Take a walk through Betsy Ray's neighborhood

I don't know about you, but I was a little crushed when WWI cut short Betsy Ray's grand adventure ("Betsy and the Great World"), sending her back to Minnesota. Still, she came home to Joe Willard, he of the blond pompadour and the slightly pouty bottom lip, and that must have been quite a draw.

They were married at last, all the problems between them melting away, and the next thing you know he's working at the Minneapolis newspaper [Note: I see nobody in this newsroom who fits that description] and she's busily trying to learn how to cook (a disaster) and writing in her spare time (not a disaster at all).

If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you did not grow up on Maud Hart Lovelace's beloved, beloved, beloved Betsy-Tacy books, and you are not, therefore, a true Minnesotan.

But if you do know what I'm talking about, then you might want to pop over to this Website, buy yourself a $5 ticket, and join the walking tour of Lowry Hill East at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 23.Tour guide Kathy Kullberg will take you past four of the houses that set the stage for Lovelace to write "Betsy's Wedding."

Most of Lovelace's books, which are based on her own life, are set in Deep Valley, Minn., the fictitious name she gave for her hometown of Mankato. But the last book is set in Minneapolis, where Maud worked on the Minnesota Daily while at the U, and her husband was a reporter at the Minneapolis Tribune.