Any Laura Ingalls Wilder fans?

[moondog]

I visited the LIW house and museum in Missouri a few weeks ago and it was one of the most moving experiences ever. I made a detour of thousands of miles to see it.
If anyone loves her just as much as I do I wanted the chance to tell you about it so that you can savour every delicious detail.

www.amazon.co.uk/Story-Girl-Lucy-Maud-Montgomery/dp/1406821799 It's another book by LM Montgomery. Sara is the Story Girl in it and she is fantastic!

tunip, what's the title of that NY times piece? It won't let me at it without logging in but if I google the title I think I'll be able to.

I found it by googling 'Laura Ingalls Wilder child bride' and it was the first hit. It's 'Real life in the little house' by Eden Ross Lipson, Aug 2nd 1998.

Got it, thank you.

I don't know whether this link will work but it's the bit about it in 'Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder'. And yes, it says that it was a normal age of marriage and normal age gap for that time and place.

I don't think 18 would have been at all unusual, for a pioneer or not. Ma must have been about the same age or younger. Generally no sooner than 2 years after puberty, but puberty often delayed by poor diet etc. A much stricter code of morals than among eg Dorset labourers, thanks to the Mayflower etc.

Yes, that swansdown coat. And Grace having a tantrum when she couldn't go to the fourth of July celebrations.

How they managed I don't know. There was a fascinating book given to NT mother about Kansas pioneers and it showed them in dugouts, with clothes made from grain sacks. The wilders always had normal fabric.

All of the Anne books and lots of other LMM are available for Kindle here
I have lots of them and read them on holiday this year

LaundryGirl, how exciting! Did/does she tell you any stories?
In Becoming LIW, author refers to events when Laura gets famous when she attended concerts at which all 'her' music was played.

At the museum, you can see her teaching certificate, also the lace hankerchief Ida Brown tucked into her hand as she and Alamnzo got married (in Ida's front room).

You can also get facsimiles of all the school books they used.
I wish I'd got them now.
I went nuts on books and sunbonnets so was trying to rein it in

Am currently reading LHOTP to DD2 (6-yo), and she's got Plum Creek lined up waiting . 8-yo DD1 has read up to Silver Lake but has decided to wait a bit for the others as she found it harder than the previous books to read. I hugely enjoy reading these books aloud to the children and am very jealous of you, moondog - thanks for telling us about your trip, though!

Anne of GG also wonderful - I remember the bit about her 'seeing' little Joyce at the age she should be. Just after Joyce died, Anne was weeping to Cap'n Jim that she was frightened that she wouldn't know Joyce if she saw her again in heaven.

^"But she won't be my baby," said Anne, with trembling lips. "Oh, she may be, as Longfellow says, `a fair maiden clothed with celestial grace'--but she'll be a stranger to me."

"God will manage better'n that, I believe," said Captain Jim. ^

I had to share Poledra.
If doing so gives you even 5% of the pleasure it gave me to go, then you will be in heaven.

Lip trembling at your excerpt.

Did you say there were quilts Moondog? What were they like?

poledra - oh, yes.

That makes me sniff a bit too.

And then later on she tells someone (Leslie? Mrs Cornelia?) that when she looks at Jem she can see Joyce who would have been about toddling.

It's sad but such a beautiful thing to write.

They were pretty basic as you would expect. One was a fairly primitive but beautiful 'crazy paving' style one made out of scraps.
I have hand sewn 3 kingsize quilts and about 6 single ones as a direct result of LIW and LHOP.

Btw, if I am reading it right from Tunip's link to 'Becoming Laura Ingalls', Ma had Mary when she was about 23/4, whereas Laura had Rose at 19 - I wonder if that was partly why she felt so young? Especially since her mother is always presented as being more mature than she manages to be.

moondog - ooh! Nice! What are your quilts like?

I am just getting into quilting and very excited you've done so many.

Hi Moondog - I never got to meet my Great Grandpa (the sherif) but my Grandma is still alive and sharp as a tack. She has told me many stories about the constant fear of prairie fires and how the homestead was saved once by some hastily plowed firebreaks. Also told me about how all homesteaders would welcome in any passerby for food and to stay the night as there were no towns. The children never knew who might be sleeping in their tiny shack of an evening! The nearest town was 25 miles away - a two day journey to get supplies or go to the doctor. She also talked about how cold it was - Great Grandma would keep a flat iron on the stove and use it to melt the thick frost on the inside of the window to see out. The children had to play on cardboard boxes or the kitchen table because the ground was so cold. I'm so in awe of all of the people who homesteaded in such treacherous conditions.

Laundry, you should get her writing. Fascinating stuff.
Museum folk reckoned there was a huge upsurge of interest in this era and back to basics stuff, probably in view of austerity measures.

LRD, quiltmaking is very addictive. I like very simple old style ones and prefer to handsew and use cotton batting. There are some machine made polyester horrors out there. I like the meditative nature of it. It kept me sane when cooped up in a terrible winter in a faraway land when my children were tiny.

Speaking of which, I visited this quilt museum in Kentucky on the way to Rocky Ridge. Most contemporary and while technically dazzling, not really my thing but some gorgeous old ones and also some really interested ones where a well known bloke (gay obviously) has used old half finished quilts to make new ones. I liked that.

I do apoolgise.This thread is becoming a 'What I did on my holidays' job.
Unintentionally but I did see some wonderful places including this incredibly lovely Shaker Village.

I am wasted on the 21C.

Well, you started it moondog! It's a lovely thread.

I love quilting - I did one for my baby niece but it was just tiny stars, fun to do and easy. I'm trying to do something harder and more interesting now.

It's very 'Laura', your description of the 'terrible winter'!

Luckily we have lots of letters written by Great Grandpa and Great Grandma as well as accounts from my Grandma and her older sister. My Dad loves family history and has gathered a lot of it together. It has been great being reading through some of it with DS, and he is so thrilled to have a direct connection to this part of history.

I think the nicest are the simplest to be honest.
I bought this really interesting book at the museum, exploring the theory that slaves used to hang quilts out by thier cabins to give out secret messages to runaway slaves (as you probably know, the patterns all have different names).

Yes, it was a terrible winter in the depths of Kurdistan with two tiny children and snow so bad i once didn't leave the flat for thre days.
Did nowt but read, breastfeed and sew. Then one day I found MN and it saved my sanity and probably my marriage!

LF how great.
Compare to the legacy our generation will leave behind.

Drove to work.
Hunched over computer
Went to Tesco
Came home
Watched crap on tv
Went to bed

It's no cvontest is it?

I have just finished rereading the LHOTP books from On The Banks of Plum Creek, and then found this thread! I loved these as a child, and still love them. I'm hooked on the tv series too, even though it is so far from the actual story.

That's an amazing idea (about slave quilts). And eeek! to winter in Kurdistan.

I love Lucy Boston's quilts, which aren't really simple but often look as if they are until you see how she's done them. I don't like ones that don't have symmentry, for some reason.

Love her! I read all of her books as a child. And now I want to read them again. Must salvaged them from my parents house.