on the way home

I recently spent six days at the home of one of George (from the "Little House" book, On the Way Home) Cooley's sons, Frank (named after his grandfather), going through photographs, books, and papers belonging to both Paul and George and to their parents, Emma and Frank Cooley. And much to my delight, I was given the entire lot to bring home to study further! The boxes almost filled my back seat and I drove very, very carefully...

So here I sit, surrounded by a box of George's sermons and music (he became a Methodist minister who often composed music to be used in church), Paul's briefcase full of treasures (some from Mansfield school days...), letters and notes and postcards, boxes of papers, and boxes and boxes of both identified and mystery photographs that date from Emma and Frank's early years in New York - to family life in De Smet - to George plowing in Mansfield - to both George's and Paul's children and grandchildren.

I'll be sharing tidbits over the next week as I organize everything for an Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder / Coooley project I'm working on. Stay tuned.
- posted by pioneergirl at 4:30 PM

 
still on the road
One more week might just do it...
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:13 PM

 
on the road again
I'm heading out in the moring on another "Little House" adventure. Check back in ten days!
- posted by pioneergirl at 3:44 PM

 
laura speaks
In his blog today, Dean Butler discusses why Noel Silverman, attorney for the Wilder Heritage Trust, believes that the way Almanzo Wilder's name was pronounced on the television show is the correct pronunciation: in other words, as Al-MON-zo, not Al-MAN-zo.

Those of us who say Al-MAN-zo base our pronunciation on Laura Ingalls Wilder's own. When Mrs. Wilder was 62 years old, she was recorded during a scripted interview by Docia Holland, librarian in Mansfield. A set of "character dolls" (on display in Mansfield) had been given to Laura by fans in California, and the recording was sent in thanks.

On the recording, both Wilder and Holland pronounce the name the same: Al-MAN-zo. If you haven't heard the recording, it is well worth having, and is sold by most of the "Little House" museum gift shops. In addition to Laura's voice, there are songs played on Pa's fiddle.

After reading Dean's blog this morning, I copied the three times Laura says "Almanzo" and you can listen to it HERE. Give the .wav file a few seconds to open. I think I'm going to make that the ring tone on my cell phone...

I have a couple of videos from the early 1990s in which Neta Seal - friend of the Wilders - repeatedly says Al-MAN-zo. I have one from 1993 in which Roger MacBride (who never met either Laura or Almanzo, btw) uses that pronunciation. I didn't record Norma Lee Browning's speech at Rocky Ridge Day, but I have talked to a number of people over the years who did know both Laura and Almanzo, and they always pronounced his name Al-MAN-zo.

Let's face it: It's Al-MON-zo on Little House on the Prairie and there's nothing wrong with that. But until a recording of Almanzo surfaces, I think the best authority we've got is Laura's own voice, and hers is the pronunciation I'll continue to use, unless I'm talking about Dean Butler's character on the television show.

It's not straight from the horse's mouth, but it's pretty darn close.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:38 PM

 
yay
Earlier this week, The Guthrie actually had tickets left for the very day I needed them. Whew.

"Look at Nellie dance!"
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:25 AM

 
books that define your childhood

This article from the London TimesOnline lists "90 most awesome old-school children's books" in response to an earlier blog in which the author listed books that defined her childhood. While there are a couple of unfamiliar (to me) titles on the list of 90, the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder are included as one selection, and On the Banks of Plum Creek is listed as a separate entry as well.

I first read many of the titles as an adult, including those by Elizabeth Enright and Lucy Maud Montgomery, the What Katy Did series, and Girl of the Limberlost. Others, such as the Bobbsey Twins books, the Hardy Boys books, Charlotte's Web, Louisa May Alcott's books, and Black Beauty, I read as a child.

I don't know if these books defined my childhood or not, but the following have been with me since my pre-teen years, and are still read and re-read by me today.

(1) The "Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

(2) The Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace.

(3) Miss Jellytot's Visit by Mabel Leigh Hunt.

(4) 121 Pudding Street by Jean Fritz.

(5) The Edith and Mr. Bear books by Dare Wright.

(6) The Bobbsey Twins series by Laura Lee Hope, the non-PC ones belonging to my mother and aunt.

(7) Ellen Jane by Frances Margaret Fox.

(8) The Surprise Doll by Morrell Gipson.

(9) Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.

(10) The Borrowers series by Mary Norton.

While the ten entries above are books I've owned since I was a child, I don't remember buying books on my own until I was in high school. I remember repeatedly checking the following books out of the library, though, and I've since bought copies: Ginger Pye and Pinky Pye and other books by Eleanor Estes, The Fairy Doll by Rumer Godden, Grimm's and Anderson's Fairy Tales, Caddie Woodlawn and Magical Melons by Carol Ryrie Brink, and The Story of Lohengrin: The Knight of the Swan by Doris Orgel.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:04 AM

 
don't be a willie

The first year the Owenses lived in Walnut Grove, Willie was blinded in one eye and damaged the other after playing with firecrackers. According to Laura Waskin's 1997 article in the Laura Ingalls Wilder Lore, "One day, a group of boys in town decided it would be fun to pile up some rocks in the middle of the road and blow them up. Willie was eager to please the older children, who persuaded him to go over to his parents' store and get some firecrackers. WHen he brought them back, the older boys lit them, and quickly put them into a striped paper candy bag. Then, they piled up gravel on top, and stood back to watch it all blow up. But instead, the firecrackers went out, so the boys asked Willie to go over and blow on them to get it started again. Not knowing any better, he obliged, Suddenly, the volatile material exploded..."
- posted by pioneergirl at 5:53 PM