Walnut Grove, Minn.-Sources indicate that the Olesons are having problems keeping up with the nighttime coffee needs of Charles Ingalls.
Routinely seen drinking copious amounts of coffee before bedtime, Charles Ingalls is routinely purchasing so much coffee that the proprietors of the Mercantile are having problems keeping pace with the man.
“It’s difficult when you have one customer who buys so much of a product,” Nels Oleson comments. “You try to keep pace and supply the customer, but at the same time, you can’t neglect your other customers–”
Harriet Oleson interjects, “Especially the ones who pay upfront!” Nels continues speaking almost as if his wife had never spoken, or was not even in the room for that matter.
“–but sometimes it’s difficult to gauge when you have a man with the coffee drinking habits of Charles Ingalls. He’ll buy and buy, but then of course he’s subject to the financial difficulties inherent in farming. At any given time, he’s one lost crop away from not buying coffee for weeks. Then what do I do with all this coffee? On the other hand, if I don’t order enough, other customers come clamoring for it. It’s hard to win in this situation.”
Despite these difficulties, Nels recognizes that there are advantages.
“It really keeps me on top of my game,” Nels admits. “If it weren’t for trying to calculate Charles’ coffee needs and make projections, I might be stuck with a brain declining in acuity, or maybe just stuck with my family in the house instead of in the storeroom arranging the huge shipment of coffee and trying to fit it all in there without compromising the other merchandise.”
At press time, Charles Ingalls was drinking coffee in bed.
