Springfield IL 2013

Lincoln Home from 1st Trip

Without really setting out to we seem to get over to Springfield, Illinois every four or five years. The first time was with a 4-H bus trip. It was at a miserable time of year and we were supposed to sleep on  floor of the gym at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in sleeping bags. It rained buckets and some of the sleeping bags got wet in the bus cargo area and we had to share the dry ones. It was a memorable trip. I had my Disc camera and took photos of every place we went from New Salem (a recreated village where Lincoln lived as a young man) to the Lincoln Home. Some of the places we went (like the wax museum) are no longer there. Some have been created since then (the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum).  I took a photo of the Tower that stuck  out over town on that first trip. It was a 30 floor skyscraper.

Hilton Tower from 1st Trip

We’ve made several trips back to Springfield for Midwest Open-air Museum Coordinating Conferences, either held in town or nearby and that’s what brought us back in March 2013.

This time we didn’t have a lot of drive around time. But the day we arrived we hit both of our favorite Lincoln giftshops (both that are on at least their second generation of family ownership & you kind of step back in time when you go in, the one near the cemetery gate is the place with the cheapest postcards I’ve found in town). Then we headed out to the Cemetery – we hadn’t visited the Lincoln grave since our second visit, when my mom introduced us to the concept of rubbing Lincoln’s nose on the bust outside for

Wax Museum No Longer There

good luck. You can always tell when one of these statues has a similar tradition because the oil from people’s hand when they rub whatever part of the statue that is lucky keeps it brightly shining when the rest of the statue patinas. I enjoyed visiting the Lincoln tomb which was surprisingly busy. It was the first time back since watching Stealing Lincoln’s Body. The only problem was the apparently half trained guide who was giving her spiel to a school trip ahead of us.  She had a couple of things I was sure were factual errors and couple more I was pretty sure weren’t right. She wasn’t very open to questions about the errors either. I took a

Lincoln House 2013

photo of each of the many statues on the inside this time taking you through stages of Lincoln’s life this time and we went around to the public holding vault around the other side of the hill that I had never seen before that was where Lincoln waited half the time while waiting for the tomb’s construction to finish. Then we checked into the Hilton Hotel which was the Tower I mentioned before. I never thought I’d ever stay there when I first saw it. We were on the 9^th floor, but  conference rooms were on both the Mezzanine and on the 29^th floor, necessitating frequent use of the glass elevators (even after we got sort of stuck in a frozen one – it never did move but the doors did open again after hitting both the alarm and door open buttons). We had valet parked our car from arrival until departure due to the horrible parking situation in downtown Springfield (I swear it’s as bad as Des Moines right at the heart of downtown, although that changes quite a bit if you’re willing to park further out and walk in (and I’m talking a difference of maybe 3 or 4 blocks). A last thing about the hotel specifically, every conference MOMCC gets a hospitality suite which is open to all attendees at certain hours. It’s generally not a place I spend a lot of time,  but this time I visited to poke around because they actually gave us a hotel room with a full kitchen, multiple seating areas, a dining room, and two floors. I’ve seen smaller houses. It even had an open staircase. I doubt we’d ever get anything like that again, but can I say WOW! It did impress.  Normally it’s a normal room with 2 queen beds and most people sitting on the floor.

Giftshop by Cemetery 2013

The reception was at the Lincoln Home which has the well informed policy of allowing photography within the house, even with flash based on studies of the non-determental after all flashes by Eastman Kodak. I always enjoy comparing the two parlors with the illustrations of the room that appeared in Leslie’s Illustrated News (which is available, along with loads of great books, in the Lincoln Home Giftshop). This time we had the actual director of the site doing the tour since it was after hours as part of the opening reception. My favorite addition from my last time was a full sized recreated campaign log cabin, like they built on wagons and used at campaign activities. Also, I learned that house on the corner that is used for their living history costume changes etc. is actually a recreation of the house that was a few blocks over that was Mary Lincoln’s house, where she lived in Springfield before she married Abraham and when she returned to Springfield after his assassination. The visitor center has also got a recreated 3D map of Springfield at the time and by pushing buttons you can follow the lighted track of things like where Lincoln went on the day he found out he was elected President. It was really fun. In case you are wondering Daniel Day Lewis did visit in preparation for making the movie, they closed down

Campaign Float Recreated 2013

the park to give him and the group of VIPs he was with a special tour. He wasn’t dressed as Lincoln yet though.

After the reception I joined up with the Lincoln’s Ghost Walk. It was lead by Garret Moffett who has written books including Haunted Springfield Illinois and Lincoln’s Ghost: Legends and Lore. He also is part of the living history program that operates in Springfield during the summer and says that a billionaire has recreated Lincoln’s funeral train car. They are planning on running it from Chicago to Springfield and filming the whole thing in 2015. They have had such an overwhelming response that they are now working on trying to raise funding to run it all the way from Washington, D.C. The actual furniture used in the funeral car is on display at the Union Pacific Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa. See it here:
http://trundlebedtales.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/union-pacific-museum

Read more about the recreation of the funeral train slated for 2015:
http://www.lincolninstitute.com/Lincoln%20Funeral%20Car/Lincoln%20Funeral%20Car.html

http://www.the2015lincolnfuneraltrain.com

The Ghost tour was lots of fun and would actually be a good way of kicking off a Springfield visit helping you realize where things were in relationship to each other including the Lincoln Law Office, the Old State Capitol, the Lincoln family pew, the Lincoln Home and the Lincoln Depot. The Lincoln Depot is privately owned. A local lawyer has his offices on the second floor, but restored the main floor to its original appearance. It

Lincoln House Interior 2013

had always confused me, but (if you can find a parking place) it is open to the public during business hours.

Most of the next day and a half were full of sessions on things like 18^th century clothing, how to make 19^th century shoes, the Donner Party, Route 66, Black Hawk: A Biography, etc. I didn’t present this time, although I have several times at past conferences. The big event Friday night is the ball. Although costume is not required, lots of people bring one of their “normal” period clothes and there is costume contest. Sometime there is a theme, but normally you get things like an 1830s gentleman talking to a 1940s WAC or a late 19^th century laboring man talking to someone who might have gone down on the Titanic. It’s always a great time just to look around and see what everybody is wearing.  This time they had an extra contest for being best connected with Lincoln. They had people doing everything from being the Lincoln Highway to being mourners as the funeral train passed through Cincinnati (complete with photo of “them” with the train) to the  fireman on the funeral train (down to black smudges on his face). My favorite though was portraying Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks, and she somehow begged, borrowed, or stole a glass of milk from the caterers to top it off.

MOMCC Party 2013

I also stirred up a little fuss on the food history side of things that I will fill you in on as soon as I get my e-mail sent to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and get their response.

Word of a potential snowstorm got us leaving as soon as I gave the foodways resource group report to the MOMCC board, we headed out. My mother was traveling with me and she freaks out far from home in bad weather, but as it was we got all the way home before the first flake flew. I hoped we might get to stop at the National Surveyors Museum (which went through everything from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as surveyor to modern GPS systems), which is sadly shutting down and this was the last chance. The economy dived just when they were getting started and Surveyor income with it, they didn’t get the support they thought they would from the professional surveyor community. The museum is now closed and they’re planning on auctioning off the collection. The former director’s presentation on Lincoln as Surveyor was really fascinating. I learned a lot. He also got a statue placed at New Salem honoring Lincoln as surveyor (New Salem holds Lincoln’s original surveying tools).

It was a great trip. I enjoyed it and hope to get back soon. Next time I want to hit some more of the Route 66 stuff including an original Cozy Dog.

Burt Wolf Travels and Traditions
http://www.burtwolf.com/pdf/1010_Springfield.pdf

Springfield is known for:

Lincoln
http://www.visit-springfieldillinois.com/Lincoln/

Route 66
http://www.visit-springfieldillinois.com/Route-66/

Frank Lloyd Wright:
http://www.dana-thomas.org/

Unusual and Fun Ways to look around Springfield:

Historic Bus Step On/Step Off
http://www.visit-springfieldillinois.com/Documents/historical.pdf

Walking Tour
http://www.visit-springfieldillinois.com/Documents/07_WalkingTourMap_FINAL.pdf

Driving Safely With Deer

Deer Crossing Sign

Laura Ingalls Wilder season normally brings with it a lot of folks trekking across the Midwest and the Great Plains who aren’t accustomed to country driving and getting to any of the Laura homesites requires country driving. One thing that you rarely encounter driving in cities is having to deal with deer-car collision (although deer populations do seem to be on the upswing in urban areas too). The population of deer in Iowa has soared since it was reintroduced by “accident” in the early 20th century. Iowa has a particularly robust population thanks to the policies of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, but you will find dealing with deer a strong possibility anywhere in Laura country.

The Iowa Department of Transportation and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources gives the following recommendations if you’re not used to driving in an area with a high deer population.

• Slow down!
• Be extra alert at dawn and desk, when deer are the most active.
• At night, use high beam headlights whenever possible and scan the road ditches.
• Watch for the NEXT deer. If one crosses, others often follow.
• Don’t veer for deer. You’re safer to hit the deer than to run off the road or to hit an oncoming vehicle.
  (They made it a rhyme hoping that people would remember it, but in plain English aim straight for the deer if it’s in your lane, don’t try to give it space by changing lanes or taking the ditch, fatalities and serious injuries increase if you try to avoid it once it’s in your lane. – SSU)
• Expect to see more deer during the November rut, during the hunting season, and during crop harvest. Also use extra caution in May and June, when does are giving birth and chasing away last year’s fawns.
• Pay attention to deer crossing signs. But realize that deer may cross a road almost anywhere in Iowa. (Make that anywhere in the Midwest, no matter what definition of Midwest you use. – SSU)

While I’m at least used to driving in deer country, on our family’s trip to Prince Edward Island (over a decade ago now) we almost ran into a moose and her calf that crossed in front of us on a road in Maine. Luckily we saw it far enough back that we had time to safely slow down and let her cross, but it was a good lesson that being on vacation doesn’t mean accidents don’t happen (as did the tire blow out at Montezuma’s Castle in Arizona) so be careful, drive safe, and be prepared on your Laura trip.

Travel Times Conference

Sarah presenting at LauraPalooza 2012

This month’s Travel Times is just mean talking about one of my favorite things to do on vacation, attend conferences.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/trundlebedtales/2013/05/12/travel-times-conferences

I wanted to share a couple of the conferences I mentioned.

Country School Association of America – Registration Information
http://trundlebedtales.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/csaa-2013-registration-is-open

Association of Living History Farms and Museums
http://www.alhfam.org/?cat_id=350&nav_tree=111,117,350

Association of Rural and Small Libraries
http://arsl.info/category/conference2

Midwest Archives Conference
http://www.midwestarchives.org

Children’s Literature Festival in Warrensburg, MO
http://guides.library.ucmo.edu/clf

Midwest Open-air Museum Coordinating Council
http://www.momcc.org/conferences.html

Laura Ingalls Wilder on Dakota Life

At De Smet Pageant 2009

You might have heard me mention something about having to get to De Smet after LauraPalooza this last year. This news story and a second that I think they’ve delayed on Pioneer Girl are why. Dakota Life is a TV magazine on South Dakota Public Television. Larry Rohrer is the host. You can watch it now at the link below.

http://watch.sdpb.org/video/2365005935

They also have a Dakota Life playlist on the South Dakota Public Television YouTube channel, but so far this isn’t there.

(The photo on the left is from a previous trip where several of the LIWLRA board members met up there and as you can see we had a picnic while waiting for the show to start.I’m afraid it’s about the only shot of myself at the pageant.)

There is an unrelated story first up on the episode (a church is delivering charity parcels to Haiti in person), so let it play or skip ahead to 13:00. Jumping ahead works best if you let it play through first, so minimize and mute and then go back. I had trouble getting it to start playing again when I tried to start with the jump without letting it load and play through first, but maybe you’ll have better luck.

It starts playing on a small screen within a screen, but the icon in the lower right hand corner of the playback video (a solid square with a broken outline square around it) takes it full screen. It flips to saying “Full Screen” if you hover the cursor over the right thing. I’ve included time cues to things you might want to find again.

13:42 Opens up on shot of Ingalls Homestead and the West Bethany Church

13:50 Marion Cramer interview starts, followed by more Ingalls Homestead footage

14:30 Joan Sullivan as Ma Ingalls at Ma’s House on Ingalls Homestead

14:35 De Smet Pageant

14:40 Sarah Uthoff shout out with footage of me watching the De Smet Pageant, Followed by part of my interview

15:30 Me walking on the Ingalls Homestead doing my best Julie Andrews impression

16:00 De Smet Cemetery and back to De Smet Pageant

16:20 Catherine Tritle, Pageant Board Member. The De Smet pageant is moving to rotating through the books in order, one per year, where before they sometimes would keep a title a couple of years in a row.

16:40 Jay Vanduch, Pageant Director and behind the scenes prep stuff

19:00 Larry Somsen, De Smet Pageant Volunteer (today he works the sound system)

19:20 Marion Cramer again

20:20 A little more Marion Cramer

Ends 21:00

Homesites Open for the Season 2013

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Season has officially gotten underway again. If you plan a Laura trip before they open, make sure you call ahead. The homesite museums that are not fully open, may or may not be able to accommodate you by opening the museum, etc. or giving lists of what there is to see.

Pepin, WI – Opens May 15, 2013

Kitchen Display at Pepin

Independence, KS – Opened April 4, 2013

Walnut Grove, MN - Museum opened April 1, 2013. Dugout Site not open until May. The date is dependent on weather conditions, if there is still snow or if it’s flooded it won’t open as early. Call ahead and check.

Burr Oak, IA – Opened April 1, 2013, Mon.-Sat.  10am-4pm, Sun. 12-4, After Memorial Day Mon.-Sat. 9am-5pm, Sun. 12-4. (Note: This fall their schedule will change slightly they’ll be open Tues.-Sun after Labor Day until the close of the season Oct. 13th.)

De Smet, SD -
Memorial Society – Open in April Mon.-Fri. 9am-4pm, in May Mon.-Sat. 9am-4pm, June-August 9am-5:30pm

Ingalls Homestead – Opens Memorial Day Weekend, Sat., May  25, 2013 for regular 9am -7pm every day with activities from 10am -6pm  schedule. They are hosting school visits M-F beginning April 29.  Visitors are welcome to join up with a school group, but should call or email first to get specific times as they vary daily.  800-776-3594 – mail@ingallshomestead.com

Mansfield, MO - Opened March 1st, 2013

Malone, NY - Opens Saturday before Memorial Day, Sat., May 25, 2013 and then open 7 days a week. I asked and they said the one-room school replica exterior is now done, they still hope to get more for the interior.

Spring Valley, MN - Opens May 18-19 from 10-4 each day for the Wilder Fest. Then starts regular hours on Memorial Day Weekend, Sat., May 25, 2013.

Keystone, SD – Opens June 1, 2013

Vinton, IA – Since they are kind of in a different situation, being part of an institution that has to be open all year. They don’t have stated open hours, but will gladly give a tour by appointment. Pat Barr wrote “We have Little House Site Tours on the following dates starting at 9:30 a.m.:  July 16, August 5, and September 23.  Anyone is welcome to join us.  Also, we will give a tour any day Monday through Friday.  Because the Old Main roof construction will not be done now until sometime in November, people might want to call for directions/assistance into the building.  They may call Justin Ruegg at 319-472-5221, Extension 1226 or myself at 319-472-5221, Extension 1110.”

May 2013 Presentation Schedule

Laura Quilt on Display in Pepin

Here we go another month and I hope that Spring is really here finally. Find me at these programs and remember if you want me to come visit your town, check with your local library, museum, or club.

• OLLISA Class – Thurs., May 9, 2013 Time 3:00PM
• Ames Public Library – Pa’s Big Green Animal Book – Thurs., May 9, 2013 7:00PM
• Montrose Health Center – Montrose, Iowa – Laura Ingalls Wilder: What a Doll! – Wed., May 15, 2013 1:00PM
• Clinton Public Library – Clinton, Iowa – General Laura Program – Wed., May 29, 2013 6:00PM

Join us for one if you can and if you want me to come near you, read all about it at:

http://www.trundlebedtales.com

Pride and Prejudice Walk

Pride and Prejudice – Lizzie and Darcy go for a walk

This seems to be my year for talking about Pride and Prejudice since I’ve managed to make two posts about it so far this year before this one. (Click to read the post about the Board Book version.) That is entirely fitting considering it’s the 200th anniversary of the classic novel. And by classic I do not mean the group of books forced upon the unsuspecting public under the guise of “Great Books of Literature” in college and college track English classes (although you might find it there too), I mean it’s truly a timeless book that is not to be missed. There are certain fictional worlds that all you have to do in an unwary and idle moment let fall open a page (or to watch a single scene flipping through channels) and you are instantly hooked again and find yourself craving to re-read (or rewatch the whole thing) as if it was an addiction. For me, and I imagine for a great many other people, Pride and Prejudice is one of those worlds.

It is also a world that survives manipulation quite well.  It’s been made and remade as movies (the actress who played Jane in one BBC adaption had a daughter who went on to play Jane in another) and even re-written as books from every other conceivable angle, as sequels, and even with zombies (which they managed to keep a surprising amount of the original text for and if it serves as a gateway book, good for them). My second favorite movie adoption is the Greer Garson version which also starred Sir Laurence Oliver. I can’t argue it’s all that faithful to the book, the costumes are decades off, and let’s face it Garson was too old play Elizabeth as she was written in the book, but it still manages to be a completely charming movie in its own right and Garson certainly captured Elizabeth’s spirit. It’s worth watching for her performance alone and some of the invented scenes still manage to capture that Pride and Prejudice spirit, for instance I really love the archery scene. However, my favorite by far is the Colin Firth adoption from 1995 which is the most faithful to the books ever made and can truly be said to be almost faultless (if only they had covered her not really playing the piano better and not harped so much on shelves on a closet which was a total misinterpretation of late 18th-early 19th century diction on their part). If you haven’t watched it, do. If you haven’t read the original book, this is an excellent year to do. The only proviso is that it is a little harder reading level than people who love it may realize and my only failure in getting someone to love the book who I later realized wasn’t quite up to that reading level yet.  Maybe I should have shown her the miniseries first for inspiration. ♥

The walk Elizabeth and Darcy take at Pemberley is an important point in the story no matter what adoption, but it was most beautifully captured showing the beauty of an expansive formal English garden in the 1995 version. Lyme Hall played the part of Pemberley in exterior shots, Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire doubled in for the interior shots.  In honor of the anniversary, the Radio Times has created directions on how you can repeat their walk yourself in the very spots where it was filmed. Find the full color map and directions at the link below.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-04-11/pride-and-prejudice-walk-in-the-footsteps-of-miss-bennet-and-mr-darcy

Historic Iowa Documents

The following was originally an e-mail, but I thought the information was interesting enough that I wanted to pass it on. So with permission from the author, Mandy Easter, Law Librarian of Iowa Library Services/State Library – Law Library. [Note: I don't have the rights to a photo of the law library so this is an interesting look at the Old Capitol where the earlier laws are written. It was taken a few years ago during the Herkys All Over art campaign and this is Herbert Hoover Herky with a bag of food relief for Belgium on his back. It was purchased by and now held at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa.]

All libraries strive to collect and preserve the documents pertinent to their local histories and those efforts constitute one of the most important and appreciated aspects of our community-sustaining activities.

Last Friday, April 12th, an article entitled “Early Iowa Documents Now Online,” by MacKenzie Elmer of the Associated Press, appeared on page 2B of the Des Moines Register and praised State Library staff for their three-year effort to make more than 450,000 historical state documents available to anyone with Internet access.

Hard copies of every Iowa legislative bill, act and territorial agreement dating back to 1838–eight years before Iowa became a state–were shipped to the Law Library Microform Consortium in Kaneohe, Hawaii to be scanned and posted online.  Most of the work involving 583 volumes of history was done free of charge, saving the state approximately $108,000.  The Law Library Microform Consortium is a 37-year-old nonprofit organization whose mission it is to preserve and digitize legal documents.  Its roughly 500 international library subscribers pay to access its treasure trove of history.  Iowa was the first state to participate in the project and Maine is the second.  The consortium hopes other states will eventually participate, as well.
“Essentially, we’ll have one of the most complete freely accessible collections of historical state legal materials in the country,” Law Librarian Cory Quist says in the article.

The scanned and posted documents include all of Iowa’s historical Codes and territorial laws; Acts of the Iowa General Assembly; House and Senate journals; original legislative bills and amendments, whether or not they became law; Interim Study Committee Final Reports; Iowa Official Registers (Red Books); and legal opinions of Iowa’s Attorney General.  Even the legal publishing giants Westlaw and LexisNexis–which provide access to their databases for a fee–cannot provide this depth of historical access to Iowa’s legal documents.

The “Roses & Thistles” column in the April 14th Sunday Des Moines Register, page 2OP, gives a symbolic “rose” to State Library employees and Hawaii’s Law Library Microform Consortium for the digitization project which “…will make Iowa history easily accessible for future generations.”

These historical documents are posted on the General Assembly’s website at [www.legis.iowa.gov][1].  Click on “Archives” in the top tool bar and then click on “On the Shelves” in the left-hand navigation bar.  The Law Library’s staff is happy to help you and your patrons with requests for historical legal materials.  Some of the most popular questions we’re asked involve the date on which a section of the Code first became law and/or how a particular law read at a specific point in time.  Remember that we also house historical judicial decisions, Iowa appellate court briefs, Iowa’s Constitutional Convention debates, governors’ executive orders, state agency annual reports, and many other materials that preserve Iowa’s legal history for your use today. Call us at 515-281-5124 or toll-free at 1-800-248-4483 or e-mail us at  law at lib.state.ia.us.

Enjoy this week…your week…our week!

Mandy Easter, Law Librarian
Iowa Library Services/State Library – Law Library
State Capitol Building, Room 200
Des Moines, Iowa 50319
515-281-5124

I just want to chime in and say how very helpful I’ve found the law library for legal questions both historical and current and it was recently named one of the 6 most beautiful libraries in the world and who can argue? (Although they don’t let you climb the spiral staircases and if any staircase ever called out to be climbed it’s these.) http://ht.ly/km1K3

CSAA 2013 Registration is Open

One-Room School on Ingalls Homestead
De Smet SD

We would like to invite you to attend the Country School Association of America’s 13th annual conference, which is being held from Sunday, June 16th through Wednesday, June 19th at Berry College in beautiful northern Georgia.  This year, for the first time, you have a wide range of choices for registration and payment:

1)  Online registration with payment by credit card

2)  Online registration with payment by mail

3)  Paper registration with payment and registration by mail

Please check out the Conference Information Sheet to gain a better understanding of the conference and registration process before you go online to register.
http://www.countryschoolassociation.org/CSAA%202013%20CONF%20INFO%20SHEET.pdf

Every year we organize a conference where we invite a diverse group of participants from many different organizations, museums, academic institutions as well as cultural and heritage centers. Each year, we provide museum personnel, teachers, staff, faculty and students, preservationists, historians and re-enactors from across the country, with an intimate forum to exchange ideas, discuss their current activities, programs and issues with colleagues in the field.  With such an energetic atmosphere, wide choice of activities, dynamic events, educational sessions and networking opportunities, you do not want to miss this event.

*** PLEASE NOTE: In this new registration process, when you see the big “green button”, ensure you make the correct selection for the payment you are going to use. (check or credit card as indicated below).  If paying by check, you can still “register” online, but will mail the check to the address provided online.

To register online, go to our website and follow the link provided on the home page.  http://www.CountrySchoolAssociation.org

Annual Conference financial aid and work exchange program deadlines are one week away.  Check under Awards & Grants on our website above.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to Berry College, just north of Rome, Georgia in June.

Should further information be required, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thanks

Richard Lewis
CSAA
richard.lewis-1@nasa.gov

Poetry Contest Entries 2013

Laura Figurine

You can still enter if you want to, but so far I only got two submissions. I think we’ll have to rethink how we enter them next time to make them easier to find, but I appreciate the people who did participate by submitting and voting (and again it will open until the end of the month if you want to jump on board). They are highlighted so they go across the page to help you find them. Here are the entries:

Jan Fuller San Nicolas

Running on the prairie with the wind in my hair,
All of my life, I’ve imagined being there;
With Laura and Mary, babies Carrie and Grace,
I feel I have been in each special place.

Pa’s music and Ma’s wisdom, echoing in my mind
Have guided my journey in modern times.
So through the Long Winter, Plum Creek and De Smet,
My Happy Golden Years are ahead of me yet.

And to my own Rocky Ridge when it’s time to retire,
I’ll cherish Laura’s life and all that transpired.

Kitty Hillman Latané

Once I read The Little House
To meet a girl
Who long ago then,
Walked behind the wagon singing,
Embraced by love and hope,
While, having TV and a car
In what then was now,
I hardly dreamed of more.

In the now that is now
Children twitter, tweet and text
Messages of hope and love
Sending my own abundant childhood
To Once upon a time long ago.