Laura’s Connection to a California Library

The blog at the Pomona Public Library’s Children’s Room has a blog, and today’s post is how it came to be named after Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Laura Bush on Visiting Rocky Ridge

The White House has posted the First Lady’s remarks on her recent visit to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri.

Pepin’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Days — September 13-14, 2008

When Rose Wilder Lane saw Pepin, so the story goes, she declared that if this area of Wisconsin were in Europe, people would flock to it.

Now that I’ve been there, it’s easy to see why. Laura fans know that each homesite has a different feel, and moreover, that feel may seem different from person to person. I’ll be honest and admit that I didn’t have the highest of expectations when I headed to Pepin. It’s the site I’ve heard the least about. It was my sixth homesite to visit; I was going there, essentially, to cross Pepin off my “list.” I assumed it wouldn’t make much of an indent in my collection of Laura travels.

I love it when I’m wrong.

Through visiting Laura’s homesites, I have developed a deep appreciation for the Midwestern small town. Each homesite, in its own unique way, has its particular relationship with Laura–a blend of the portrayal of the site in the books, the town’s current residents, and the overall attitude towards Laura. Often this relationship manifests in one of two eventual ways: either the Laura portion is isolated from the rest of the town, or the people politely accept Laura as their town’s meal ticket. You got no sense of either of these in Pepin. Everything was fully integrated. Pepin residents may love Laura, but they love their town just as much. Pepin drew me in in a way a homesite has never done. I felt absolutely welcome. For the first time ever in my Laura travels, I looked around and thought: I could live here.

Out of all of the homesites I have been to, only Malone rivals Pepin in sheer beauty. Glorious trees, rolling hills of farmland, greenery. And this was all noted, it must be said, in the rain. Saturday morning of Pepin’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Days, as I drove the few miles from Wabasha across the Mississippi, I kept one eye on the sky. The weather didn’t look promising. But the rain mostly held off in the morning, spitting and drizzling. I parked at the museum, which sits side by side with the gift shop on Pepin’s main drag. The museum is large and airy and not quite full; you get the sense that much more can be made of it. Conversely, the gift shop is adorned with many artifacts that give the shop a museum-like feel. I bought a hardback Little House in the Big Woods there to join my Malone-bought Farmer Boy and Little House on the Prairie purchased in Independence (an idea shamelessly stolen from Amy Matson Lauters, author of The Rediscovered Writings of Rose Wilder Lane and RWL expert extraordinaire). Suzanne, behind the counter of the gift shop, generously offered to retrieve a newer-looking book from the back to replace the slightly worn one I’d picked up.

A few blocks down the road—I parked at the gift shop and walked—was the park that was set up for Laura Ingalls Wilder Days. I noted that Sarah Sue Uthoff’s talk at the Pepin Library wasn’t until 11, so I headed to the main stage just in time for — I checked my schedule — the spelling bee. The spelling bee! Now maybe I’m just a big nerd, but nothing pumps my adrenaline like a spelling bee. I sat next to a woman whose daughter finished second; her excitement, and that of her mother next to her, was palpable. I marveled at the sleek craftsmanship of the stage, recently built expressly for Laura Ingalls Wilder Days, and the fact that an academic event like a spelling bee was placed so front and center in the festivities.

It was past eleven and raining for real by the time I made it back to the library where Sarah Sue was speaking. Sarah Sue encouraged participation from the kids in the audience and generously shared stories related to her collection of Laura-related objects, all neatly displayed on a table next to her. For what felt like the twentieth time that day I wished my six-year-old was there. At Pepin’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Days, kids are king.

It was time for lunch. Back at Laura headquarters the park was filled with craft and food vendors, almost all featuring local wares. I bought polished agate jewelry whose rough forms had been collected around Pepin. I picked out rocks painted like ladybugs for my kids. I sampled local dips—pizza was a favorite—and Wisconsin maple sugar candy that melted on my tongue. Food vendors were varied and reasonably priced. Grilled chicken and corn on the cob beckoned from the center food stand, dubbed–cleverly, I thought–Laura’s Vittle House. The town, it was clear, took this event seriously, both for their residents and for their visitors.

I wandered around eating maple ice cream and hand-cut French fries and watched dozens of girls in pinafores and sunbonnets compete onstage for the title of Pepin Laura, reading essays and answering prepared questions. I visited the tent of a local artist, and only the thought of having to schlep a frame back onto the plane kept me from buying some of his work.

I had intended to catch some of Pepin resident Kitty Latane’s talk on the history of Pepin at the library, but I only arrived back there in time to catch the last few minutes. I did get a chance to talk with her afterward; what an asset she is to Pepin’s preservation of Laura’s legacy.

After meeting up again with Sarah Sue and our friend Laura from Wichita back at the park, the three of us headed to the living history craft demonstrations, which I’d somehow managed to miss thus far. We crossed a road that ran behind the stage and all at once we were in the 19th century. I meandered through the craft booths, all demonstrated by craftsmen and –women in period attire. Blacksmithing, open-fire kettle cooking, woodcarving—every historical handcraft you could think of was represented. I stopped to examine the model of Laura’s writing desk courtesy of a woodbuilder; he’d been to Mansfield to get the exact measurements of the desk Almanzo had constructed so lovingly for his wife. Sarah Sue has posted a picture of the desk, which was for sale at $250, as part of her blog post on her own experience at Laura Ingalls Wilder Days. At that price I reluctantly decided I could live without the desk, but later on at the pottery booth I couldn’t say no to a handmade honey pot. It sits as I type in my kitchen, filled with Wisconsin honey.

For fabulous pictures of the living history crafts at Pepin’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Days, visit this blog.

To be continued.

Laura’s California Connection

When Sarah Sue Uthoff found out I was going to be in Los Angeles this past weekend, she asked me if I’d planned a side trip to Pomona. Pomona Public Libary’s Children’s Room (which has a blog) was named in Laura’s honor in 1950, thanks to librarian Clara Webber, who maintained a longtime correspondence with Laura. The library, which hosts a sociable for Laura’s birthday every February, happens to be where William Anderson first met principal Wilder photographer Les Kelly. It also houses the manuscript of Little Town on the Prairie.

I didn’t have a chance to answer Sarah before I left, but I remember thinking how visiting Pomona hadn’t even occurred to me. I promptly forgot about that until the next day, when I was sitting with another writer (I was in California for a fellowship), and I asked where she was from.

“Pomona,” she said.

“Is that far from here?”

“About an hour,” she said.

D’oh!

The good news is I’m going back in October. Maybe I’ll be able to manage a visit then.

More Guthrie Photos

Check out Playbill. It’s a veritable photo festival!

I think some good points have been made in the comments of the previous post. For me, I’m going to have to approach this from a suspension-of-disbelief standpoint. Building my expectations–such as they are–backwards. Say for instance …

I like musicals. I don’t love them, but I like them well enough. (One or two I do, in fact, love.) So I’m going to a musical. A professional musical. Which, because it’s onstage, should have somewhat flashy costumes (the better to see from the audience) and a whole buncha songs. Interpretive songs. That tell a story. Great. Wonderful. Fabulous.

But wait! This musical happens to be about Laura Ingalls Wilder. Well how ’bout that? How cool. And what’s that? They’re basing it on the books?  Like they actually mention South Dakota and stuff? Wow!

I think I’m really going to enjoy this.

More Guthrie Press, Plus Photos

Here’s another story on the Guthrie show, courtesy of the Associated Press. This blog post seems to have been cobbled together from other reports, but it’s worth it for the photos it contains.

(The bangs! The loose, braidless hair! Mercy!)

Esther from Gratuitious Violins shared her thoughts on the post below, and I’m pulling her excellent comments to share with everyone. She also did her own blogging about the show here.

It was an interesting article. A few things struck me: the writer said that the show “does not feel like a typical New York musical event.” He said the orchestra is “dominated by strings and fiddle.” And he noted that the composer is an opera writer from London who was unfamiliar with the books and the tv series. I don’t know whether any of this matters, whether he was trying to imply that it probably wouldn’t work on Broadway or what. [REALLY GOOD POINT. I HADN’T KNOWN ALL THE BROADWAY IMPLICATIONS THAT MIGHT SEEM OUT OF PLACE IN ANY OTHER THEATER WRITEUP. INTERESTING.]

He also mentioned that a new book writer was brought in to make the story more dramatic, which was interesting. [I HOPE THEY USED THE REAL DRAMA. THERE WAS ENOUGH, WASN’T THERE? ALTHOUGH PERHAPS NOT AS MUCH AS AN EPISODE OF BONAN–UH, I MEAN “LITTLE HOUSE.”] Also, Melissa Gilbert is not an experienced singer, although the story says she’s been working with a voice coach. [APPARENTLY HER MOTHER WAS IMPRESSED WITH HER VOICE WAY BACK WHEN!]

Another thing that intrigues me is it’s being marketed as a family show but the Guthrie Web site says that Little House is recommended for children ages 12 and up and the story focuses on the teenage Laura. Seems a bit of a mixed message to me. I just don’t know if this is something you’d take your 8-year-old to see as well as your 12-year-old. [THIS WILL BE INTERESTING TO DISCOVER. HOW ADULT CAN IT BE, REALLY? “SILVER LAKE” ADULT, AS OPPOSED TO “PLUM CREEK”?]

On the other hand, Broadway on Yahoo! has a theater blogger who says the Little House buzz has been great, and people are already talking about a Broadway transfer, although he doesn’t have any sources to back it up. [THIS IS FABULOUS TO HEAR! BUZZ IS GOOD. BUZZ IS VERY GOOD.] Anyway, I’m going to see it the weekend after Labor Day and I can’t wait! [DO LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK–AND THAT GOES FOR EVERYONE!]

The NYT talks Little House

Today the New York Times gives us one of the best articles I’ve seen on the musical. It’s not a review, per se, but it does give better info on the production than any story has thus far.

Interesting fact: the girl who plays Laura and the girl who plays Nellie went to the same college and were roommates together in New York. Imagine playing Laura to your roommate’s Nellie?

Melissa Gilbert also says about Michael Landon, almost tearfully: “I’d like to hope he’d be very proud of this.”

May we say the same about Mrs. A. J. Wilder.

I’m Back! And a few Malone tidbits

Some math for you:

Traveling + wireless Internet access + brand-new laptop = an offline vacation

I’ve been on the road now for almost two weeks and I won’t be home for over another week. The Man of the Place is holding down the fort. And harvesting wheat. I’m writing now from Boston where my children and I landed after a whirlwind week of travel up the east coast, which culminated in a trip to Malone for the event celebrating the 75th publication of Farmer Boy.

If you haven’t yet walked the grounds of the farmhouse and barns in Burke, NY (the technical location), go. That’s all I have to say. Even though my day at the Almanzo Wilder farm was shared by hundreds of others, it never felt crowded. Amazingly, after a morning thunderstorm, the weather even cooperated and we had a lovely day of blue skies, warming sunshine and slight breezes. There is no other site in the world of Laura Ingalls Wilder that feels as pristine and untouched as the Farm. Ingalls Homestead comes close, but when you look around there, as lovely as it is, you know that everything you see was recently constructed. At the Farm, what you see is the actual structure that was there (albeit renovated).

Speaking of renovation, I had a lovely long talk with the Farm’s archivist, Betty Menke. From the moment of sale of the Farm to the Laura and Almanzo Wilder Association in the late 1980s, the renovation process was meticulous and well documented, particularly with photographs. The association hired a consulting company versed in historical preservation before they changed as much as one shingle. The space between then and the completion of renovations in the late 90s is a testament of patience and professionalism, where no step was taken without a solid plan behind it. As William Anderson and so many others have said, “They did it right.” 

I’ll post more on Malone in the coming weeks. I’m officially back and blogging now, so tell your friends. And thank you for your patience.

More Homesite News

Here’s the press release that was sent out regarding Hampton’s makeover of De Smet.

There’s also a 16-panel traveling Laura Ingalls Wilder exhibit going on in Branson, MO at the American Presidents Museum. A Pioneer Day is scheduled for June 20, but the exhibit is being shown through July 31.

“Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Journey of a Pioneer Family” was created through a grant from the Missouri Humanities Council and has been traveling to libraries and schools throughout the state.

More info here.

Visit this site!

Wow. I have just spent the last 20 minutes tooling around on Rebecca Brammer’s fabulous Laura Ingalls Wilder site, Laura Ingalls Wilder: Frontier Girl.

Rebecca mentioned her site update to me some time ago. Since I’d been there before, I thought a revisit could wait until I had a bit more time. It couldn’t have changed that much, right? Wrong.

Laura Ingalls Wilder fans never cease to amaze me with the breadth of their knowledge, creativity, and dedication. LIW: Frontier Girl has everything a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan could want. It’s got a message board. It has an updated list of cross-country Laura Ingalls Wilder events (which, ahem, I’ve never been able to keep up with), complete with live links to each event. It’s got links to all the homesites. It’s got a kid-centric Laura Ingalls Wilder page — presented in perfect kidspeak — and a black-and-white sketch of Laura ideal for coloring. It also has a comprehensive list of Laura-related links all over the Web.

I’d provide direct links to each of these fabulous sections, but the site is designed with frames so individual page titles don’t exist. You’ll just have to go there and tool around. I recommend it.

Thank you, Rebecca, for adding so much to the online world of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Laura Ingalls Wilder: Frontier Girl is a gift to fans everywhere.