Little House

I first read Little House on the Prairie when I was a second grader, sharing a room with my little sister in an apartment in Latham, NY. Later I read The Long Winter, and then most of the others, when I moved in 3rd grade to Renton, WA (a suburb of Seattle). Despite the fact that my new best friend on the playground (a blond girl named Cheryl) let me know that these books were, well, rather uncool, I read them all!

I read them in my own room, in the basement of "the old woman's house." That was our house in Renton. A shut-in had been the previous occupant. When she died, and when we moved in, a lot of her belongings were still in the garage. Even to this day, my sister and I have not forgotten the old black and white photographs pasted to black cardboard paper, which we found...such as one bodies lying in the streets of a foreign country (China?) with their heads cut off and neatly stacked alongside the bodies. Another one might have been of an emaciated man in some kind of large cardboard box? but I remember the image much less than the chilling white caption Victim of the Huns. Gruesome.

On a more pleasant note, we also found an old brown textbook from the teens or '20s, which was clearly intended for girls, and which interspersed lessons on history and penmanship with drawing, sewing, cooking, and "how to give a party."

Also on a more pleasant note, the backyard was filled with the great Northwest blackberry bushes.

On a less pleasant note, we lived next door to some really mean dogs.

On a more pleasant note, my mother taught us how to make "sun tea" in the backyard.

On a less pleasant note, the basement (where my sister and I slept) flooded anytime there was a hard rain. I will never forget swinging my legs over the bed and placing my feet on a perfectly dry-looking carpet, when...augh!!
(My sister's room, however, never flooded!)

On a more pleasant note, I got my first cat, a calico kitten I named "Cathy." Also, I read all the Little House books there. Inspired by Garth Williams illustrations, I decided it would be a good idea to draw in the white spaces of almost all of my other (non Little House) books, thus negating any future re-sale value of those items.

I never did find another friend who read them, those some had seen the T.V. show. The museum in Mansfield, Missouri is quite out-of-the way, so I expected it would not be crowded, but I was in for a surprise. No, you're not the only fan!!!

There was a large display case in the musuem in Mansfield, Missouri showing that her books have been published in many different languages here is just one example, including Arabic and Bengali.

Also many displays on her fascinating daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, the oldest American Vietnam war correspondent. For years she dreamed of a place which she later discovered in Albania, where she lived for a while, and also refused a marriage proposal from the King of Albania because she found out he could have multiple wives! (so say the tour guides)