For Summer Giveaway #3, the computer at random.org picked these two lucky winners: Laura and Shelley. Please email [email removed] with your mailing address. Remember, there will be several opportunities throughout the summer to win a copy so if you missed out this time, keep trying. Stay tuned for the next giveaway question. I enjoyed reading all of the comments and look forward to the next one!
Prairie Tale: Part 2
Read Part 1 here regarding Melissa Gilbert’s autobiography, Prairie Tale.
The publicity hit the fan before the book was even published. Headlines flashed the secrets Melissa spilled in her book regarding her own life and that of other Hollywood stars. I had to just stop reading them. I wanted to read it from Melissa, in the way that she chose to tell it, not the media’s extracted bits of gossip. Why must they always spoil things for people?
I’ve seen reviews since publication, as well — seems to be a mixed bag. People have been very negative about Melissa’s comments about Michael Landon (I’m far more surprised by the people who are surprised than I was by anything Melissa said, and I thought she dealt with his issues tastefully and respectfully and only as his decisions affected her own life), and I’ve also seen disappointment expressed that more “behind the scenes of Little House” and talk of the other actors/actresses wasn’t included.
But this book wasn’t touted to be “Behind the Scenes of Little House on the Prairie.” It was supposed to be the story of Melissa’s life, her journey to her all-time low and how she rose from the ashes. And that’s exactly what it is.
I’m not going to spill any secrets or give away any stories, because I hate it when people do that to me. What I will say is that I was pleasantly surprised to learn about what Melissa’s childhood and adolescence were like, because just as I suspected, she was a girl I could easily have been friends with, had we grown up together and been the same age.
I was sad to read of the path she followed that took her away from the girl that she was — but apparently didn’t know herself to be — and I was thrilled that this story had a happy ending.
What I came away with was the impression that I had just sat down and had a nice long chat with Melissa Gilbert. I felt like I got to know her — the real Melissa — to some extent, at least.
The book was well-written and carefully crafted from beginning to end to bring Melissa’s life full-circle, from the little girl who played Laura to the grown woman who learned from the lessons taught by the real Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Laura and her Little House legacy has played a major role in my life from my earliest days to now. In a very different way, it has also played a major role in Melissa’s life. Therein lies the common bond between a Hollywood television star and a little barefoot pigtailed girl growing up in the mountains of West Virginia.
It all comes back to Laura.
It always does.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: Melissa Gilbert, Musical--Little House on the Prairie, Rebecca, Television series -- Little House on the Prairie
Prairie Tale: Part 1
I rarely watch tv or go to the movies. I have no interest in the Hollywood scene, never have. I pay no attention to actors and actresses, and have no idea who plays in what.
With one exception.
I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie, and I mean that literally. The show began the year I was born, and my mother watched it, so from infancy, I’ve always watched it.
I felt like the little girls on the television show were my friends. And I especially identified with Melissa Gilbert.
I really don’t know how much my interest in the Little House television show intertwined with my interest in the Little House books as a child, but as long as I can remember, I viewed them as two distinctly different entities — after all, the show and the books had very little in common other than the names of some of the major characters. Laura (of the books) and Melissa were not one and the same to me, and when I played Little House with my cousin, I was role-playing the real Laura, not the Melissa Gilbert version. But still, Melissa Gilbert always seemed like a friend to me somehow — again, Melissa, not Laura. I didn’t view her as Laura. I knew there was a real little girl playing Laura, much as I played her myself, and I just had a feeling that if I met that little girl in real life, we would be friends.
I was interested in Melissa beyond Little House, too. The movies she did during the Little House years, such as The Miracle Worker and The Diary of Anne Frank, were among my favorites.
And then she grew up, and I grew up, and I didn’t follow her life any longer. I never heard much, but what I heard told me that she and I were no longer much alike, and I lost interest in the grown Melissa Gilbert. I still loved the child Melissa, however, and just held onto that image of her, ignoring whatever happened to her after the Little House years.
And then I began to hear rumors about her involvement in the Little House on the Prairie musical. And my interest started to grow again. Was Melissa returning to her roots? Was the grown Melissa looking back to her childhood with fondness and remembering the little girl that she was, or at least that I thought her to be?
When the musical went to the Guthrie, I knew I had to see it, and I added Melissa on a social networking site to follow any updates she might post related to the musical. And then, out of the blue, I dashed off a quick note to her — a note I didn’t know if she’d ever even see. I certainly didn’t expect a response. After all, she’s Melissa Gilbert, and I’m just me. An ordinary girl from West Virginia that grew up watching her on tv, like millions of other girls.
Imagine my surprise when she not only wrote back, but said to come back and meet her after the show. Of course I did so, and was so pleased to find her so friendly and down-to-earth, just as I’d always thought she’d be when I was a little girl. I’ve wondered since that time about Melissa, and her journey from the Little House years to today. How did she get there, and what happened between then and now? What brought her back to her beginnings?
So when I heard that Melissa was coming out with an autobiography, I was thrilled. What a great chance to get to know the little girl I always thought I could be friends with if only we knew each other in real life, to find out what happened to her after the Little House years, and learn firsthand what drew her back…
To be continued…
Update: Read Part 2 here.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: Melissa Gilbert, Musical--Little House on the Prairie, Rebecca, Television series -- Little House on the Prairie
Laura Palooza 2010: Your thoughts?
This weekend, several of us are gathering in De Smet, S.D., to enjoy Laura’s little town and to hammer out some details for next summer’s Laura Palooza 2010, to be held in Mankato, Minn., July 15-17. One thing we all want to know is what YOU want in a conference event of this site.
Some things we have already on the docket:
* Panels and papers from scholars who research the legacies of Laura and her daughter, Rose. A call for papers will go out by the end of the month.
* Authors of books associated with Laura’s legacies, including myself, Pamela Smith Hill, John Miller, and others.
* A Saturday closing field trip to Walnut Grove, Minn., just 1 1/2 hours from Mankato on the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Highway, which should include the annual pageant.
Some things we’re working on:
* A Friday night entertainment! We’re in talks with a name star from the original television series. Cross your fingers.
* A screening of Dean Butler’s documentary about Almanzo Wilder.
* A craft circle event.
* Book discussion roundtables.
* Educators’ workshops.
It seems like a lot to cram into three days, so we’d love your input on what you’d like to see.
I’m also working with my campus, Minnesota State University, Mankato, to arrange for inexpensive accommodations in our new, air-conditioned, Julia A. Sears Residence Hall, steps from the Centennial Student Union, which is where most of our activity will take place. These would be open on a first-come, first-served basis. There are also a number of reasonably priced hotels and motels in the area; Mankato is a college town, after all.
Post your comments below!
Summer Giveaway #3
If Rose Wilder Lane were alive today, what would she be doing? Share your thoughts in the comment section and be entered in a drawing for a copy of my book Rose Wilder Lane’s San Francisco. In approximately two weeks I will let the computer at random.org pick the winners. There will be several opportunities throughout the summer to win a copy so if you miss out this time, keep trying. Feel free to enter the drawing, even if you already have a copy of the book. Win one for a friend or for your local library. Most of all have fun! (For more information on Rose Wilder Lane’s San Francisco visit www.PrairieMania.com.)
Boom!
Boom!
Laura was jerked out of sleep. The bedroom was dark. Carrie asked in a thin, scared whisper, “What was that?”
“Don’t be scared,” Laura answered. They listened. The window was hardly gray in the dark, but Laura could feel that the middle of the night was past.
BOOM! The air seemed to shake.
“Great guns!” Pa exclaimed sleepily.
“Why? Why?” Grace demanded. “Pa, Ma, why?”
Carrie asked, “Who is it? What are they shooting?”
“What time is it?” Ma wanted to know.
Through the partition Pa answered, “It’s Fourth of July, Carrie.” The air shook again. BOOM!
It was not great guns. It was gunpowder exploded under the blacksmith’s anvil, in town. The noise was like the noise of battles that Americans fought for independence. Fourth of July was the day when the first Americans declared that all men are born free and equal. BOOM!
Excerpt from Little Town on the Prairie, Chapter 8, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
America’s King
The crowd was scattering away then, but Laura stood stock still. Suddenly she had a completely new thought. The Declaration and the song came together in her mind, and she thought: God is America’s king.
She thought: Americans won’t obey any king on earth. Americans are free. That means they have to obey their own consciences. No king bosses Pa, he has to boss himself. Why (she thought), when I am a little older, Pa and Ma will stop telling me what to do, and there isn’t anyone else who has a right to give me orders. I will have to make myself be good.
Her whole mind seemed to be lighted up by that thought. This is what it means to be free. It means, you have to be good. “Our father’s God, author of liberty –“ The laws of Nature and of Nature’s God endow you with a right to life and liberty. Then you have to keep the laws of God, for God’s law is the only thing that gives you a right to be free.
Excerpt from Little Town on the Prairie, Chapter 8, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Independence Day
“Father, how was it axes and plows that made this country? Didn’t we fight England for it?”
“We fought for Independence, son,” Father said. “But all the land our forefathers had was a little strip of country, here between the mountains and the ocean. All the way from here west was Indian country, and Spanish and French and English country. It was farmers that took all that country and made it America.”
“How?” Almanzo asked.
“Well, son, the Spaniards were soldiers, and high-and-mighty gentlemen that only wanted gold. And the French were fur-traders, wanting to make quick money. And England was busy fighting wars. But we were farmers, son; we wanted the land. It was farmers that went over the mountains, and cleared the land, and settled it, and farmed it, and hung on to their farms.
“This country goes three thousand miles west, now. It goes ‘way out beyond Kansas, and beyond the Great American Desert, over mountains bigger than these mountains, and down to the Pacific Ocean. It’s the biggest country in the world, and it was farmers who took all that country and made it America, son. Don’t you ever forget that.”
Excerpt from Farmer Boy, Chapter 16, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Where History is Preserved…
I recently returned from my first Little House trip of the year, and felt I just had to share about the wonderful experience I had at one of the homesites. You often hear lovely stories about visits to Mansfield, to De Smet, to Walnut Grove… but I had a delightful time at a site that often seems to be overlooked: Spring Valley, Minnesota.
Spring Valley was the home of Laura, Almanzo, and little Rose during 1890-91, which makes it significant in and of itself. But there’s a lot more to Spring Valley than that.
Farmer Boy, set near Burke, New York, ends with young Almanzo Wilder taking his first step away from boyhood and toward manhood. When next we see Almanzo in the series, he is a grown man, a homesteader in Dakota Territory. Where did the transition from boy to man take place? Where did Almanzo learn the skills he would need to manage his own farm, to train his own animals, to be a man fit for the heroine of our series?
In Spring Valley, Minnesota.
The Wilder family moved to Minnesota around 1870-71. Although the older children stayed to maintain the farm in New York until about 1875, Almanzo went with his parents to Spring Valley and therefore spent his adolescent years on the Minnesota farm before setting out on his own in 1878.
Mother and Father Wilder remained on their Spring Valley farm until shortly before their deaths, and Royal left De Smet for Spring Valley and lived out his life there. All three of the Wilder girls, Laura, Eliza Jane, and Alice, spent varying amounts of time living in Spring Valley, and met and married their husbands there. Decades of Wilder history took place in Spring Valley. For that alone, I am sure you must agree that this makes it worth a stop on any Wilder pilgrimage.
But what does Spring Valley have to offer visitors? Therein lies the real treasure.
The Spring Valley site is unique among Wilder homes in that it was not initially created to be a Wilder site. The Spring Valley Historical Society was formed to preserve local history, and it continues to fulfill this purpose today. As the Wilder family is part of that local history, extensive research has been conducted by local volunteers to provide Wilder admirers with accurate information about the Wilders’ life in Spring Valley.
Spring Valley Methodist Church Museum
The Historical Society is located in the original church building that the Wilder family attended, including Laura and Almanzo. Visitors will receive an informative tour of Spring Valley history through its artifacts housed on the lower level of the church; the exhibit even includes a general store such as Royal Wilder owned in Spring Valley. The upstairs preserves church history and contains displays on Wilder history. The research gathered has been conveniently put together in a couple of different booklets available for purchase at the gift shop.
But that’s not all. The Historical Society also owns a historic home across the street from the church, which is furnished entirely in period items owned by Spring Valley families. You can almost imagine Mother Wilder bustling around the kitchen or picture Eliza Jane and Alice sitting primly in the fine parlor with their male suitors.
The vast amount of historic items the Society has preserved is amazing in and of itself, but what I find even more incredible is that they’ve purchased none of it. All of the items in the church and the home — including the home itself — were donated by the people of Spring Valley. Now that’s a community that values their history!
The Wilder home in Spring Valley no longer exists, but the Historical Society will point interested visitors to the location of their farm. Currently an original Wilder barn sits on the property (viewable from the street only, please, as this is privately owned property), but unfortunately, the barn will soon be torn down and this valuable piece of Wilder history will be lost to us. (The Society has made every attempt to save the barn, but it has not been possible.)
The Wilder Barn
You can visit the grave of Royal Wilder and two of his infant children in the local cemetery, as well as several other family members (including Mother Wilder’s brother George Day and sister Delia Day Stockman; Almanzo’s sister Laura’s husband, Harrison Lomanzo Howard; Almanzo’s cousin Chet Lamson and his family; and family of Royal’s wife Electa Averill Hutchinson).
So if you have a Little House trip planned and it doesn’t include a stop at Spring Valley, you will surely want to change your plans to work in a visit at this wonderful site which values its history. Best of all is its proximity to other Wilder sites: Spring Valley is only an hour from Burr Oak, Iowa; two hours from Pepin, Wisconsin; or three hours from Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Even if you can’t go this year, visit their website and plan a stop in the future. Or make a donation — the church is currently in need of some expensive roof repair and your assistance would be appreciated.
The kind volunteers at the Historical Society are passionate about preserving the past, and for that we highly commend them.
Summer Giveaway #2 winners
For Summer Giveaway #2, the computer at random.org picked these two lucky winners: Tess C. and Caroline. Please email [email removed] with your mailing address. Remember, there will be several opportunities throughout the summer to win a copy so if you missed out this time, keep trying. Stay tuned for the next giveaway question. I enjoyed reading all of the comments and look forward to the next one!