what rosebunting and cyberbessie want to know
1. Did Mary sleep with her hair in rags every night when you lived in the Big Woods? How about when you traveled in the wagon to Little House on the Prairie? Because the wind whipped Mary's golden curls in her face in the wagon. Mary's hair was naturally straight as a stick, so that would indicate that she slept in rags every night.

2. If Cap Garland was the same age as Almanzo, how come he didn't go to school too?

3. Why did you sleep in the attic in Plum Creek, but not in the Big Woods?

4. Where did you go for storms in Plum Creek? Was there a cellar on the house?

5. Was there a storm cellar for the Little House on the Prairie?

6. Didn't it mix up your family to have all those babies called Dolly Varden?

7. Why did Ma teach Mary to read and not you?

8. How big were the fish that Ma fried crisp on Plum Creek?

9. When you got married and moved away did Carrie and Grace each have their own bed, or did they just share one bed and they left the other empty for Mary?

10. Could you be a little more precise on how to make starry papers.

11. Where did your family sleep when working at the Masters Hotel in Burr Oak?

12. Where was baby Freddy buried?

13. Why didn’t Pa butcher the cow or calf during the Hard Winter?

14. Who were your Walter and Clara Devoe friends in De Smet?

15. What were the sleeping arrangements during the Hard Winter? During the winter in the Surveyors’ House? (I mean with the Masters family and Walter Odgen.) Were there any more non-family members in residence at any time during the LH books?

16. Were there fish in Lake Henry? Silver Lake? Did people catch and eat them before/during/after the Hard Winter?

17. How far did you take the train west from Walnut Grove?

18. Who did Almanzo court before you? Anyone? If no, why not?

19. How do you slash doughnuts so that they flip over in the hot grease?

20. What happened to Minnie Johnson?

21. Why was it a family skeleton to shoot a man in self defense? Wouldn't it be more scandalous to divorce the man that was defending you?

22. Did it take fifty years of marriage to get enough stories to write Farmer Boy? How many nights did it take Almanzo to tell a story?

23. Why didn't Pa go to Oregon from Wisconsin? Umpteen billion immigrants managed to sail across the ocean, couldn't he either get to Boston and sail around the Horn, or go up to Canada and take the train? Or go on the Oregon Trail?

24. Did Mary Power ever offer to share scraps from her father's tailor shop?

25. Did Ma or Pa ever tell you not to go to the Power Tailor shop because of Tay Pay's drinking?

26. Did you ever hear of the Bunn automatic string package tying machine?

27. Were you ever invited to play Progressive cinch with the Sanfords?

28. Did you ever own a copy of the record that had Alf Ely singing?

29. When Genny died did you do a little dance of joy?

30. How many pictures did you lose that you sent out for publicity purposes?

31. What kinds of things did you and Clarence Huleatt write to each other about?

32. Did you and Almanzo fool around before marriage?

33. Did you ever shave your legs? Underarms?

34. How much molasses did you put in your gingerbread?

35. What happened to your engagement ring?

36. Where did Uncle Peter live in Pierce County when you went visiting?

37. Did anybody ever try to cure Baby Carrie of spoon banging?

38. Was Jack an American or an English bulldog?

39. Was Cap Garland gay?

40. What kind of heel did you typically use when knitting a sock?

41. Did Lizzie ever tag along with Mary P. as company for Carrie?

42. Mary and Ma seem to do a lot of hair grabbing as a technique to control you during Pioneer Girl. Was this the standard way to skirt the "You girls must never strike each other" command? Did you girls yank each other's hair as a way to resolve issues?

43. Was Mary blind in that photo? Was Carrie wearing a dress that little girls back east could no longer wear? Are those the Indian beads? Did you still put your hair up in rags at the time the photo was taken? Is Grace crying just outside the picture, and did she have her photo taken alone when she calmed down?

44. Have you ever had a chance to eat all the cracklings you wanted?

45. If you did not like sweet things to eat, why didn't you give Mary your cookie and not worry about sharing with Carrie?

46. Why did you choose apple farming in Missouri over apple farming in Washington state?

47. If Ma wanted to live somewhere where you girls could get an education, why didn't you settle near a Normal school area?

48. Was Grace a little "slow"?

49.Where did your tin cup in the Big Woods go in Indian Territory?

50. The distance from Independence to the census approved spot of Little House on the Prairie is nowhere near forty miles. Do you stand firm on Pa's skills estimating distances?

51. Who was your first real crush? Rev. Alden or Big Jerry?

52. What’s the real story behind that china shepherdess?

53. The Big Woods horses: what were their names?

54. What ever happened to Captain Berry’s nigger?

55. The neck accent to your brown poplin was a 2-inch wide blue ribbon with streamers to your waist. Why didn’t Ma make you wear a red ribbon?

56. Whose slates are on display in Mansfield? They have red string laces, and in a letter to Rose, you stated that your slate didn’t have strings.

57. Admit it. You twirled on the organ stool, too, didn’t you?

58. Where was the telephone located in the Rocky Ridge farmhouse?

59. What’s the deal with the twin beds at Rocky Ridge?

60. Where’s your engagement ring?

61. When did you realize that Rose was going to be a difficult child?

62. Rose later recalled her stay at your parent's home while you and Almanzo were ill with diptheria. Yet she complains that you never told her that she had a brother, and that event was a few years later. Did Rose tell fanciful stories when she was young? Or was she silent and brooding?

63. What kind of toys did Rose play with? Did she have a doll? Did she play with it?

64. Why didn't you buy Rose some baby ribbon for Christmas? Why did she long so for baby ribbon, and why didn't you notice? Ma would have.

65. Did you ever read Anne of Green Gables? Did the part of the story where Matthew notices something different about what Anne is wearing from what the other girls were wearing remind you of your childhood? Of Rose's childhood?

66. To your knowledge, did Cousin Peter's wife ever slip anything tainted to Rose to eat?

67. Why didn't you say "no, thank you" to Rose's rock house scheme?

68. Was Gillette the cause of Rose's pregnancy? What operation did she have in Kansas City?

69. What did Eliza Jane Thayer do to Rose that set her so against her? I know that you had your reasons, but Rose changed the flavor of your stories and made her a much more unsympathetic character. She opened her home to Rose. Why did you send her to live with her for a high school education? Did she offer free room and board and supplies also? Did you think Eliza Jane would take a firmer hand with her? Had you lost control? Why not send her to De Smet, which also had a high school, and Ma and Mary could have used her help and your help financially.

70. Who read the story of the Wandering Jew to Rose? When did she start to read?

71. Which is prettier; brown hair or golden?

72. Where/when did you taste part of an orange before Ben Woodworth’s birthday party?

73. When did Mary cut her front hair into lunatic fringe? Did Ma not like it on her either?

74. Did Carrie and Grace really play with hand-sleds after you were married?

75. Why didn’t you care to know the Wilmarths in 1931? Did they care to know you after TLW was published?

76. What made your blue willow-ware your favorite? Was it the same pattern (or the same china) as the Wilder’s blue willow platter from FB, or was that a fictional bit you added because of your willow fondness?

77. How in the world did Ma and Aunt Eliza knit the backs of Pa’s and Uncle Peter’s mittens into little squares?

78. What was your Christmas penny (that Mary owned half of) spent on?

79. Why did you never join a church? Were you really never baptized?

80. Why doesn’t the Mansfield “house in town” – shown in the picture with you standing on the porch without one plea – look at all like the house that is standing there today?

81. Did you and Manly ever speculate about Rose's private life?

82. Why did you think that Mary Power was "young" when she died? 69 seems to be a bit past young adult age.

83. Did you ever correspond with Mary Power, Ida or "Minnie Johnson" after you left De Smet, or did you only get clippings sent to you by Ma when things happened.

84. Did you ever find out that Stella Gilbert had a son that worked for Drury the Tailor?

85. Did you know that Willie Owens was blinded as a young boy? Did you write about the faux Willie Owens acting like an imbecile anyway?

86. What were the Nellie Owens stories that you told your neighbor boys that were much more naughty?

87. Did you ever put your foot down and keep it down when Rose cooked up a scheme about what you and Almanzo should do with your lives? Did you ever kick yourself for sending her to live with Eliza Jane for a year?

88. Did you let your dogs wander all over place? Why did Rose let her dogs run about on the highway? Was there an ordinance against fences in Wright County?

89. Did Mr.Owens shop at Costco? How could Nellie and Willie cram their hands in the candy jars all the time and not deplete his inventory? Did they really just grab one piece and put on a show of licking it slowly in front of you?

90. Did Rose pitch a fit when you donated your manuscripts? Why did Grace need to be disciplined so often? Did Rose add that? Why was Pa so weak? He could carry you and Mary for miles in Little House on the Prairie, but by the time of De Smet he couldn't carry a little three year old.

91. How big were your candy hearts with the poems on them? What did they taste like?

92. What is Mother Wilder’s pancake rule?

93. Did you receive a reply about the Soldat du Chene letter you sent to that Indian expert? What did it say?

94. Pa had a homestead on Plum Creek. Did you live there? Was that where the dugout really was?

95. What’s the true story about the mummified Indian baby and the railroader?

96. What’s the real story of the Hard Winter wheat? Does it involve Amos Whiting?

97. Who was the girl that Almanzo was supposed to ask if he could see her home – the one Cap Garland dared him to ask?

98. Other than Clyde Perry, who were your students in the Perry School?

99. What’s your recipe for fried apples ‘n onions?

100. Where exactly did you live in Florida?
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:00 AM