Post 39:
“In the Big Inning”
From 13-Year-Old Anne’s Journal — “December 18, 1982 – EXCELLENT Walnut Grove forms a baseball team. They find a really good pitcher. They play against Sleepy Eye. W. G. is up, it’s last inning, bases loaded. They meet 4 runs to win. Charles is up. He gets a homer.” ____________________________________________________ From Tracy — Of course Young Anne would love this episode. It has baseball in it. Something she loves dearly. Well, only if it involves the Chicago Cubs. Now I remember feeling disappointed that this was going to be a sports focused LHOP until I saw Mr. Mumford pitch. Then they had me. Because there’s nothing Young or Middle Aged Tracy likes better than an underdog story. Laura and Pa’s expressions after Mr. Mumford...
Read MorePost 38:
June Little House Newsletter
From Anne — It’s 1984. Young Anne is 14, heading into sophomore year in high school, and has started reading Seventeen Magazine. You can tell by the way I mimic its perky, season-specific copywriting. That’s the spirit of the Little House Newsletter: a testing ground for my magazine journalism career that didn’t totally happen. To read, print out or download the newsletter, click here. You can also tell I am the daughter of a librarian. Thirty years before Google, all of the information nuggets in the Little House Newsletter came from either: 1) A paperback biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder with a super cheesy cover: 2) back issues of People magazine from my mom’s library. I remember using a huge paperweight of a book called the...
Read MorePost 37:
“Remember Me” Part 2
From 13-Year-Old Anne’s Journal — December 17, 1982 – FAIR “Charles is about to separate the kids by giving them to two different kids (sic). Mr. Edwards doesn’t like it so he asks Grace to marry him and they adopt them.” ____________________________________________________ From Anne — What was Landon’s thing with orphans? Walnut Grove was a revolving door for random kids—everybody from Jason Bateman (Arrested Development) to Todd Bridges (Diff’rent Strokes). That’s where 13-year-old Anne’s “Fair” rating comes from, I think—a sense of weariness. My summary of this episode is about as short as any of them. Today I think that it was a total mistake not to send the little girl with the hip, straight-talking wealthy lady. That decision probably...
Read MorePost 36:
“Remember Me” Part 1
From 13-Year-Old Anne’s Journal — December 16, 1982 – FAIR “This lady is going to die & Charles has to find a home for his (sic) kids. Continued tomorrow.” ____________________________________________________ From Tracy — WHAT A TEAR JERKER! This is a humdinger of a two-part episode. It’s really, really not fair of Landon to hit us right at the beginning with partially drowned puppies and then 15 mins in make us face the death of Patricia Neal. Yes that’s her with the velvet gravel voice. Some of you out there may know her better in Breakfast in Tiffanys as the hero’s er um “patron.” Here’s her best scene in that flick where she is a very epitome of a”stylish girl.” Her beauty and extreme...
Read MorePost 35:
“Haunted House”
From 13-Year-Old Anne’s Journal — December 15, 1982 – FAIR “Laura helps this old man who loves this dead woman. They fix up his house, etc. I don’t remember how it ends.” ____________________________________________________ From Anne — Yick! Obviously this episode did not hold Young Anne’s interest, with its faux scariness, psychological dreariness, and sneaky Christian proselytizing.This Victor French-directed missive is a total drag, from Nellie and Willie’s whiny chants, to the fakeness of Mr. Pike’s beard, to the stupid way that Laura skips home after leading Pike to Jesus like a goat to grass.Even as a kid I had allergic reactions to too much religiosity. This seems to be one in a variety of episodes in which Laura (aka...
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