jack

Little House on the Prairie, the television show, ah yes. I didn't watch it.

Of course I read all the books. I just couldn't take Michael Landon as Pa. Pa with his bristly beard and wild hair? And this was supposed to be Walnut Grove, Minnesota, with mountains in the background? Sheesh (if I may say so myself).

ETA: another complaint - Jack should be a bulldog-type, not a shaggy dog! (bulldogs had longer legs in those days, and their head was not so exaggerated)

My home town is about 50 miles from Walnut Grove, nearly straight south. My dad took us there when I was, hmm, possibly in Junior High.

This was long before Walnut Grove had a LIW museum, or a pageant. In fact the only thing to be seen was a depression where the Ingalls' dugout had been. (They lived in a dugout for a time, until they built a house.)

At some point I visited the replica 'Big Woods' cabin with oldest sister - it's near Pepin, Wisconsin, just about half an hour's drive from Ellsworth, where oldest sister lived at the time. It's set on what was the Ingalls property.

I've gone to Rock Elm, Wisconsin for the ice cream social several times. The small cemetery includes a number of Ingalls family members, including Laura's uncle and aunt and some first cousins.

The only site I visited after learning I'm related to these Ingalls is Burr Oak, Iowa, just south of the Minnesota border. Laura never wrote about their stay in Burr Oak; it was a rough time for the family, and her baby brother was born and died there.

DeSmet South Dakota... now, there's a road trip possibility!

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