Merlin Olsen left Walnut Grove in 1981. I don't remember exactly where he went. Mankado? Everybody went to Mankado back then. East and then downriver where the fun girls frolicked with Happy Hudler in the hey days of the early 2000s? We don't know. All we know is that Jonathon Garvey left and he was replaced by the bearded, gruff, hard-drinking Isiah Edwards, played by Victor French.
It was an awkward time in Walnut Grove, and across America, as we all came to grips with change.
Red Wings fans are grappling with change now and we, sincerely, are not handling it well.