Little House series: book vs reality

[bettertomarry]

I've managed to convince my wife to read on of the little house series books. Problem is I love them all for different reasons and can't pick just one. Any suggestions from FJ-ers about which one I should get her to read?

[SamuraiKatz]

I've managed to convince my wife to read on of the little house series books. Problem is I love them all for different reasons and can't pick just one. Any suggestions from FJ-ers about which one I should get her to read?

I'd suggest Little House in the Big Woods to start, then follow the books in order. Farmer Boy is kind of a stand alone and can be skipped for the time being.

I loved these books when I was a young reader and passed my set on to my kids.

[Wolfie]

I heard this about Mary's illness on NPR. It doesn't negate that scarlet fever can still be dangerous and cause heart problems and other more serious issues if it progresses to Rheumatic Fever . But, they can be prevented with treatment. My worry is that the anti medicine types will hear this report and not take strep seriously, which could lead to the more serious issues.

My grandfather had heart damage from Rheumatic Fever as a child in the days before antibiotics. He did live to 90, but they originally thought (due to the medical knowledge at the time) that he wouldn't live to 50 because of it.

[Drina Adams]

Does anyone remember in The First Four Years when Mr. Boast offered to swap his horse for Rose as he and his wife couldn't have a baby? Even as a child reading it I was horrified. They seemed to be close family friends, if it really did happen I wonder how the relationship was afterwards. Heartbreaking for infertile couple with no treatment available.

[FloraDoraDolly]

Does anyone remember in The First Four Years when Mr. Boast offered to swap his horse for Rose as he and his wife couldn't have a baby? Even as a child reading it I was horrified. They seemed to be close family friends, if it really did happen I wonder how the relationship was afterwards. Heartbreaking for infertile couple with no treatment available.

I always wondered about that, too. But I've heard about similar exchanges taking place in this day and age in poor countries, so it probably wasn't unheard of in America back then as it is now. It is sad that treatments for infertility weren't available to people like the Boasts, but at the same time there were plenty of orphanages full of healthy children, including babies.

[Wolfie]

I always wondered about that, too. But I've heard about similar exchanges taking place in this day and age in poor countries, so it probably wasn't unheard of in America back then as it is now. It is sad that treatments for infertility weren't available to people like the Boasts, but at the same time there were plenty of orphanages full of healthy children, including babies.

I do wonder if part of that was that they could see how much the family was suffering and thought that it might be their wish to give Rose a better life.

[Drina Adams]

Wasn't Laura's friend Ida adopted? I wonder if there was a reason the Boasts didn't go down that route.

[crazyforkate]

Does anyone remember in The First Four Years when Mr. Boast offered to swap his horse for Rose as he and his wife couldn't have a baby? Even as a child reading it I was horrified. They seemed to be close family friends, if it really did happen I wonder how the relationship was afterwards. Heartbreaking for infertile couple with no treatment available.

Horrifying yet heartbreaking. Perhaps it was hard to find children in the area to adopt? Especially if it was not very well-settled...can't remember where FFY took place.

There was a similar incident in a Maeve Binchy book where a man loses his wife in childbirth and doesn't want the baby, while the childless schoolteacher longs for it; they both reflect, without ever telling the other, that if it weren't for the judgment of the neighbours it would make so much sense to just give the little boy to the teacher for her own. Instead the boy has an unhappy childhood because his father resents him and the teacher remains childless. That always struck me as really sad.

[Drina Adams]

Horrifying yet heartbreaking. Perhaps it was hard to find children in the area to adopt? Especially if it was not very well-settled...can't remember where FFY took place.

There was a similar incident in a Maeve Binchy book where a man loses his wife in childbirth and doesn't want the baby, while the childless schoolteacher longs for it; they both reflect, without ever telling the other, that if it weren't for the judgment of the neighbours it would make so much sense to just give the little boy to the teacher for her own. Instead the boy has an unhappy childhood because his father resents him and the teacher remains childless. That always struck me as really sad.

That was the Copper Beech. I think she had a special insight into infertility, and needed to work through her own infertility, as its a theme in almost all her books, even in a minor subplot.

[hoipolloi]

IIRC, Laura herself was the subject of an adoption inquiry as a child when the Ingallas were managing that inn or boarding house in Burr Oak, Iowa. A wealthy couple offered to give Laura a better life but Charles & Caroline declined.

[Drina Adams]

I remember reading that in a biography. I wonder how serious a request it was and if her parents ever thought 'maybe'.

[E Street Fan]

That was the Copper Beech. I think she had a special insight into infertility, and needed to work through her own infertility, as its a theme in almost all her books, even in a minor subplot.

It took place in De Smet. I thought Mrs. Boast had health problems, and that's why they had no kids.

I never realized there were so many infertility plots in Maeve Binchy's books. There's a lot of adoption plots and subplots, too.

[Drina Adams]

I never realized there were so many infertility plots in Maeve Binchy's books. There's a lot of adoption plots and subplots, too.

Adoption was extremely common in Ireland until the late 1980s, as there was (and still is) no abortion available those who couldn't afford to 'go to England' as the euphemism still goes, had no choice but to continue pregnancies and have their children adopted. Illegitimate children had a different legal status until the late 1980s too. Every one of my friends in Ireland would know someone who's adopted. Children were also sold to Catholic couples in America by orders of nuns, a friend of my mother's who worked for Aer Lingus in the 1970s recalls many children, both toddlers and babies, being on flights with special passports and were destined for American couples deemed suitably Catholic.

The situation changed dramatically when more supports for lone parents were introduced and there are very few domestic adoptions nowadays.

[Deloris]

I recently reread these books for the first time as an adult (read them many time as a girl) and for the first time was horrified at all the hardship in them. I missed the part about the Mr. & Mrs. Boast wanting to adopt Rose, though. That is really sad.

[moreorlessnu]

Isn't that where Laura clutches Rose to her chest and gasps, "Drive on, Manly! Drive on!".

If I had to re-read one of the LHOP books, I would read "The Long Cold Winter".

[Drina Adams]

I just remembered an apprenticeship note in Farmer Boy, when Almanzo has the chance to work for a man but decided not to. Also, I thought there was a marked contrast in how education was viewed by the Wilder family vs the Ingalls family in the books. Almanzo is often not sent to school or allowed to work at home instead, and school doesn't seem that important. I recall his older siblings being sent away to school, maybe it was expected that he as the youngest would be a worked on the farm? Or would the eldest have inherited it. Also, fundies refer to public school disorder as a reason for homeschooling, but LIW paints a varied picture of schools and teachers, including herself, in the books, as well as how the townspeople viewed the school, in terms of school boards, inspections and the like.

[Sister_Wife]

I just remembered an apprenticeship note in Farmer Boy, when Almanzo has the chance to work for a man but decided not to. Also, I thought there was a marked contrast in how education was viewed by the Wilder family vs the Ingalls family in the books. Almanzo is often not sent to school or allowed to work at home instead, and school doesn't seem that important. I recall his older siblings being sent away to school, maybe it was expected that he as the youngest would be a worked on the farm? Or would the eldest have inherited it. Also, fundies refer to public school disorder as a reason for homeschooling, but LIW paints a varied picture of schools and teachers, including herself, in the books, as well as how the townspeople viewed the school, in terms of school boards, inspections and the like.

I too thought it was strange at first that they seemed to not really care about Almanzo's education, until I finished the book and realised that:

I think Father Wilder realised early on that Almanzo was the one who was passionate about the farm. Royal was adamant that he would be a "town man". Even though his father often seemed to act indifferent towards Almanzo, I think it was more a way of toughening him up, seeing if he would last the distance. I do remember though that when Almanzo wanted to give school up altogether, his father did say that he needed to prove first that he was competent in maths, as all good farmers need a thorough understanding of numbers.

I think that it was possible that even though Royal should have been the one to inherit the farm, they let that slip, when Almanzo was the one who showed the interest.

I never read the books as a child, but have been reading them over the last few months. I'm really enjoying them so far.

[lilith]

There wasn't really a tradition of oldest son inheriting all and entailment in rural America, or even in small scale farming families in much of Europe. The land would go to whoever was still there and would use it when the parents died, even if it meant splitting the farm.

[smittykins]

Bumping up this thread, because I grabbed my copy of These Happy Golden Years to read while doing laundry today. One thing that bugs me is when Laura goes back to school(as a student)after teaching at the Brewster School, she finds out that her class was assigned to do a paper on ambition. And oh, by the way, it's due after lunch. So she hurriedly writes her essay during lunch, taking most of it from the dictionary. Even though she's praised by her teacher, I think it's crazy that she was expected to do the paper that very same day when she hadn't been around for two months.(And IIRC, it was Ida or one of her other classmates who told her about the assignment, not her teacher.)Of course, it may have been fictionalized, but it still makes me go :wtf:

[nerdymama1]

Bumping up this thread, because I grabbed my copy of These Happy Golden Years to read while doing laundry today. One thing that bugs me is when Laura goes back to school(as a student)after teaching at the Brewster School, she finds out that her class was assigned to do a paper on ambition. And oh, by the way, it's due after lunch. So she hurriedly writes her essay during lunch, taking most of it from the dictionary. Even though she's praised by her teacher, I think it's crazy that she was expected to do the paper that very same day when she hadn't been around for two months.(And IIRC, it was Ida or one of her other classmates who told her about the assignment, not her teacher.)Of course, it may have been fictionalized, but it still makes me go :wtf:

Totally ot, but I am in awe. How do you manage to read while you do laundry? I have never been able to master this feat!

[smittykins]

I read while the washer and dryer do the laundry. :D

[SarahE_285]

Bumping up this thread, because I grabbed my copy of These Happy Golden Years to read while doing laundry today. One thing that bugs me is when Laura goes back to school(as a student)after teaching at the Brewster School, she finds out that her class was assigned to do a paper on ambition. And oh, by the way, it's due after lunch. So she hurriedly writes her essay during lunch, taking most of it from the dictionary. Even though she's praised by her teacher, I think it's crazy that she was expected to do the paper that very same day when she hadn't been around for two months.(And IIRC, it was Ida or one of her other classmates who told her about the assignment, not her teacher.)Of course, it may have been fictionalized, but it still makes me go :wtf:

If Laura had already been a teacher, why was she going back to school anyway?

[singsingsing]

Because she started teaching school when she was 15 to earn money and she wanted to finish her own education.

[Confused_by_religion]

I always wondered about that, too. But I've heard about similar exchanges taking place in this day and age in poor countries, so it probably wasn't unheard of in America back then as it is now. It is sad that treatments for infertility weren't available to people like the Boasts, but at the same time there were plenty of orphanages full of healthy children, including babies.

Swapping kids around was much more common in the 19th century - often for economic reasons, the worse the times, the more children were shuffled around and "farmed out". I recently went to see an open-air museum with a focus on rural history. There was a picture of a farm family in the 1910s or so. A whole bunch of people, and the researchers had found out how these people were (not) related. There were about 14 people, the farmer and his wife, two servants or so, and loads of children. The farmer's children, but also the olderst son's first and second son born out of wedlock; the second son's son born out of wedlock, the farmer's son born out of wedlock (almost an adult by this time), and two or three foster children. Can you imagine the family dynamics? Can you imagine the fun of raising your husband's child that he had with another woman? Oh, the fun times to be had when they were all dunking old bread in their communal soup bowl...

Mind you, these were just regular Catholic farm folks, went to church every Sunday and were probably regarded as extra charitable for taking all those children in (-> free labour, of course).

Or think of Jane Austen - in "Mansfield Park", Fanny Pryce is taken on by the Bertrams as a foster child and one doesn't get the impression it was a totally unusal thing to do. Jane Austen herself was also taken to a foster family until she was two or three. Apparently, her parents did this with all their children, so it can't have been all that unusual.

Fun times.

I'd like to push every fundie going on about the "good old times" into the TARDIS and throw them out somewhere in an Alpine farming region in the 1770ies or so.

[miffy]

I don't understand why fundies think the little house series is ideal. You don't even have to scratch the surface to see that the Ingalls were a family who valued formal education for girls. They were really quite modern for a poor family of that time.