Little House on the Prairie
I'm always on the hunt for old stories to read the kids, and the Little House series was on my radar (see Love of Classic Fiction post), but I had never read them myself. So I wasn't overly familiar with the difficulty or any specifics on the content. My wife had had the books, I believe we got them from her parents house at some point, and early this year I grabbed the first off the shelf and took a look. I was somewhat surprised at the size of the words on the page and the simplicity of the language. In short, they were going to be a easier read than I'd imagined and my family was in the right place for it. This first book, Little House in the Big Woods, immediately was put next in line and we read it as a family in the spring, with my wife perhaps most interested of all. Though the main characters are little girls, our boys loved it too. There was the fun connection to the proximity of the original Ingalls house near Pepin, Wisconsin, just over an hour away from where we live. And there were all the vignettes of the hard life in the Big Woods, and the joys that came with it. We'll remember the story of the panther chase, the sugar snow, and how Christmas looked with their extended family. This book is largely comfort reading. While it's nice to understand the subjects, and fascinating how many skills a family like this had in the late 1800s, there's a reason it's not the one the series is remembered by.
The next book about the Ingalls is the Little House on the Prairie, and this name is what the book series is generally called, as well as what the old TV show (1974-1983) was named. We started this immediately after arriving in Arizona this summer, again reading as a family prior to bedtime. In the first chapter 'Pa' Ingalls has decided that the Big Woods has gotten too crowded and he intends to move the family to Indian Territory, on the true frontier just outside the United States. He figured the U.S. borders would continue moving westward and there he and his family could pick the best land and live how they wanted to live. It did, however, require a long journey and an upheaval of their life. They sold and left their home on the current Minnesota/Wisconsin border, near the Mississippi River, which they crossed when it was still frozen, and struck out for what is today Kansas. It was a difficult trip across land where they saw nobody at all, where they had to cross a dangerous river (giving Oregon Trail flashbacks) and where they nearly lost their loyal guard-dog, before finally stopping near Independence, Kansas. There Pa was ecstatic about the possibilities.
Reading this within a week of making the drive to Arizona was particularly cool. We, in leaving the interstate, also drove across the nothingness of the great plains, through parts of Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado. When Laura (the author) described their own trip, 150 years ago, I could see the environs vividly. We didn't do this on purpose but it worked out wonderfully. Like them we too were anticipating a life in a brand new place, though certainly different from life on the frontier.
After arriving in Indian Territory, the impressiveness that was Pa Ingalls grew by the chapter. He hauled log after log up from the (Verdigris) river bottoms and proceeded to frame a little house. There are occasional pictures and it looked exactly like Lincoln Logs. Before he could construct a more permanent roof he somehow transferred the covered wagon top so their heads would be covered inside. He put together a way to lock the house from the inside without any special equipment. For all of this, for example, he didn't use any nails! They put up a chimney so cooking could be done inside. He helped a band of cowboys in a cattle drive and netted his family a cow. And all the while he's hunting to feed the family and secure furs, his only real source of income via trade. In the Big Woods their frontier life was part of a well-established routine built over years, and they had a family network nearby. On the Prairie they were largely on their own, building everything new from scratch. I don't mean to discount their 'neighbors,' in Kansas, especially Mr. Edwards (the Wildcat from Tennessee), but by and large the Ingalls family did not see other people day to day. And how they lived in incredibly fun to read about today.
Events of their life also got more serious, and dangerous, in Indian Territory. There was the giant pack of wolves, in a ring around the house. There was a prairie fire. There was malaria. Perhaps most pressing were the increasing run-ins with nearby Native Americans. These white settlers were indeed outside the United States, with the protection of the army, but they still counted on the American government to back them up. Eventually, in response, the Natives had a huge gathering of tribes and most pushed harder and harder for war. This was all within earshot of the Ingalls house and became a desperate situation. Near the very end of the book the tribes would leave in one long train, but it didn't have the resolution you probably think is coming. I was, admittedly, surprised.
Little House on the Prairie, I think, is the most memorable book because it's a first-hand, real account of life on the wildness of the American frontier. They encounter numerous real issues that settlers had to deal with. It demonstrates how skillful these men and women were, and how tough. Above all, it's incredibly approachable and can be understood even by young children. Though she was an adult when she wrote them, Laura Ingalls Wilder was recalling her time as a child and it reads accordingly. I'm guessing that not everything happened exactly as she recorded them, but that's okay.
Overall it was a fun read. I'm really glad I pulled these down and our family is getting to experience them together. Maybe at some point we'll try out the old show. I know there's a new one on Netflix too but, like so many recent takes, I'm not so sure about it. We'll stick with the books for now and have plenty more to read.
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