Little House on the Prairie

Books have always played a huge part in my life. I have loved reading since I was very young and would devour anything I could get my hands on. Of course, you have heard me talk about this obsession with books for years....if you know me at all, anyway.

I have read every single Nancy Drew books...well, the original series, not the series they tried to come out with much later. I read all the Beverly Cleary books, too. What a gifted writer she was and I would read and re-read them. I also read Sweet Valley High, VC Andrews (sadly), Janette Oake, and many others.

I was so blessed, though, to have read the Little House on the Prairie books. I loved being transported to prairie days. I gobbled the books up and read them over and over and over again.

A double blessing, though, came in the form of a tv show. Oh, how I looked forward to watching this show each week...seeing the characters I had grown to know and love in action!!!

Melissa Gilbert as Laura just encompassed the little girl, half-pint. I remember my dad put a tv in my room just for this show (and so I would stop pestering him and his obsession with watching football). It was a little black and white tv, but that mattered little to me.

Throughout the years, I have watched this show with channels like TNT and TVLAND playing it. I have probably seen each episode countless times and can quote so many of the parts. My favorite storyline? Why, Almanzo and Laura's love story, of course!!

And now, thanks to dvd and netflix, I am watching this wonderful show from the very first until...maybe...the end (let's face it, the show took it all too far). Almost every episode brings tears to my eyes....and many of them cause those tears to fall!! I am barely on disc 2 of season 1. I just watched the episode where Laura befriends a little girl named Olga who was born with one leg shorter than the other....and Charles makes her a shoe that allows her to walk without a limp. Oh yeah, tears aplenty.

Matt laughs at me as I watch it...let him laugh. These books and this show are an important part of my childhood. I wonder what the real Laura Ingalls Wilder would think if she knew the impact her stories would have on even this newer generation?? Did you know there is curriculum based on these books?? I wonder if authors like Jeanette Oake and Beverly Lewis were inspired by her stories when they write their own prairie type books??

There are few American authors who have come close to the enduring legacy that this author has. Now, let me grab a tissue and watch this next episode called "Ma's Holiday". I love Netflix, I love Laura Ingalls Wilder, and I love Almanzo...err....I mean the whole Ingalls family.