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.

LRD, just checked her and her lovely house and quilts out.
Never heard of her before.
Another complete treasure I must add to my list of places to visit.
How interesting!

I agree with you Moondog. - I feel very sheepish when I whinge about the minor inconveniences of my life when I think about their lives. My great Aunt, in her account, wrote about her excitement at Christmas when given a new doll and a stocking filled with an orange, an apple, candy and nuts. She wrote:

"In looking back I realize we were blessed with wonderful parents, and a loving and secure home life. There were few outside activities but we always had good books to read, games to play, music and a happy atmosphere. Dad always found time to do things with us, and Mother was always there to kiss away our hurts, and to comfort us in fears and troubles. When I see the pressures on present day children, and the conditions they have to contend with, I am grateful I grew up when I did."

Makes me go all teary-eyed when I read it!

Oh wow - so many of you! I thought I was quite alone until I read this thread. I wrote my dissertation on the Little House books and have a blog that is (loosely) inspired by them.

Moondog, your trip sounds amazing! Last year we went to Pepin, Walnut Grove (I paddled in Plum Creek - I get goosebumps, just remembering it) and we stayed at the De Smet homestead. It was AMAZING! Dd wore my old Laura dress, apron and sunbonnet and flounced about the place like a little pioneer girl. I've brainwashed her, so she loved it too.

I blogged the trip too. Will link if anyone's intetested.

Dh bought me the book 'Little House, Long Shadow: the effect of the Little House books on American culture' for Christmas. I'm reading it now.

Dd got a tin mug, candy cane, heart-shaped biscuit and American penny in her stocking last year. She loved it, bless her.

Yes Georgian, please link.
I thought it was just me.They were the first books I saved up and bought myself.
DD's nowhere near as enchanted as me, sadly.

Your blog sounds fascinating, Georgian - please do link to it.

I haven't read all of the thread, but someone suggested that there was some sort of genetic problem with the family regarding male infant mortality. Boy babies are generally more frail that girl babies.

My grandmother had her fourth and last son (also had four daughters) during World War II and he died as an infant. My mother (daughter 3) had a son at age 16 who died, from cot death. My sister's second son died in infancy, I believe he had a birth defect where his intestines were mostly outside he body when he was born. My second oldest niece's first baby, a boy, died in infancy. You can imagine how nervous I was when my son was born!

Is there a lot of cot death in my family? Are we unusual? I don't know. But I think people talk about these things more than they did in the old days - even in my family I knew I was never to mention my oldest brother, ever. And I do think that people understand the causes better than in previous generations.

I've been watching the DVD series at 6am when ds3 wakes - I love snuggling him on my lap for an hour before the rest of the house gets up.

Must reread the books now

I've been getting all misty eyed over Michael Landon and bitterly resenting the fact that i dont have a pioneer husband with a kind face and twinkly eyes

As a child, I loved them. I remember them being the first series I read, and my mother had all the Laura Books, then the Rose ones, then they came out with books about her mother as a child, then her grandmother and her great-grandmother in Scotland. My mother had them all I remember reading them repeatedly.

As an adult, I wobble. Still good stories, but so many problems I can now see - Pa talking about "hunting wild animals and Indians", the general attitude towards the indigenous populations in general and when seeing the timeline you can see often they were squatting on Native lands and forcefully taking it from them, finding out as others have mentioned how much is inaccurate (the whole episode with the bloody Benders doesn't work as they weren't there then, and so on). Trying to replace in my mind into historical fiction, as the new ones with her older family obviously are, has been hard as it was such a part of my formative years. I remember getting it at 7 or 8 from my mother, I'll probably wait longer to give it to my kids as I'll want them to old enough the problems and issues with the language and manifest destiny attitude. Might start with the great grandmother ones that are obviously fiction, may be easier that way.

georgian, I am so jealous! Your dissertation/blog sound awesome, that must be so much fun to write.

moon - I haven't been to Boston's house but I really want to go sometime. I think her quilts are beautiful and amazing to think she was a very elderly lady working in a house with no central heating (12th century doesn't run to it!).

good ... oh, yes. I think the bit I find hardest is Laura wanting a 'papoose' for herself, which I found really strange.

You've inspired me to reread the LIW and the Anne books, and to add more destinations to my "when the DCs are older" holiday list. Thanks!

Georgian, truly!!?
Blog link please.

Ooh, this is all so interesting but I have to go to work! I will be back and read properly later.

Pharisee, who were the Benders?

zzzz, I love the idea of you trying to extract maple syrup from your ornamejtal tree!

OK, here, at the risk of outing myself, are the blogs:

1. The travel blog from last year: http//mrs-ruby.blogspot.co.uk

1. The 'everyday' blog, sort of an homage to LHOTP but mainly very parochial and chock-full of shocking typos: littlehouseontheheath.blogspot.co.uk

Second attempt at linking to the blog you actually want to read: mrs-ruby.blogspot.co.uk

How did I miss this thread? I adored both the books and the series.My mum made my sister and I Laura and Mary rag dolls complete with bloomers,bonnet,freckles,plaits,pinafore-the lot.We also had gorgeous patchwork quilts.I tried pouring maple syrup into snow last winter to make that candy they did but it didn't work.

I used to be obsessed with the idea of the covered wagon.Recently found out an ancestor was a pioneer that went West and"discovered" Yosemite.

Would love to do a big trip right across the States,one of my dc8 is the same[he's planned the route,although it keeps going up and down as he thinks of more things to see].

Moon tell me more re your trip(if you don't mind).Need ideas on how to fund such a trip,would love to go for 2 months.

What a lovely thread! I love these books, read the early ones to DD not so long ago but have never got round to the later ones - can forsee a LOT of titles going on my Amazon wishlist! I love the bit when Mr Edwards is Santa Claus and also when Laura gets the fur muff and cape from the Christmas tree and is so happy, without knowing or caring that it's second hand and has been donated by someone better off.

Also adored Anne of Green Gables (still need to read a few of the later ones of those too), quite enjoyed the What Katy Did series but found them a little bit pious, and of course loved Little Women etc - it was a toss up when my DD was born whether she'd be named Beth or Amy :)

Laura's house is absolutely beautiful, I would love to go there - in my head I am imagining some kind of literary tour of the US/Canada taking in Missouri, Concord, PE Island and no doubt a few others, sounds as though I would have a few willing travelling companions!

Georgian

I envy you having the freedom to use these books as part of your dissertation. My friend is reading English and American Lit and has had her proposal for a dissertation based upon LIW books alongside other children's literature of the time turned down. She argued that if one doesn't contribute to academic debate then how will an adequate body of sources develop?

Did you get the green light easily? My friend would be interested to know. Her Dissertation supervisor says that first degree dissertations do not have the academic rigour to truly form part of the body of resources/sources. My friend's retort -depends upon the quality of the work!

Just found this thread.

I am beside myself. I have long wished to visit the Little House on the Prairie museum and when I do so I plan to buy a "Pa's fiddle fridge magnet" ! Actually from my wanderings around t'internet I have seen there are several museums: are the others worth a look does anyone know? I am dreaming of a 50th birthday trip (gives me, ahem, a couple of years to save up...)

I started a thread a while ago suggesting that Pa Was Unreasonable. He did not have four sons, he had four daughters, one of whom was blind and another sickly. He was not an uneducated man and could have secured (which he did from time to time) an office job, rather than trying to set up homesteads and farms here, there and everywhere. If Ma had been on MN we'd have all been baying "Leave the bastard!"

I am reading the books to dd and just at the point where Almanzo has proposed. I was trying to explain to dd that in those times early marriage was quite the norm, and Laura leaving home would have meant one less mouth to feed, especially as Mary would have been costing some. Dd also keeps interrupting that although we have to sympathise with Mary because she's blind, she wants to punch her she's so smug!

I sooooo want a Pa's fiddle fridge magnet too and a bonnet for dd.

Do any of you read the Soulemama blog.She's a LIW fan(does make one feel hugely inadequate though)and makes fab quilts!