shelf life
What's the shelf life for a LIW obsession? In my case, it hasn't expired. I know a handful of others who keep researching and learning about Laura Ingalls Wilder and don't disappear suddenly or rest on their laurels.

I don't know why it should matter, but I always seem to be surprised when someone who has had a serious interest in "all things Laura" suddenly disappears after a month or even two years at it.

This is Laura's birth month. She was born February 7 (1867), and most fans know that. More serious readers might know that today is Caroline and Charles Ingalls' wedding anniversary (1860). If you're a Farmer Boy enthusiast, you might know that James Wilder died on February 1st (1899). If you've really researched, you might know that on this day, the Kingsbury County Bank was incorporated (1885), and if you were getting obsessed about it, you would have remembered to remember that because this was also the day (1892) that Thomas Ruth became president of said bank. And if you went to the time, trouble, and expense to read Rose Wilder Lane's diaries, you'd know that on February 1st, Laura Ingalls Wilder finished her "Indian juvenile". That would be Little House on the Prairie, of course, and the year would be 1934. If you spent a heck of a lot of time picking nits, you'd know that two Missouri Ruralist articles were released on this day: "The Road Women Travel" (1921) and "Turkeys Bring $1000 a Year" (1924). And that's not even all that happened on this first day of February in "Little House" years past, I'm just tired of typing.

Now if there was only someone out there more obsessed than I am, I wish you'd get in touch, especially if you're an expert on tomorrow. The trouble is, as far as I can tell, not a single thing happened in "Little House" history on February 2nd. Laura never even mentioned groundhogs once that I've been able to find...
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:18 AM