Associated Press Comes to Flandreau

When I was a young mother I was pretty relaxed. We had no set schedule. We enjoyed life and did pretty much what the day brought to us. I did not insist that the kids got dressed as soon as they got up. The had breakfast in their pj’s and sometimes watched cartoons afterwards or even went outside to play. It all depended on my mood that day, or what kind of household chores I had to do.
One day Melanie and Joey were outside playing in the east yard. Joey still had his pajama top on. I had checked on them and could see they were having a good time, so I went about my chores. I thought I will get Joey dressed in a little bit after I finished whatever it was I was doing.
In a little bit there was a knock on the door. It was a reporter that was with the Associated Press. He wanted to know if it was alright if he took my kids picture. They were playing with a pump and pretending to get water out of it. Joey was on his rocking horse being a pretend cowboy and Melanie had a little bucket with “pretend” water for his horse. It was a cute little sight, so I said, “Sure, I don’t care.”
A few weeks later, I started getting phone calls and letters from all over the country, wanting to know if the picture they had seen in their newspapers were my children. That picture had gone all over the country. My two and four year old were famous.!
No, I didn’t change my ways of having them get dressed early in the morning, however, I did think about it.