” Temple said.
There were several food and beverage vendors on-site, with Baby’s Indian Frybread proving especially popular. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
If there’s something else I learned while attending the Rendezvous it is that I absolutely love fruit-filled Indian frybread, which I’ve not previously eaten. The sugar-topped pie-like dessert oozed blueberry filling and cream cheese. It was beyond decadent.
A blacksmithing demonstration. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
As much as I loved frybread and Little Stinky, the good folks who participate in history fests like the Riverside Rendezvous assuredly love stepping back in time. Their passion and desire to present the past in a way that engages people in history was something I felt, saw, heard while moving from tent to tent, space to space. To be part of this proved a cultural, historic experience, growing my knowledge and appreciation of those who shaped Minnesota and Faribault, this place I call home.
Tents were scattered across the spacious, shady grounds of riverside North Alexander Park. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
FYI: Please check back for more photos from the Riverside Rendezvous and History Festival in Faribault.This year’s Rendezvous was so successful that the Rice County Historical Society is planning a second one for 2026, but a weekend later so the event does not fall on Mother’s Day and the fishing opener weekend.
The promotional poster for the local production of “Charlotte’s Web.” (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
THE CLASSIC CHILDREN’S BOOK,Charlotte’s Web, comes alive at the Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault beginning Friday evening, October 18. I was among a theater full of guests who attended the final dress rehearsal on Thursday. Tickets are selling quickly for the six performances. That’s no surprise given the popularity of the Newbery Honor book penned in 1952 by E.B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams (of Laura Ingalls Wilder illustration notoriety). The book holds universal, long-lasting appeal.
Children and their families glazed these Wilbur medallions at the Paradise Center for the Artsduring a special event with funding from a Faribault Foundation micro community grant. Participating kids also got free tickets to the play. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
To see White’s story about Wilbur the pig, Charlotte the spider and Fern, the young girl who loved them both, played out on stage proved entertaining and enjoyable. Entertaining in how the play was presented by a talented Paradise Community Theatre cast of nearly 30 ranging from newbies to seasoned performers of multiple generations. Enjoyable in that a good retelling of a classic book which sticks to the story line is always a delight.
I found this personalized book plate inside a copy of “Charlotte’s Web” at Buckham Memorial Library, Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Sam Temple, himself a seasoned actor, directed the play, assisted by his mom, Linda Temple. As Sam shares the Temple family backstory, Charlotte’s Web is his mom’s favorite book, one she read repeatedly as a farm girl and then later read with students in her classroom. Sam grew up knowing Wilbur, Charlotte and Fern. That personal connection, that love of the book, shows in the performance.
(Book cover image sourced online)
The part that really stood out for me is the incorporation of digital technology with pages from the book projected onto a screen behind the performers. Those pages, sometimes text only, other times illustrations only, drew me into the book as did occasional narrated excerpts. This truly was literary, visual and performing arts melding to create a unique, immersive experience. Add in the superior surround sound (complete with chirping crickets) and performers sometimes acting in the theater aisles, and I felt very much a part of the story. I was there in the barn, at the county fair, the settings for the two-act, nearly 90-minute play.
A section of the PCA window display promoting the local production. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
The story of Charlotte’s Web, at its core, is about friendship. Charlotte spins words into her webs in an effort to save Wilbur, her new barn friend, from slaughter. The word-filled webs become a local attraction and Wilbur’s life is eventually spared.
The handcrafted medallion depicts the friendship between Wilbur and Charlotte. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Words. As I, a wordsmith, sat in my theater seat listening to the words spoken/read on stage, jotting some in my notebook, I contemplated how much words matter. Charlotte wove “Some pig,” “terrific,” “radiant,” “humble” into her webs. Powerful words. Words with depth. Words worth pondering. Especially today, when negative and degrading words often fly too easily. I couldn’t help but note the arrogance of self-centered Uncle, a pig vying against Wilbur for a blue ribbon at the county fair. He was decidedly full of himself.
For a while, I thought the same of Templeton, a main character in the book and play. But then I changed my mind, considering the barn rat more confident than self-centered. I found myself really liking this outspoken, sly, even funny, character who assisted Charlotte by finding words for her to weave into her webs. Friendships developed inside the barn, home to pig and spider, rat and geese, lamb and sheep.
Mostly, this play is about friendship. At show’s end, Fern calls Charlotte “a true friend and a good writer” who taught her bravery. But this play is also about acceptance. When Charlotte experienced an adverse reaction to revealing that she eats flies, she stood up for herself. “That’s the way I’m made,” Charlotte told her friends. “I can’t help it.” How wise that spider.
And then this line from Charlotte resonated: “People are not as smart as bugs.”
This play by the Paradise Community Theatre really does appeal to all ages. Kids may not catch everything we adults do. But that’s OK. Perhaps they shouldn’t. They have their entire lives to figure out that life is much more complicated than simply a story about a spider, a pig and the girl who loved them.
Johnston Hall, date unknown. (Photo courtesy of Rice County Historical Society)
IN EARLY NOVEMBER, I watched a local documentary online about Johnston Hall in the comfort of my home office. The film, “Love Inwrought: Johnston Hall and the Memory of a Building,” was created by Sam Temple and Logan Ledman. The ambitious and talented young filmmakers have, since their high school days, focused on local history through their 1855 History Team (Steamboat Media Co.). Their latest project focuses on Johnston Hall, completed in 1888 as part of Seabury Divinity School. The building was demolished in 2021 after standing on Faribault’s east side for 133 years.
Sam Temple, left to right, Logan Ledman and Troy Temple. (Photo courtesy of 1855 History Team)
This Saturday, December 16, the duo will present a public screening of their film at the Rice County Historical Society in Faribault from 5:30-6:30 pm. And while I am not able to be there, I encourage anyone interested in Johnston Hall and the fine work of writers and directors Temple and Ledman to attend.
A Q & A follows the screening. Attendees are encouraged to share their stories about Johnston Hall, which saw many uses through the years.
Johnston Hall model. (Photo courtesy of 1855 History Team)
But that’s not all. A model of the building handcrafted by Rathbun Reliquilaries plus artifacts and architectural items saved by the historical society will also be available for viewing.
Saturday’s event offers an ideal opportunity to learn more about Johnston Hall and to meet members of the team that worked diligently to create the documentary. Besides Temple and Ledman those include Troy Temple, illustrator Piper Mohring, composer Sam Dwyer, and actors Steve Searl (portraying Bishop Henry Whipple) and Eli Hastings (as the Rev. Henry St. Clair).
Documentary promo. (Courtesy of 1855 History Team)
According to Sam Temple, the title of the documentary traces to a quote by Bishop Whipple: “There is an unwritten history of faith and love inwrought in every building erected here.” The Episcopalian bishop was referencing buildings (including Johnston Hall) at the schools he helped organize.
This signage stands at Johnston Hall Memorial Garden across the street from the local hospital and clinic. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo August 2023)
The work of Temple, Ledman and their team is top-notch professional, outstanding and deserving of accolades. These young men are passionate about history, storytelling, filmmaking and creating an appreciation for our past. Their enthusiasm and work impress me. I can’t wait to see what they do next.
A scene from “A Christmas Carol,” now on stage in Faribault. (Photo courtesy of director Sam Temple)
ON THE MORNING OF OUR GRANDSON’S preschool holiday party, Randy took time off work to watch a group of preschoolers perform an unrehearsed version of the Christmas story. The little ones eagerly donned swatches of cloth, transforming into multiple Marys, Josephs, angels and shepherds. My eyes focused on Isaac, brown tunic slipped over his plaid flannel shirt, shepherd’s staff in hand. I worried he might bonk a classmate over the head. He never did. In the end, the pastor-directed impromptu play proved entertaining and joyful, a blessing to all.
Later that evening, after he returned from a half day of work, Randy joined me at the Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault to watch an invitation-only final dress rehearsal of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol performed by The Merlin Players. Well-rehearsed, directed, staged, acted and presented, this play contrasted sharply with the one we’d seen earlier that day. Yet, the messages of peace, love and good will (among others) repeated. The Dickens’ play ended with the line: “God bless us everyone!”
Two plays in one day—one familiar to me, the other not. One faith-based, the other centered on choices one makes in life. Both powerful in their own way. One loose and unstaged, the other professionally done.
The promotional poster for “A Christmas Carol.” (Courtesy of Sam Temple)
That I’ve never read or seen A Christmas Carol is something I hesitate to admit. I am, after all, an English minor, an avid reader, a writer. Of course, I knew the basic story line of main character Ebenezer Scrooge visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. But that’s about it. So I walked into the theater Thursday evening not quite knowing what to expect, although I anticipated another outstanding performance by The Merlin Players. Fifteen years ago they presented this same play at the Paradise. Now the theater company is disbanding, choosing to end with a repeat of A Christmas Carol, albeit different in presentation.
Posted in a window of the Paradise Center for the Arts, a quote by Jacob Marley, Ebenezer Scrooge’s business partner.(Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo December 2022)
As I sat in my theater seat listening and watching, central themes began to emerge. “There’s more to life than work,” Mrs. Fezziwig (Alane Bendtsen) states as Ebenezer Scrooge faces the Ghost of Christmas Past. I thought of my husband who just that morning missed work to attend our 3-year-old grandson’s preschool party and pageant. I felt grateful for his decision. Age has a way of shifting priorities. And in this theatrical production, a story has a way of exposing regrets. Scrooge focused his life on work, on making money, on getting things and, in the end, gave up so much, including love.
I expect we have all experienced many Scrooge moments, when we stand at a crossroads and make choices that aren’t the best, that, in the end, hurt us, those we love, even strangers. Choices that are self-serving and unkind. I expect we have all turned away those in need, like Scrooge did in a brief interaction with a child caroler (Ella Boland) in a moment I found especially touching.
Sam Temple, who directed the play, notes that “through this story, Dickens sought to solidify Christmas as a season for charity, kindness, and compassion for the downtrodden.” That carries through in the unfolding plot and dialogue with a message as timely today as in 1843 when Dickens penned this story.
Another scene from The Merlin Players’ production of Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic. (Photo courtesy of Sam Temple)
From the youngest to oldest, these 26 performers (all playing multiple roles except Steve Searl/Scrooge) pour their hearts and souls into retelling Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I cannot imagine trying to direct a cast of this size; Sam Temple proved he was up to the task. The lines. The movement. The dancing. The costuming. The technical aspects. The music and singing—Jingle Bells, Silent Night, O Tannenbaum… The festive spirit of the season emerges. Everything comes together seamlessly.
That I came into this performance with no preconceived ideas, no comparisons to other productions, allows for an unbiased review. I sat back. Took it all in, appreciating the dramatic special effects which include the banging of chains, globes of floating light, a towering and menacing black Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and more. I’m intentionally not revealing details. Technical Director Matthew Boyd and crew outdid themselves in creatively enhancing this theatrical version of Dickens’ Christmas classic.
A second quote by character Jacob Marley posted at the Paradise. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo December 2022)
I exited the theater feeling reflective and uplifted by the transformation of Scrooge from money-focused and miserly to kind, caring, compassionate. “I am not the man that I was,” he declares. He stood at a crossroads and, in the end, chose good will, kindness, love. He experienced what I would term A Christmas Awakening.
FYI: A Christmas Carol opens at 7:30 pm Friday, December 2, at the Paradise Center for the Arts along Central Avenue in historic downtown Faribault. Other 7:30 pm performances are on December 3, 8, 9 and 10. Two afternoon shows are set for Sunday, December 4 and 11 at 2 pm. If you plan to attend, I highly encourage you to reserve tickets now or you may not get a seat. Tickets are selling quickly. Click here for more info.
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