meet me, oh meet me
According to Laura Ingalls Wilder, on the Glorious Fourth after the Hard Winter, the sun "rose shining into the clearest of skies" and it seemed to know that this was the sort of a day for a celebration. But, as Ma pointed out, they couldn't very well have a picnic without fried chicken. And Pa noted that the town wasn't far enough along to have a picnic celebration, but maybe there would be one the next year.

There was no picnic in 1881, but there also weren't the horse races, fire crackers, or outdoor celebration that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in Little Town on the Prairie (Chapter 8). That remembered Fourth of July celebration surely took place at a later date or - more likely - was a composite of memories; in 1881, it rained in De Smet, and the day's activities took place in Mr. Fuller's unfinished hardware store building in town. There was a speech, and Mr. Couse and Mrs. Bradley sang. And at some point during the gathering, word came from the Depot that President Garfield had been shot, so the celebration turned somber.

In Little Town on the Prairie, Laura later remembers Pa singing "The Whip-poor-will Song", something he says he heard in town. The LTOP manuscript says it was on the Fourth of July. In her Pioneer Girl manuscript, however, Laura writes that she first hears the song at a Fourth of July celebration in Walnut Grove:

When the 4th of July came we went to the picnic at Walnut Grove. Mary and I had never been to a 4th of July celebration and we were excited about it all. Ma packed fried chicken, bread and butter, cake and a lemon pie in our basket and all dressed up in our best we rode in the wagon to the picnic grounds. A platform had been made of rough lumber and board seats fixed around it. I got tired of sitting still while a man read out of a book and other men talked, but I liked the singing. Several men and women on the platform led while everyone sang "The Star Spangled Banner" and other songs. Then a man and a woman sang by themselves. She was very pretty, dressed all in white and he was nice looking. They looked at each other while they sang "Then meet me, Oh meet me, When you hear the first whipoorwill's song!"

His voice was deep and tender and hers was clear and sweet. When he sang "Whipoorwill" and she answered "Whipoorwill," it was just like birds calling to each other.

Laura used a more detailed version of this Fourth of July story in the manuscript for Little Town on the Prairie. There's no lemon pie in any of the published "Little House" books, but in this manuscript, Laura tells us how lemon pie was made in the days before graham cracker crusts and condensed milk:

"Now for the lemon pie," Ma said... "Laura you wash the lemons carefully and cut off any dark spots, while I make the crust."

Ma added a pinch of salt to some flour. With her fingers she crumbled lard through it, until the particles would pact [sic] together when pinched. Then she added a little cold water as she mixed it in lightly to make a dough.

Now she rolled the dough out thin and lined a pie-tin with it. She cut the lemons into very thin slices and laid them on the crust until the pie-tin was nearly filled. Then she covered them with sugar – Oh lots and lots of sugar. Over this she placed the top crust, with its small pine-tree cut in the center, and she baked the pie until the flakey crust was a delicate light brown.

Here's hoping your Glorious Fourth is filled with songs and speeches, cake, and a lemon pie with a pine tree on top. And let's hope it's not raining and nobody gets shot.
- posted by pioneergirl at 9:48 AM