Yes, I admit it...

... I read, and enjoyed, the "Little House" books when I was a kid. I read them all... two or three times!

I still remember how Jack, the brindle bulldog (must have been a Staffordshire/Pit Bull, because that's how he looked in her drawing), faithfully followed their wagon across the states and swift rivers to a whole new world, and I remember crying when I thought he was lost in the current of one of those streams... and crying again when he turned himself in his three little circles on his pillow for the last time.

I remember her enjoyment of the maple sugar candies she received on Christmas, and how white sugar was such a luxury. Funny how times change -- white sugar is relatively cheap now.

And I remember her perspectives on others, the family she stayed with as a young teacher that was so unlike her own -- frequent arguments and a much less rosy outlook, Nellie Olsen, the "scary" natives wearing skunk skins and how her mother thought the only good indian was a dead indian, but her father thought they just needed better lines of communication. Funny how things don't change. There are still people who don't trust those who are different than themselves and those who feel that ignorance leads to hate. Then there are those who foster that hate for their own gain... I don't remember Laura mentioning them in her books, but they must have existed, even back then.