Laura vs Nellie.  Ingalls & the Olesons.  Little feud on the Prairie – Monday nights on CBS.

Charles & Caroline, sister Mary, the mercantile’s matriarch, Harriet.  This was my TV family.  Forty years later, I still remember.  Mary losing her sight: “Pa, help me! Pa, I can’t see! I can’t see!”  Laura selling Bunny (her pony) to buy Ma an oven for Christmas.  Looking back, these moments still tear at the heart.

I also grew up on a farm.  Chickens, rabbits, cows, 2 ducks.  An outhouse, metal tub for bathing.  No plumbing, water from an outdoor spicket.  No, I’m NOT 150 – our family was crazy poor.  Two TV stations on a black-n-white set.  PBS, CBS.  The Ingalls saga helped me ‘childhood’ escape – and BOOKS.  I read a lotta books (library card/4 book limit).  Elementary, Mrs. Wooten read aloud a chapter from Wilder’s ‘Little House’ series.  It started there – before Nellie, before the Prairie – ‘Little House in the Big Woods’.

Pepin Wisconsin: birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  There the ‘Big Woods‘ sisters shared a slate, Laura learned to read.  The family tapped maple syrup, Pa played the violin.  45-minute rural farm-road drive from Sunday’s marathon in Eau Claire.  Not by chance; Internet-searched, I planned/I knew.

My THIRD ‘Little House’ museum – by now, almost have the whole collection.  LOL>  Quilts, dresses, Charles’ fiddle, an original wood-burning oven.  VALIDATION.  Truth to my TV family’s Walnut Grove existence.  Someday I’ll make the pilgrimage to Independence (Kansas Prairie) & Mansfield (Missouri). Laura adult-settled in Mansfield (1895) & wrote the childhood series which early-inspired my adventures.

[Hear husband Almanzo built the kitchen to match her stature.  My own grandfather did the same 🙂 ]

Eau Claire 🚜 Pepin 🚗 Minneapolis 🛩️ Denver

Colorado HOME, weekend next.  No run plans.  Feelin’ a high altitude HIKE comin’ on ❤️