When I was growing up in Paynesville, Minnesota, back in the 80s, I had long brown hair, freckles, and my mom sewed my clothes. I'm serious. If you ever wonder from what angst a writer is born, there you go. But the saving grace was that if I put my hair in braids, I looked like Laura Ingalls. Not the real one. Who cares what she looked like? No, I looked like Half-Pint, Ms. Melissa Gilbert herself. Only she had better teeth. Again, unfortunately, I'm serious. You better
click here before you continue reading, and take a moment to study the picture below.
OK. My point is that I have an irrational amount of love for Laura Ingalls because thanks to the
TV show spawned from her books, freckles and brown braids weren't considered as repellent as they could have been when I was growing up. As such, it is only appropriate that I will be spending this weekend camping on the banks of
Plum Creek and enjoying the
Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant in Walnut Grove. I am so Minnesotan. Oh, and I convinced my seven-year-old daughter, who also has long brown hair and freckles, that it was her idea we were going. If she wins the Laura Ingalls
look-alike contest on Saturday, well, I'm tearing up. I just am. Life is good.Before I sign off, check out
the truth about booksignings. Thanks, Mr. B.
Oh wait! The
Fergus Falls Daily Journal and the
Battle Lake Review have both promised to write articles on the official
May Day "Coming out in Battle Lake: Party and Booksigning" from 1-3 on July 22! And
Midnight Ink is springing for the food, so you gotta come. AND,
Xanadu Resort is now selling copies of MD, AND you can now preorder copies of
June Bug on amazon. Good, good stuff!
That's all for now. Until next week...
There's a good chance I'll be at the Battle Lake event. If you have good food (I'm putting in my request for a summer sausage/cheese/Ritz cracker tray), I may blog about it and make you THE social destination of the blogosphere.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about the buzz, kitten.
Oh dear Lord. I just watched an episode of Little House- it was the one where Charles & Mr. Edwards were working in mines so Mary could have some surgery and a guy dies Charles & the boss don't go the memorial and then Charles & the boss got trapped & Mr. Edwards saved them and got everybody working together. I think it was with Chinese guys.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I went to the pageant as a kid. My hair wasn't long enough for braids, but we did the long dresses & bonnets! I even had a pen pal from there, her name was Mary Story. Wonder what she ever ended up doing (not writing me for sure!). I have the weekend marked on my calendar, thought it would be fun with hubby and kids, but since that ship sailed, and his kids are much too into Sponge Bob to even get the point of Little House, it probably would have just been frustrating. Have a fun time!
If you are there, Brian, you know what else will be there...and OF COURSE there will be a cheese tray and crackers. If you promise you'll be there, I'll get a meat tray, too, though I am ethically opposed.
ReplyDeleteChelty, did that episode make you cry? Every episode of LHotP makes me cry. And then feel good.
I didn't love the TV show so much when I was a kid, but I spent hours and hours reading the books in the series aloud to my daughter when she was younger. We both got so much out of those books - my daughter was enraptured by the girls and their adventures.
ReplyDeleteI, of course, said a little prayer of thanks under my breath every time I read them that I didn't have to: 1.) go kill something for dinner, 2.) deal with a dust storm/fire/stampede/rabid dog/chimney fire, or 3.) limit my musical entertainment to sawing away on a fiddle in the evening after the chores were done.
Whatever perceived hardships I could concoct during the day at work always paled in comparison to the hardscrabble Ingalls family and their tenacious pursuit of life out on the prairie.
I have to admit that I was not a fan of the TV show and, for whatever reason, to this day whenever I imagine the opening credits, I hear the theme song for THE WALTONS instead of LHoTP's theme song. Not sure why.
ReplyDeleteI loved those books! I read the all sveral times growing up. I was addicted to the tv show growing up. My 2nd grade class put on a play from the book and I begged to have my hair braided like Laura. My hair was way too short, but mom did it.
ReplyDeleteI have always wanted to go to one of her houses. I hope to make it to one of them sometime.
Have fun!
I forgot to mention, my mom bought me the book set one year and put it in her closet to "hide" it for Christmas. Yeah, by the time Christmas came, all the books had been read. She knew it but still wrapped them up for me. And didn't get me anything in place of them. It would have been a good lesson, but I loved the books so much I read them a dozen times!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the episode gave me a tear or two. The one last night really did- it's when Mary and Charles went to Chicago for Charles' convention that turned out to be a dud (although a hooker showed up at their suite and Mary's face was positively hilarious!) and Mary was to meet her fiancee, John, who ended up dumping her when Charles saw him kissing another girl. THAT one was sad. The other one was just "aawww." I have no plans to watch these, it just happens!
ReplyDeleteHow was the Laura Ingalls look-alike contest? Did she win? Did she win?
ReplyDelete