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"The Oregon Trail:" Nostalgia, Sadness & Dysentery

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Gone are the days of racing to the computer lab in elementary school to snag the best Apple II to begin your virtual journey along the Oregon Trail. The simple days, where your biggest worry was avoiding dysentery or fording the river for those 45 minutes of computer lab, are no longer. What we wouldn’t give to trade the current political, social and economic turmoil for a less-complicated life in 1848 on the Oregon Trail, right?

Cue Bekah Brunstetter’s The Oregon Trail, a jump back in time to 1997 when one found comfort in the fact that real life wasn’t as bad as life trudging along the Oregon Trail was. “Now Jane” sits in the computer lab waiting for her oh-so-perfect older sister, Mary Anne, and much like many of us did, decides a virtual trip along the Oregon Trail is just what she needs to escape from a reality where she feels slightly subpar.



“Travel that shit” declares “Now Jane”, and we’re pulled back to 1848 where “Then Jane” along with her (still perfect) older sister Mary Anne and their father Clancy, leave Independence, Missouri for a better life in Oregon, just as 400,000 emigrants did in the non-virtual version of the Oregon Trail.

In just 80 minutes, Brunstetter transports us back times of Jansport backpacks and cloth-covered wagons, and keeps us laughing the entire time. Interwoven between moments of witty comments and awkward situations, is the exploration of the question “what does it mean to be sad?” Whether or not you chose to travel the trail back in the 90s, you won’t regret tagging along with both Janes in this piece full of nostalgia and teenage angst. The only question is, will you survive?

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