Nicholas Sparks returned to Minnesota last week to see the touring production of “The Notebook: the Musical” at the Ordway. He also revisited the state where some of his earliest memories were formed. Here’s what we learned.

1. Sparks spent part of his childhood in Minnesota

His family lived in the Watertown area, outside of the Twin Cities, while his father earned a master’s degree at the University of Minnesota, and some of Sparks’ first memories come from those years.

“My parents were young and married and having babies, and my dad was pursuing a future as a professor… And yeah, my earliest memories are actually here in Minnesota, which are not detailed, they're not intense, but, right? They're just images that you have, and they're the first ones, the first ones that I can recall.”

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