Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" Series

[rmontro]

On 9/21/2014 at 4:12 PM, CherryAmes said:

I've noticed in this thread and in the readalong thread that people seem very negative about Pa.  Was there information in particular that has come out about him that makes you all feel that way or is it just that he kept dragging the family further west and making stupid choices?

I think there's just some contrast with Pa compared with how Michael Landon played him.  The first Little House book I read was The Long Winter, because I liked the premise.  And there were a few scenes in there that I found kind of eye opening.

First, the whole family is starving and eating nothing but potatoes.  But he visits the Wilders and sits down and eats a meal of pancakes and bacon when invited.  I can't say I blame him, but I kept thinking Michael Landon's Pa wouldn't eat pancakes and bacon when he knew all his family had were potatoes.  Then he helps himself to some of Almanzo's wheat that he didn't want to sell.

Then when the train finally gets through, Pa leads a bunch of men to take all the stuff from a railroad car that is headed to the next town, reasoning that they need it more than them.  Sounds like stealing to me, even under dire circumstances.

I don't mean to bad mouth Pa, it was just a surprise to find him to be such a human character instead of the idealized version I had seen on TV.

[Snow Apple]

I learned from these boards that during the Long Winter, the real life Ingalls family took in boarders. If Charles took pancakes and bacon home, the boarders will feel entitled to the food since they pay rent. So Charles can either secretly eat at the Wilders or watch the renters eat a hearty meal while his starving family watched. 

Laura didn't write about the boarders in the book to keep it simple, and they also didn't fit into the story of one family's struggles.

Edited May 2, 2021 by Snow Apple

[Starleigh]

I don't think they were paying boarders as I recall, they just didn't have anywhere to go, and Ma and Pa were too kind hearted to throw them out that winter. Laura described how they'd take more than their share of food and never helped with grinding the wheat for the bread or making the straw sticks for fuel.

But, in any case, I guess Pa didn't want to feel like a beggar and take home a stack of pancakes to divvy up with the family. It would have felt like taking charity, instead of a guest providing company for the Wilder brothers, which made it a sort of give and take situation. It never really bothered me in the book, Laura made it clear Pa would have gone without at their family meals rather than see the others not get enough. In Pioneer Girl she noted that he often took very little at meals and instead filled up on raw turnips as a snack, claiming he loved them.

[rmontro]

3 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

If Charles took pancakes and bacon home, the boarders will feel entitled to the food since they pay rent. So Charles can either secretly eat at the Wilders or watch the renters eat a hearty meal while his starving family watched. 

In my imagination (at the time), I saw Michael Landon refusing the bacon and pancakes, just because he didn't want to eat while his wife and daughters were starving.  Seems like the kind of righteous thing he would do, even if that might sound unrealistic.  I wasn't really thinking about him taking pancakes home for them, unless maybe he snuck a few by sticking them in his pockets lol.

But Pa did take the wheat from the wall to take home to them, without Almanzo's permission (Almanzo did let him take it when he found out how desperate they were).

[smittykins]

I thought Charles paid for the wheat(I remember him and Almanzo haggling over the price ).

[nodorothyparker]

He did, but only after marching into their living space and filling his bucket with it, making it clear he was taking it whether they liked it or not. They did haggle over the price at that point, but only in the sense that they all understood Almanzo was not being given the option to not sell it to him.

[Snow Apple]

17 hours ago, Starleigh said:

I don't think they were paying boarders as I recall, they just didn't have anywhere to go, and Ma and Pa were too kind hearted to throw them out that winter. Laura described how they'd take more than their share of food and never helped with grinding the wheat for the bread or making the straw sticks for fuel.

Interesting. I could have sworn they paid a small rent. Since they didn't, I don't know why they feel entitled to the lion's share of the food. 

But I guess that attitude still happens and there are still people too polite to speak up.

[WinnieWinkle]

7 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

He did, but only after marching into their living space and filling his bucket with it, making it clear he was taking it whether they liked it or not. They did haggle over the price at that point, but only in the sense that they all understood Almanzo was not being given the option to not sell it to him.

I loved that scene in the book.  Go Pa!  And it provided an eye opening moment IIRC for Almanzo and his brother.  Up to that point I think they had not stopped to consider that most of the townspeople were not as fortunate as they were - and that some were on the verge of starvation.

[Snow Apple]

21 hours ago, WinnieWinkle said:

I loved that scene in the book.  Go Pa!  And it provided an eye opening moment IIRC for Almanzo and his brother.  Up to that point I think they had not stopped to consider that most of the townspeople were not as fortunate as they were - and that some were on the verge of starvation.

I think it was strange he still wouldn't sell his wheat, but rather go on a wild goose chase to track down a rumored supply. Then he and Cap kind of forced that other farmer to sell, even though Almanzo wouldn't part with his own supply that was right there where the townspeople don't have to wait.

But I'm a modern city person so maybe I'm missing something?

[WinnieWinkle]

53 minutes ago, Snow Apple said:

I think it was strange he still wouldn't sell his wheat, but rather go on a wild goose chase to track down a rumored supply. Then he and Cap kind of forced that other farmer to sell, even though Almanzo wouldn't part with his own supply that was right there where the townspeople don't have to wait.

It's been a few years since I re-read this one but I seem to remember that Almanzo has a conversation - probably with Royal? - where he says that even if he sells all his own seed wheat the town would still run out of food before the trains could get through so he'd have given up his special wheat supply and they'd be no better off.  

[nodorothyparker]

Almanzo does explain his thinking in the book. If he sells his wheat in the dead of winter when the trains aren't running and the townspeople eat it all, they have no fallback position. There's nothing left to eat or sow in the spring. It's part of the same reasoning for why Laura reacts as she does when the potatoes give out and Caroline says they'll kill what livestock they have if they have to. Sure, it will resolve the immediate hunger situation, but then they've got nothing left to rebuild with when the food's gone.

They don't know the settler they strongarm into selling his wheat. He doesn't seem to have any attachments to the people in town or vice versa. He's entirely alone miles from town. I've always had the sense even from the time I was a kid that while they would really rather that negotiation not go bad, they also weren't planning on returning to town emptyhanded. On some level, it wasn't hard to imagine that settler realized that too.

[Starleigh]

Can I just say I love the scene in Loftus's store when he's trying to make a nice profit by overcharging for the wheat, and Cap Garland makes him back down. (With the help of Almanzo and Pa, of course. But that scene absolutely belongs to Cap. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Laura admitted to crushing on Cap as a teen, which totally came through in that scene, lol.)

[Pickles Aplenty]

I just started reading Prairie Fires this weekend.  It's eye-opening as far as the personalities of the real life Ma and Pa are concerned.  I always wondered why Ma was so reserved and stern, even for a woman of her time, so learning about her father dying when Ma was very young explains a lot.  The fact that her mother was destitute after his death and couldn't keep her children clothed and fed explains why Ma acts the way she does with her children.  Of course she wasn't going to led a single prayer go unsaid or a single morsel of food go unappreciated.  It makes sense for the kind of trauma she experienced at such a young age.

Pa's "quirks" make more sense, too.  His family moved around more when he was growing up, so to him it was normal.  I also understand why Pa might have wanted to avoid the draft for the Civil War, since he was the sole provider for Ma and baby Mary at that time.  Caroline had a brother who died at the Battle of Shiloh, so dying in battle was probably a very real possibility to the both of them.  And for the record, no, I am not saying the Civil War wasn't a worthwhile fight, I'm saying I understand why not every man might have been wanting to jump at the chance to serve when they had mouths to feed at home.  Just a random thought.  I'll probably add more as I read more of the book.

[Pickles Aplenty]

Well, I read more of Prairie Fires, along with the rest of The Long Winter (I stopped the original reread from 2014 at TLW, so I just picked up where I left off in the hopes of finishing it).  Anyway, I hope it's okay that I'm posting again.  I just have thoughts, lol.

One thing that sticks out for me in PF is that Pa knew the issues with every place they moved to and chose not to do any research, or heed warnings.  He knew relations with the Osage Indians in Kansas Territory were not great (to put it mildly), and he knew he wouldn't own the land, outright.  He knew grasshopper storms had happened in Minnesota, but he chose to believe the locals when they said they wouldn't happen again (how could they possibly know that?).  He knew how rough Burr Oak, Iowa was, and he knew it was an established town, something he apparently hated.  And he knew the land in Dakota Territory was hot and practically barren, with hard winters, but he decided to move there, anyway.  I know the Homestead Act screwed a lot of people over, and I know Pa couldn't google a place and learn about it that way, but it's almost like Pa deliberately chose the worst places to live in the country for farming/homesteading.  The idea he had to move to Oregon was probably the best one, because at least the land there was better for farming, without killer winters (I know it all depends on WHERE in Oregon you go, but if you find the right place, it's not like the prairie).  Too bad Ma put her foot down, but who could blame her at that point?

Now, onto the fictional interpretation of the Ingalls saga...as I read TLW, I realized I disliked Ma more in this book than in any other book in the series.  I realize that people didn't openly express their feelings back then, especially under the hard conditions the Ingalls family were living in, but Ma represses her emotions so much, and she teaches her daughters to do the same.  The girls are not allowed to express one single moment of disappointment, frustration, anger, or sadness, they just have to push those feelings down and swallow them in the most unhealthy way.  In the middle of the worst winter any of them will experience their whole lives, Grace whimpers that her feet are too cold, and Laura snaps, "For shame, Grace!  For shame!".  SHE'S THREE YEARS OLD.  The idea of people being so hard with toddlers makes me wince.  It's very hard for a 2021 reader, at times.

Also, this book really highlights how much Laura despises domestic work and absolutely loathes the very idea of teaching.  I really don't think LIW was cut out for domesticity and I don't think she was particularly good with children, despite becoming a children's author later in life.  Laura seems like an independent thinker who was shoved into a mold she had to make work for her, but she never *quite* fit that mold, and I feel bad for her.  Hell, even the long-awaited Christmas barrel in May contained a gift for Laura that she didn't really want or like, yarn for sewing.  I often wonder what her life would have been like if Laura was the one who went to college and not Mary.  But, we'll never know.

Edited August 1, 2021 by Everina

[smittykins]

ITA, especially when Pa basically tells her “You WILL become a schoolteacher, end of discussion,” and she thinks “I can’t, I can’t…I must.”  Obviously, women’s roles were limited then, and “good girls” like Laura didn’t disappoint their fathers.  I do feel bad for her.

[kathyk24]

11 hours ago, smittykins said:

ITA, especially when Pa basically tells her “You WILL become a schoolteacher, end of discussion,” and she thinks “I can’t, I can’t…I must.”  Obviously, women’s roles were limited then, and “good girls” like Laura didn’t disappoint their fathers.  I do feel bad for her.

Laura was doing what Mary would have done if she hadn't been blind. Laura would have been fine working with Charles on the farm. I think that's why she married so young it was the only way she could be independent.

[Pickles Aplenty]

In Prairie Fires, Laura writes about Almanzo teaching her how to ride his horses once they're married and on their own land.  She says Pa never taught her how to ride, which is sad, because you can tell how much she loves it.  Just another little moment where you can see how much women of Laura's time were denied so much for no good reason.

I'm on Little Town On the Prairie, now.  I think it's funny how Pa tells Laura that Almanzo's sister will be teaching school, and Laura thinks to herself, "Maybe I can work very hard and get her to like me so I can finally get my teaching certificate."  Oh, honey, no, lol.

[Ralphster]

I have a theory about Ma, Laura, and Rose.

Ma raised her children in a way that we would consider unfeeling. It even stood out at the time that Ma was not particularly loving, as Laura later said she never felt as though she had been loved by Ma. She apparently raised Rose the same way, as Rose said the same thing about her relationship with Laura.

I get hints of narcissism from all three of them. Trauma is a hotbed for narcissism to form as you are by necessity forced to focus on yourself. I can understand completely why all three of them became rather self-absorbed women; their lives were objectively hard and there isn't much love left to go around when you are exhausted just by daily living.

Rose, I think, was sexually abused in Florida. Obviously I could be wrong, but that weird story she wrote about innocence being corrupted has all kinds of hints about sexual abuse in it. People who are sexually abused usually have complex PTSD (C-PTSD) and over 90% of borderline personality patients have been sexually abused; both of these disorders are indistinguishable from bipolar disorder in terms of the emotional volatility they cause. I can't say for certain, of course, but I believe she had C-PTSD and/or borderline personality disorder (BPD) instead of bipolar disorder. C-PTSD and BPD have only recently been studied and extensively written about, so people in Rose's time would not have had an inkling that her behaviour was anything other than manic-depression.

All three women come across as horror stories in their private lives and I would not want to have known any of them. I grew up with my own version of "Ma" and I have had enough of emotionally unavailable people to last me 10 lifetimes. All of them remind me very strongly of my own mother and grandmother.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Ralphster

[Pickles Aplenty]

So, before Mary leaves for college in Little Town, Ma tells her she will cook any dinner Mary wants.  Mary says, "Anything you put on the table is good, Ma."

Ma says, "I believe I will have cottage cheese balls with onions in them, and cold creamed peas."

Bitch, wut??

[WinnieWinkle]

13 hours ago, Everina said:

Ma says, "I believe I will have cottage cheese balls with onions in them, and cold creamed peas."

 

The meal selection that always stood out for me was the tomato slices in cream.  I mean I do get that technically tomato is a fruit (I've certainly had enough people tell me this over the years - talk about parading your little bit of knowledge!!) but even so I cannot even imagine what tomatoes in cream would taste like - and I am not planning to try them out to find out.

[peacheslatour]

4 hours ago, WinnieWinkle said:

The meal selection that always stood out for me was the tomato slices in cream.  I mean I do get that technically tomato is a fruit (I've certainly had enough people tell me this over the years - talk about parading your little bit of knowledge!!) but even so I cannot even imagine what tomatoes in cream would taste like - and I am not planning to try them out to find out.

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

[Snow Apple]

Mary's dinner was because the weather was hot but it didn't stop Ma from making blackbird pie or frying birds up the next day. 

The meals Ma make always sound so delicious or creative (they had so little sometimes) that this meal stood out for me too.

[Pickles Aplenty]

On 8/4/2021 at 11:57 AM, Snow Apple said:

Mary's dinner was because the weather was hot but it didn't stop Ma from making blackbird pie or frying birds up the next day. 

The meals Ma make always sound so delicious or creative (they had so little sometimes) that this meal stood out for me too.

Maybe I was a weird kid, but I always thought the blackbird pie sounded delicious.  My mom made chicken pot pie, and the way Laura describes it sounds a lot like what my mom made.  If I were Mary, I probably would have asked for that instead cottage cheese balls (I know Mary didn't ask for those, but you know what I mean).

Ugh...I'm reading at a snail's pace, but that's because I've been busy.  I just got to the part where Laura meets Nellie Oleson, again.  I really think Nellie Oleson is one of the best "villains" to ever exist in children's literature.  When Nellie comes to school late and demands the seat Minnie Johnson is already using, you just want to smack her.  And the illustration is absolutely perfect:

Edited August 8, 2021 by Everina

[SnarkySheep]

On 8/2/2021 at 12:51 PM, Everina said:

In Prairie Fires, Laura writes about Almanzo teaching her how to ride his horses once they're married and on their own land.  She says Pa never taught her how to ride, which is sad, because you can tell how much she loves it.  Just another little moment where you can see how much women of Laura's time were denied so much for no good reason.

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't horseback riding considered unladylike back then (because of the implications of having her legs spread)? The women who did ride used side saddles, but of course the Ingallses wouldn't have had the money to spend on something like that which would have been a pure luxury item for Laura.

 

On 8/1/2021 at 11:40 AM, smittykins said:

ITA, especially when Pa basically tells her “You WILL become a schoolteacher, end of discussion,” and she thinks “I can’t, I can’t…I must.”  Obviously, women’s roles were limited then, and “good girls” like Laura didn’t disappoint their fathers.  I do feel bad for her.

It was somewhere around that period that I recall Laura saying she wanted to earn enough money to pay back Ma and Pa for everything it had cost to raise her. I recall even as a kid thinking that was kind of weird, like she had been a guest in the Ingalls home and didn't want to seem like a moocher...

[Pickles Aplenty]

Finished Little Town last week.  Another moment that absolutely horrified me was when the teacher that comes after Eliza Jane savagely whips Willie Oleson for being "slow".  And fifteen year old Laura just watches it and kind of accepts it as necessary because Willie needs to be better about learning his lessons.  Different times, different people.  And they are hard.

The school examination chapter is also interesting, because Laura and Carrie fixate on reciting their lessons and not making a single mistake, or else it would bring shame on them and their family.  No discussion about WHAT they are learning, or WHY they are learning it, just rote memorization with applause at the end.  And a teacher's certificate, for Laura, so she can be "lucky" enough to teach in some godforsaken shack in the middle of nowhere with a knife-wielding madwoman.

Still plodding along with Prairie Fires, too (give me a break, it's 600+ pages long, and I have a full-time job, lol).  One thing that sticks out in my mind is when the Wilders move to Mansfield, and Laura urges Almanzo to not travel on the same road as "the covered wagon folk".  Almanzo asks why, and Laura tells him it's because they've owned property before, and are above those who have never owned property, and are moving to Missouri in the hopes that they will.  Makes me realize just how much of a snob Laura could be, lol.

Edited August 11, 2021 by Everina

[Ceindreadh]

16 hours ago, Everina said:

Finished Little Town last week.  Another moment that absolutely horrified me was when the teacher that comes after Eliza Jane savagely whips Willie Oleson for being "slow".  And fifteen year old Laura just watches it and kind of accepts it as necessary because Willie needs to be better about learning his lessons.  Different times, different people.  And they are hard.

The school examination chapter is also interesting, because Laura and Carrie fixate on reciting their lessons and not making a single mistake, or else it would bring shame on them and their family.  No discussion about WHAT they are learning, or WHY they are learning it, just rote memorization with applause at the end.  And a teacher's certificate, for Laura, so she can be "lucky" enough to teach in some godforsaken shack in the middle of nowhere with a knife-wielding madwoman.

 

Do you mean the school exhibition? 

It was a public demonstration of the children's education.  Making a mistake while standing up in front of the whole town, I can totally understand why they'd be worried about it and not wanting to make mistakes. 

[Pickles Aplenty]

6 hours ago, Ceindreadh said:

Do you mean the school exhibition? 

It was a public demonstration of the children's education.  Making a mistake while standing up in front of the whole town, I can totally understand why they'd be worried about it and not wanting to make mistakes. 

Yes, the school exhibition.  Thank you.

I understand that, I was just comparing their method of education to the ones we have, today.

[proserpina65]

On 8/10/2021 at 8:32 PM, Everina said:

One thing that sticks out in my mind is when the Wilders move to Mansfield, and Laura urges Almanzo to not travel on the same road as "the covered wagon folk".  Almanzo asks why, and Laura tells him it's because they've owned property before, and are above those who have never owned property, and are moving to Missouri in the hopes that they will.  Makes me realize just how much of a snob Laura could be, lol.

For someone whose life was mostly a struggle to keep her head above water, Laura ended up having remarkable little sympathy for anyone else's struggles.  Part of her buying so hard into the image of Pa as a successful person was, I think, the need to believe they were better than people who, in actuality, were not lazy or unmotivated (as she thought), but simply a little less lucky than the Ingalls family was on occasion.

Edited August 13, 2021 by proserpina65

[WinnieWinkle]

On 8/1/2021 at 11:40 AM, smittykins said:

ITA, especially when Pa basically tells her “You WILL become a schoolteacher, end of discussion,” and she thinks “I can’t, I can’t…I must.”  Obviously, women’s roles were limited then, and “good girls” like Laura didn’t disappoint their fathers.  I do feel bad for her.

My mother became a nurse in the '50s because that was what her parents wanted for her.  End of discussion!  Nursing is just not something you should ever do because it makes someone else happy!  

[PRgal]

On 8/15/2021 at 3:44 PM, WinnieWinkle said:

My mother became a nurse in the '50s because that was what her parents wanted for her.  End of discussion!  Nursing is just not something you should ever do because it makes someone else happy!  

Sounds like some people I know - kids being forced into specific majors because that's what their parents want.  My parents gave up on "forcing" me into STEM subjects because, well, that's not how my brain works.....

I often wonder what Laura could have ended up doing had she been born when I was born (1979)... 

[Tom Holmberg]

Some may be interested in Karen Grassle's autobiography due out in a few weeks:  "Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love from Little House's Ma"

[Prairie Rose]

Has anyone else read The Beautiful Snow? It's a historic account of The Long Winter:

[rmontro]

On 2/19/2022 at 10:40 AM, Prairie Rose said:

Has anyone else read The Beautiful Snow? It's a historic account of The Long Winter

Thanks for that recommendation, sounds really interesting.  I'm going to have to pick that up.

[Prairie Rose]

On 2/24/2022 at 7:29 PM, rmontro said:

Thanks for that recommendation, sounds really interesting.  I'm going to have to pick that up.

Happy reading!! 😎

[Stine]

Recently I was at a Victorian Christmas event at a nearby pioneer village, and it brought to mind all the wonderful Christmases included throughout the Little House books, from that first cozy Christmas in the Big Woods when Laura receives her beloved Charlotte to the oyster stew and homemade gifts during the Long Winter, before the long-awaited Christmas barrel finally arrives in the spring. And of course, the iconic journey of Mr. Edwards to deliver presents to the Ingalls girls in Little House on the Prairie. I think every book covers at least one Christmas, and some several.

What are your favourite Christmas moments in the series?

[Constant Viewer]

I like Little House in the Big Woods where Laura gets her doll, but the story of how Mr. Edwards met Santa Claus is good. Also the one where Laura gets the coat and muff.(forget which book it was)

[HyeChaps]

I like On the Banks of Silver Lake when they meet the Boasts and celebrate in the surveyors’ house. 

[proserpina65]

12 hours ago, HyeChaps said:

I like On the Banks of Silver Lake when they meet the Boasts and celebrate in the surveyors’ house. 

That's probably my favorite.  (It's By the Shores of Silver Lake, though.) I also really like the Christmas in These Happy Golden Years where Almanzo comes back from Minnesota to surprise Laura.

13 hours ago, Constant Viewer said:

Also the one where Laura gets the coat and muff.(forget which book it was)

I think that's in On the Banks of Plum Creek.

[Ailianna]

Farmer Boy was always my favorite of the books and it has a lovely Christmas too.

[CountryGirl]

On 12/20/2022 at 10:04 PM, Constant Viewer said:

I like Little House in the Big Woods where Laura gets her doll, but the story of how Mr. Edwards met Santa Claus is good. Also the one where Laura gets the coat and muff.(forget which book it was)

And I will always remember that Nellie had no muff.

[Bethany]

On 2/19/2022 at 10:40 AM, Prairie Rose said:

Has anyone else read The Beautiful Snow? It's a historic account of The Long Winter:

 

I realize this is an older post but I wanted to say it inspired me to get this book.  It's now on my kindle and it looks really interesting.  It's freezing outside and we have had a ton of snow in the last few days so perfect time to read about this long ago long, hard winter.

[PRgal]

I loved Little Town on the Prairie where Laura became a teacher at 15 (she said that normally, one has to be at least 16)!  15 was so grown up back then.  By the time I was 15 (mid-90s), getting angry at your parents was a very normal thing.  Because hormones (not that hormones weren't an issue).  I think I was 9 when I first read it and even got my parents to give me an old duvet cover so I could make a "pioneer girl skirt" to wear to play "pioneer teacher."  Okay, I got a bit of help with the sewing, but I tried (I was in Guides so I kind of knew how to sew).

[Bethany]

48 minutes ago, PRgal said:

I think I was 9 when I first read it and even got my parents to give me an old duvet cover so I could make a "pioneer girl skirt" to wear to play "pioneer teacher." 

Wow now that's a fan!  I really liked these books and I remember moving heaven and earth to get my hands on a copy of On the Way Home when I heard it existed (finally got it through an ILL).  I think my favourite has to be The Long Winter but Little Town on the Prairie is a close second.

 

[Mellowyellow]

I've now read every page of this thread and thoroughly enjoyed myself!!!

I gave my son these books to read when he was 6. Started with Farmer Boy (because, little boy) then moved onto Little House in the Big Woods and so on. He made it to On the Banks of Plum Creek before he quit.

What I found interesting was he kept comparing Pa with Almanzo's father and complaining how dodgy he thought Pa was compared to Almanzo's father.

He was (still is) a frugal child so he loved reading about Mr Wilder banking money (haha he still brings it up at 10!) and was always horrified that Pa went around with no money and having his crops destroyed etc. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Starleigh]

As a child, I just felt bad for Pa. Like, obviously they were just poor and doing their best but unfortunately they had a lot of bad luck (like grasshoppers etc). Of course, now I see it wasn't quite as simple as that.

But, to give him credit where it is due, he was genuinely a hard worker. He wasn't gambling or drinking his money away--there were definitely references to alcoholism/gambling addictions in the books. (I love that Laura included that one of the first businesses/store fronts in De Smet was a saloon, btw. And I am pretty sure she mentioned some gossip at some point about a gambler whose family brought him out west because he just couldn't stay away from the gambling tables). 

I don't know if the Wilders were actually quite as prosperous as Farmer Boy makes it sound, though. IIRC, the whole family picked up and moved west when Almanzo was a young teen. I feel like they would have stayed on their farm if their farming was really that prosperous, with opportunities for all their children back in New York state.

[Bethany]

22 hours ago, Starleigh said:

I don't know if the Wilders were actually quite as prosperous as Farmer Boy makes it sound, though. IIRC, the whole family picked up and moved west when Almanzo was a young teen. I feel like they would have stayed on their farm if their farming was really that prosperous, with opportunities for all their children back in New York state.

They moved west because they had had successive crop failures.  They settled in Minnesota because other family had already moved there.  From what I understand they did quite well in Minnesota.  I guess the difference between moving west with a few dollars in your pocket as opposed to moving west and hoping to make a few dollars.

[CountryGirl]

I mostly like Pa, but I’ll forever be side-eyeing him for feasting on pancakes with the Wilder boys and then going home to have the lion’s share of what dinner they had while Caroline and the girls were none the wiser. 

[zamp33]

Hi - not sure if people are still checking here but there is a new podcast called Wilder. I just came across it and have not listened to it yet. I can't imagine it will be as entertaining as this board is - and it will be interesting to see how they perceive Pa.