Playing Laura and Discovery of Headcheese

This last weekend I had a great time playing Laura both days. Saturday I was at the Des Moines Public Library (our capitol city) and Sunday I did a program down in Washington, Iowa. Both days I did Packing Up, so I was playing Laura in 1894. Over the winter I had gotten a great new trunk to replace the old basket I used to use and it was a big hit. Now to get a few more replicas so I don’t have to switch them between boxes and it will be great!

On the way home we stopped at a supermarket aimed at the growing hispanic community. We had been there this summer with a diversity class and wanted some more mango Jell-o. They had some head cheese and I got some, adding another photo to my growing collection of foods mentioned in Laura’s books. My grandmother says it was much hotter and more opaque than what they used to make at home.

Sarah Uthoff

Franklin House of History

Both Malone and Burke, New York are in Franklin County. The Franklin County historical society, calls itself the “Franklin House of History.” Re-organized in the early 1960s, it served as a de facto Laura site for many years. It was only in the mid-1980s that separate organization devoted especially to Laura, Manly and the rest of the Wilder family formed. Prior to that it was the Franklin House of History that sponsored the yearly display at the Franklin County Fair, hosted a Wilder exhibit, and published things about the Wilders. The “Almanzo Wilder Stories” newsletter celebrating their anniversary in the early 1980s is still available from the Franklin House. They also hold Eliza Jane and Alice’s papers.

 What’s new is they have started reprinting, in book form, their early, and long out of print newsletters. Available in both softcover or hardback they are in three books, Collection 1 (Vol. 1-5), Collection 2 (Vol. 6-10), and Collection 3 (just out – Vol. 11-15). I haven’t seen these first hand because I got the originals second hand, but if you haven’t I think this would be great. Collection 1 has Dorothy Smith’s early Wilder articles.

You can contact them at:

Franklin House of History
P.O. Box 388
Malone NY 12953

 Sarah S. Uthoff

Beyond Rubies

Last week Kirkwood Community College presented Beyond Rubies. It’s a woman’s conference that’s been going for years. The name comes from the Bible verse about a virtuous woman being valued beyond rubies.

I did 3 sessions this year. One was on Laura and I did two more for the first time. My new presentations were on Introduction to Oral History and Introduction to Genealogy. They went really well and I think people really enjoyed it.

Sarah S. Uthoff

Lambs in the night

Sheep LOVE bad weather to lamb in. I don’t know what it is, but a good storm is all that’s needed and you’ll be sure to get at least one. Here’s something I bet you don’t know. Sheep only have two teets. Sometimes they have triplets or more, but then they just have to share. Sometimes the odd triplet out fights back in and does fine. Sometimes it does fine, IF you supplement it with some bottle feedings. Sometimes the odd triplet out dies immediately. Sometimes the mother just out right rejects it or lets it get too cold and then you have to rescue the lamb. It becomes a bottle lamb and has to be feed at least every 3 hours. Our first set of triplets this year picked the night of a big ice storm. We saved two of them. The next set of triplets didn’t even have the bad weather excuse, but we got the odd lamb. Last night, it had been in the 70s during the day and the temperature had dropped like a stone and the wind came up. This signaled two sheep it was time to lamb. One of them decided to try to push two lambs out at once (one facing each way) and we had to call the vet, Chance, who was at our house by 11:30pm. The long and short of it was two more rescued lambs. The inside of their mouths were freezing cold. From 10pm when the first one came in until they were finally warmed up enough for the night at 12:30am, it was towel rubbing, hair dryer blowing, bottle feeding, and all the rest. In Australia and maybe on the big ranches out west ,they throw them to the wind and who lives lives, but around here you fight for every lamb. They both made it, I’m glad to say, but this makes 5 bottle lambs for at least a week. I don’t know how we’ll cope every 3 hours.

Sarah

Simple Living TV Show

One of the ladies involved with the Affluenza special, now has a TV Show on PBS called Simple Living. A recently broadcast episode from season 3, shows a little bit of the Masters Hotel in Burr Oak and talks about reading Laura’s books. Find episode descriptions and a way to buy DVDs on http://www.simplelivingtv.net . It isn’t available as a single episode, but is included in the season 3 set.

Sarah Sue

This American Life Radio Show

While searching for an image a few weeks ago, I accidently pulled up the archive of “This American Life” out of WBEZ Chicago and their description of their August 20, 1999 episode (#137). The show has a theme each week and then presents four profile-type news stories that relate to the theme. The theme for this particular episode was “The Book That Changed Your Life.” In Act 4 “Little Sod Houses for You and Me,” Writer Meghan Daum goes to DeSmet, South Dakota and finds it to be remarkably similar to what Meghan had pictured before she went: the people seem like they are genuinely trying to hold on to the values Laura Ingalls Wilder writes about in her books. (15 minutes) This time capsule from 1999 features interviews with Tim and Joan Sullivan and Marian Cramer among others. While some things have changed, (in 1999 the pageant was still mimed to a tape recording) it gives a good feeling for what a visit to DeSmet is like. 

You may stream the audio of the show here
http://www.thislife.org/pages/archives/archive99.html by scrolling down about a third of the way to correct episode. Or, for about a dollar, you may download from Audibles.com or itunes.com. I ordered it as a CD which comes in what looks like a classic record sleeve and is very cool. Also on the page are links to a prairie song used as background in the piece and a collection of photos from DeSmet.

WARNING: While I also enjoyed Act 1 about Moss Hart’s autobiography and Act 3 about collecting Lewis and Clark books, Act 2 is about “David Sedaris describes what happens when he finds a dirty book in the woods and shares it with his sisters.” I got about minute in and decided I didn’t really care to hear any more of this story. The story is also published in the author’s book Naked.

Sarah Sue

Laura Ingalls Wilder Road

I crossed off another minor Laura site off my list of places to visit this weekend. On the way to a conference near Chicago, my mother and I stopped at St. Charles, IL and tracked down Laura Ingalls Wilder Road. It’s the only road not in one of the homesite towns or part of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway that I’ve found named after Laura. Does anyone know of any others? If you want to find it also, it’s right off LaFox Road. It’s the first road as you enter the housing development by the first entrance, near the old farmstead on the hill. Happy hunting!

Sarah

Seeking Laura Letters

The Seeking Laura Ingalls Wilder Letters project is beginning to pick up a little steam. The press release appeared in Involvement the newsletter of the Heritage Agency on Aging and I did interviews this week with both the Cedar Rapids Gazette and the Iowa City Press-Citizen that should appear in the next couple of weeks. Keep the momentum rolling, please pass the word on to someone you know today!

Sarah