Ashley Bryan, the first winner who’s books I’ve never heard of before, has just won this year’s Wilder Award. Originally given every 5 years, it dropped to 3 and now they are looking for someone new with outstanding achievements in the field of children’s literature every 2 years. Read more about this year’s winner and the history of the award on the ALA’s website below.
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/wildermedal/index.cfm
Although the Book Week Speech is far more famous. I much prefer Laura’s “My Work” speech from the Mt. Grove Sorosis Club in 1937. It was first published in Irene V. Lichty LeCount’s Laura Ingalls Wilder: Family, Home and Friends (Potpourri). This quote from it has been playing through my mind a lot lately. It seems that people have been getting sloppier and sloppier in their use of words. There seems to be a trend a foot in our culture to change the meaning of words from moment to moment as convenient or to make them a weapon. It is important though for people to remember words have meaning. Let’s make that a resolution for the coming year.
“There is a fascination in writing. The use of words is of itself an interesting study. You will hardly believe the difference the use of one word rather than another will make until you begin to hunt for a word with just the right shade of meaning, just the right color for the picture you are painting with words. Had you thought that words have color? The only stupid thing about words is the spelling of them.”
I used to try hard to come up with books my little brother would read. He actually tried a few of them, but I can’t say I had a ton of sucess. One that I had given him that he enjoyed was called “T Model Tommy” by Stephen W. Meader. I’ve recently been trying to encourage his godchildren to read and when he objected to my latest suggestion, I was surprised when he said they ought to read T Model Tommy. He remembered the book in detail (it’s been at least 15 years since he read it) and was positive they would too. I looked online and original copies seem to be going for about $80. However, I was absolutely delighted to discover it’s back in print, courtesy of the Historical Construction Equipment Company. They seem to have as fond memories of it as my brother. They have reprinted it in softback for $20 and hardback for $35. See it here: http://store.hceastore.com/2514a.html
It’s the story of a young man named Tommy who rescues a Model T truck from the scrapyard in the 1930s. He restores the truck and eventually creates his own trucking business. It really speaks to all those who love mechanical things. I read it too (15 plus years ago) and I really enjoyed it. Please share the word it’s back in print.
A question came across LM_Net about Mies Gies, one of the people who helped the Frank family while they were in the annex. There was a question about whether she was still alive or not. So I e-mailed them and got the following response.
“Miep Gies is still alive at the age of 99 years.She does not go public anymore, but it is possible to write her.”
They also included her address, but I didn’t want to post that without permission. If you really want to write her, or just want to learn a lot more about Anne Frank visit the museum’s website:
Today’s quote comes from Rex Stout’s “Some Buried Caesar.” I started reading Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe because Bertie Wooster in P.D. Wodehouse’s novels did and I’m so glad I did. They are ripping good detective stories as Bertie might say. Anyway I was re-reading the book and this one quote really spoke to me. One of the characters is addressing Wolfe and I hope that the same quote can be said about me. It’s at the end of chapter 8, my edition has it on page 106.
“I didn’t know you had really earned your reputation, so many people haven’t, but I see now you have.”
This is to inform you that the 2009 Third Biennial Symposium on American Culinary History: Chefs, Restaurants and Menus scheduled to be held in May, 2009 has been postponed.
We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause and will notify you of the new date as soon as the information is available.
However, we are very pleased to announce that there will be a culinary exhibit:
500 Years of Grapes and Wine in America: A Remarkable Story
Curated by Prof. Dan Longone and Jan Longone, February 16-May 29, 2009
Clements Library, University of Michigan
Open to the public, free of charge, Mon-Fri 1-5pm
Lecture on the exhibition, Sunday May 10, 3-5pm
Prof. Dan Longone and Jan Longone
Co-sponsored by the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor
PLEASE ADDRESS AND QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS TO: jblong@umich.edu
I can call my post that because I don’t have any editors telling me that I shouldn’t tell children anything is hard. 
Last year was our first true Iowa winter in a long time and, as Iowa winters tend to run in packs, this one is following along the same lines. Thursday, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where I work, had a wind chill of -52 F. To picture how cold that was, the news showed several people taking boiling water outside and throwing it up in the air and it literally froze into vapor and ice pellets before it hit the ground. Wednesday we got 7.5 inches of snow in a 24 hour period. That’s on top of what was there and the roughly 4 inches we had gotten on Monday. I’d say that it had given me some insight on the 1880-1881 winter in De Smet, SD, except that our trains have kept running. We still have electricity and propane for heat and plenty of kerosene if the lights do go out. (We’re starting to make a pretty big dent in the wood supply, but since that’s just supplemental if we run out, we run out.)
The winter weather this year has given me an insight, I think, on the sleds falling through into the pockets made by the slough grass. I think there must have been some freezing rain mixed in with the snow because until this last big storm I’ve been falling through the crust all month. The ice makes a crust and then there is more snow on top of that. You take a step and maybe even it holds you for a second or two and then WHOMP! down you drop 4-5 inches through snow. The hole you make is much larger than your foot because of how the ice sheet breaks up. I think a horse pulling a load, but instead of just a few inches if it fell a foot or so, would have a terrible time. It would be hard to maneuver the sled because the way runners are constructed they don’t back up easily (usually not at all). So I think I’ve now shared an experience, in a small way, with Almanzo and Pa.
I’m going to take the rare step of reviewing a book I haven’t actually seen yet. I’m also going to give the information on how you would buy a copy because I think there will be some interest out there and not many people will know about it. So please pass this on to anyone you know who loves old tractors. I have seen the author’s column. He’s known in the pages of Ageless Iron as Machinery Pete. Ageless Iron gives it a rave.
“[It's] packed with actual auction prices paid for antique tractors, trucks, implements, and cars. The 416-page book also has the ultimate serial number guide.”
To order call 1-800-678-5752 or go to http://www.rustbook.com
I’ve been so successful with getting information based on the Ingalls Family Carvings post, I’m going to try again. I bought this figure off Ebay with very little information. On the bottom it says, “Laura as a Young Lady by Garth Williams. Fine Porcelain Hand Painted, Copyright 1984, G.W.” . The only other hint I have is one of the objects in the De Smet e-club was a sketch by Garth Williams that seems to be a design sketch of a version of Pa that matches this Laura, but I haven’t seen one in ceramic. Anyone know anything else? Who made it or if there was more to the set?
Laura Figurine
Graves of Hoover's Parents
I have been involved with the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and National Historic Site for some time. I even used to volunteer there. His own grave, which was selected to overlook the Birthplace Cottage, was central to the story we shared. However, even though I knew his parents both died there in West Branch when he was young, it wasn’t until I recently read a souvenir book from the 1970s that it occurred to me to wonder where his parents were buried. It turns out they are the West Branch Municipal Cemetery. They are buried next to each other and their stones are still there. The stone his mother selected for his father was taller than they allowed, so it was originally buried deeper than it was intended to be.
