Little House of Pain

mrmustard put up an entry earlier tonight that included a reference to the TV show "Little House on the Prairie". That got me wondering yet again how much of the endless series of tragedies as seen on the show actually happened to Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family, since I thought the show was initially based on her autobiographical novels.

Well, now that we got this Internet I don't have to wonder any more, since there is a web page called Laura Ingalls Wilder, Frontier Girl that tells all.

Both my mom and my grandma were big fans of the "Little House on the Prairie" show when it originally aired. I wound up seeing quite a lot of it. It wasn't until years and years later that I thought back on how grim the show had been. Lots and lots of tragic deaths, illness, injuries, madness, poverty... I think a couple of the characters were even drunks. Ironically, when I watched it as a kid I was kind of annoyed by it and thought of it as some "girl show" and kept wishing Pa would have gun fights with outlaws and such - that it was more of a 'Western'. I guess death by disease or house fire wasn't thrilling enough for me.

Looking over this web page about Laura Ingalls Wilder now, I'm reminded again how nice and soft and easy I and so many of the people I know have it today. I would guess our expectations in life are a world away from what people on the 'prairie' must've had for themselves, back when. I tell myself I'm lucky all the time but I'm not sure I really understand or believe it, deep down.