Comments on: What If http://beyondlittlehouse.com/2009/06/12/what-if/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed America's most comprehensive site dedicated to the life, literature, and many homes of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:28:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Karen Loppnow http://beyondlittlehouse.com/2009/06/12/what-if/comment-page-1/#comment-362 Karen Loppnow Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:46:08 +0000 http://www.beyondlittlehouse.com/?p=1104#comment-362 My what if comes from a different perspective. I live 1 hour from Pepin, Burr Oak, Spring Valley. 4 hours from Walnut Grove and 6 from De Smet. Your article got me to thinking of the what if. I have been very fortunate to live where I do and have most of the sites easily in driving distance. I started taking my first grand-daughter with me to the homesites when she was 3 years old. She is now 11. My second grand-daughter is now 6 and she joins us on our trips. We don't go every year but 2 years ago we took an amazing trip starting at Pepin then on to Spring Valley, next stop was Walnut Grove, then to De Smet. Our last stop was Burr Oak as my one grand-daughter lives 5 miles from there. My oldest grand-daughter still remembers the first trip to De Smet when she was 3. I have also taken the oldest to Mansfield and Kansas, just the two of us about 5 years ago. I am very appreciative of living where I do which has enabled me to forge a wonderful bond with my grand-daughters. For that I thank Laura and all of the wonderful people at the homesites for the excellant jobs they all do. My what if comes from a different perspective. I live 1 hour from Pepin, Burr Oak, Spring Valley. 4 hours from Walnut Grove and 6 from De Smet. Your article got me to thinking of the what if. I have been very fortunate to live where I do and have most of the sites easily in driving distance. I started taking my first grand-daughter with me to the homesites when she was 3 years old. She is now 11. My second grand-daughter is now 6 and she joins us on our trips. We don’t go every year but 2 years ago we took an amazing trip starting at Pepin then on to Spring Valley, next stop was Walnut Grove, then to De Smet. Our last stop was Burr Oak as my one grand-daughter lives 5 miles from there.
My oldest grand-daughter still remembers the first trip to De Smet when she was 3. I have also taken the oldest to Mansfield and Kansas, just the two of us about 5 years ago.
I am very appreciative of living where I do which has enabled me to forge a wonderful bond with my grand-daughters. For that I thank Laura and all of the wonderful people at the homesites for the excellant jobs they all do.

]]> By: Roberta http://beyondlittlehouse.com/2009/06/12/what-if/comment-page-1/#comment-363 Roberta Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:53:54 +0000 http://www.beyondlittlehouse.com/?p=1104#comment-363 Hello from Germany There must be something in the air: Just last night I had such a LIW-related "What if...?"-moment when a good old friend gave me a telephone call. He is a historian and somehow our conversation lead us to Albania and it's historical development. When my friend mentioned the time of unrest in the 1920s, Ahmet Zogu came in my mind. You know that it's said that once Rose Wilder Lane refused his proposal of marriage. So we ended up discussing the question: What if Rose and the future King Zog would have been married? Living in Albania, would Rose ever have written something like "The Discovery of Freedom"? Would her influence on Ahmet Zogu have changed Albania's history? Perhaps there never would have been a kingdom of Albania, as it was later established by Zogu, but an Albanian democracy. Resulting from that, perhaps Albania never had lost its sovereignty to Mussolini's Italy... Or just the opposite: Imagine Rose as Queen of Albania... Would LIW's books ever have been published under these circumstances? (What a dreadful thought!) No, we didn't come to any solution, but after all Rose and King Zog and the "What if...?"-game brought us an hour of pleasant conversation and red ears from the telephone handset. Hello from Germany
There must be something in the air: Just last night I had such a LIW-related “What if…?”-moment when a good old friend gave me a telephone call. He is a historian and somehow our conversation lead us to Albania and it’s historical development. When my friend mentioned the time of unrest in the 1920s, Ahmet Zogu came in my mind. You know that it’s said that once Rose Wilder Lane refused his proposal of marriage.
So we ended up discussing the question: What if Rose and the future King Zog would have been married?
Living in Albania, would Rose ever have written something like “The Discovery of Freedom”? Would her influence on Ahmet Zogu have changed Albania’s history? Perhaps there never would have been a kingdom of Albania, as it was later established by Zogu, but an Albanian democracy. Resulting from that, perhaps Albania never had lost its sovereignty to Mussolini’s Italy…
Or just the opposite: Imagine Rose as Queen of Albania… Would LIW’s books ever have been published under these circumstances? (What a dreadful thought!)

No, we didn’t come to any solution, but after all Rose and King Zog and the “What if…?”-game brought us an hour of pleasant conversation and red ears from the telephone handset.

]]> By: Chris Lowenstein http://beyondlittlehouse.com/2009/06/12/what-if/comment-page-1/#comment-361 Chris Lowenstein Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:45:23 +0000 http://www.beyondlittlehouse.com/?p=1104#comment-361 I live in the Bay Area, too, and I have occasionally thought the same thing: What if the Wilders had moved the Valley of Hearts Delight (which, as I am sure you know, was its name before the "Silicon Valley" moniker was applied. I made a long trip to visit the Ingalls homestead in South Dakota last summer, and I loved it, but know it will be some time before I can return there. It would indeed have been so much easier had Laura lived here! I live in the Bay Area, too, and I have occasionally thought the same thing: What if the Wilders had moved the Valley of Hearts Delight (which, as I am sure you know, was its name before the “Silicon Valley” moniker was applied. I made a long trip to visit the Ingalls homestead in South Dakota last summer, and I loved it, but know it will be some time before I can return there. It would indeed have been so much easier had Laura lived here!

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