Do you ever play the “what if” game in regards to the Ingalls and Wilders? I sure do. What if the Ingalls had stayed in the Big Woods, mightn’t they have been better off? It seems like their most prosperous time was in that snug little cabin in Wisconsin. Things kind of went downhill from there. Oh sure, there were moments when prosperity seemed right around the corner, until the grasshoppers or hail or something.
Or what if Pa had been able to sweet talk Ma into one more move west? I’ve often speculated that if they’d moved away from the drought conditions of South Dakota to the greener pastures of Oregon or California, Pa might have been able to finally have the farm of his dreams. I’ve always wondered if there was a sting of defeat when he left the homestead and made that one last move into town.
But my biggest “what if” is this – what if Rose had succeeded in convincing her parents to leave Missouri and move to the Santa Clara valley of California? I imagine most of you have never thought about this but, living just a few miles down the highway from the Santa Clara valley, I sure do! Now the valley is better known as Silicon Valley and there isn’t an orchard in sight but back in the early 20th century it was known for its agricultural rather than technical value. Laura toured it in September of 1915, the tail end of the dry season, so although she liked the look of the farms and thought the mountains beautiful, she thought it might be too hot and dusty. If only she had been there in March, in the heart of the rainy season when everything is lush and green. She might not have thought $500 an acre was too much to pay. It would have been the perfect compromise for their health problems, never too hot nor too cold. She was also afraid that buying land in the Santa Clara valley might not be as good an investment as buying more land in Missouri. Maybe she was wrong about that. 
Most importantly, in my life at least, if she and Almanzo had settled in Santa Clara, the Laura Ingalls Wilder House and Museum would be just miles away from me today and I could drive up there anytime I wished, immersing myself in Lauraness.
Ah, if only.