![]() With a pigs bladder! Laura and I led very different lives, that's for sure. It did not make me want to give up my LEGOs or video games or books, but I was definitely intrigued by how happy they seemed. I have to tell you, her description of joy at this "toy" was both delightful and at the same time a little baffling. I still totally remember the scene in Little House in the Big Woods where the community has butchered a pig and Laura & Mary are given the pig's bladder inflated with air to play with as a toy. I know, so cute, right? Growing up in twentieth century suburban New Jersey, I was for some reason very taken with the tales of nineteenth century frontier living, self-sufficiency, and family life. I think I was 7 or 8 when my mom lent me the copies that she had gotten as a child at her school book fair. ![]() Let me also say that as an adult when I reflect on and re-read these stories, I’m disturbed by a lot of the content – specifically Ma and Pa’s attitudes towards both Native populations and people of color in general and of course, Laura’s very casual tales of said problematic attitudes and events. Let me start off by saying that I loved the Little House books when I was a kid. I know it's not just, me because the books spawned a whole industry: a television show, cookbooks, and other books about generations of Wilders. It’s Laura Ingalls Wilder's Birthday today, February 7, and like many people born in the 1970s and who grew up in the 1980s, I read (and by read, I mean devoured) the Little House on the Prairie book series.
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