I was invited to tag along on a day trip to Fargo, this past Monday. I accepted joyfully, but inside I was deeply panicked. After all, what I know about Fargo I learned in the 1996 movie, “Fargo”. After accepting the invitation, I re-lived that scene where the lady cop–7 months pregnant–, pieces together a chain of events and finds the bad guy feeding the last of the victim’s body into a woodchipper.
So, yes. Fargo = people with wood chippers in the back yard, waiting to send me through it on a cold winter day. Would I survive the day? Was my traveling companion part of a plot to chip and compost the new minister? Would my taser be enough to fight off the Fargo-ites? Fargo zombies?
I was so surprised to learn that Fargo is about the same as any other American City with 100,000 people. We drove past Lowes, Joann Fabrics, Walmart, and Sam’s. We ate lunch at Red Lobster. The people looked normal in the stores where we stopped, and I did not see any post-Christmas sales on wood chippers. I saw some nice electric fireplaces at Menards, but no chippers. 
I was starting to relax. However, on the way back to Wishek, my friend offered to drive on the back roads so I could see more of the countryside–you know how I love to explore. Or was it a ploy to get me to a remote chipper? I went along with the idea of driving the back roads, figuring I could always send up a signal from my personal locator beacon if things took a turn for the worse. I felt around in my pocket to make sure it was within reach, and I settled in for the snowy back country tour.
Several hours later, I was back home in Wishek, hugging my dog and relieved to be alive. Am I just being paranoid, I wondered? Is the Hollywood Fargo a myth? Do they use some kind of laser thingy now as a chipper. Do I dare go back to Fargo? I made it out alive this time, but what about the next time?
By the way, you must see the American classic movie, “Fargo” (unless you plan to travel there in your lifetime). Wikipedia says this about the movie:
Fargo is a 1996 American neo noir dark comedy crime film written, produced, edited, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It starsFrances McDormand as a pregnant Minnesota police chief who investigates a series of local homicides, and William H. Macy as a struggling car salesman who hires two criminals to kidnap his wife. The film also features Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Harve Presnell and John Carroll Lynch.
The film earned seven Academy Award nominations, winning two for Best Original Screenplay for the Coens and Best Actress in a Leading Role for McDormand.[1] It also won the BAFTA Award and the Award for Best Director for Joel Coen at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.[2]
In 2006, the film was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and inducted into the United States National Film Registry for preservation, making it one of six films to have been preserved in their first year of eligibility.[3]
Hmmmmm, thinking about watching it again!!??!! Fargo lives.
