Mom's A Bonnethead!

Late last summer, I wrote this post about my failure to get my mother interested in the Little House series.  I was pretty frank about my disappointment since I knew Mom would not read this blog.  Obviously, I did not count on her missing me so much after my summer visit that she would actually turn to my writing.

I became aware of this miraculous sea-change when I got this little email:

Guess what???  I'm going to read all those books to make you happy.  And I'll buy you a tin cup and some candy and give you a penny for Christmas so you'll be happy.  Now you know I read the blog!  Love, Mom

Mom came through in her usually generous fashion for Christmas, but she was fired up with indignation, and determined to read the whole series just to prove me wrong.  (Once I recovered from my shock, I told her that she could skip Farmer Boy, or leave it till the last.)


Here are a few of the reading updates I received:

That sunbonnet took me back.  I had one when I was a little girl.  My grandmother made it for me.  All of the women had them for working in their gardens.

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They never talk about going to the outhouse, do they?  They never go to the outhouse or wash their faces or teeth.  That bothers me.

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That Laura was a little devil, wasn't she?  Ma told her not to do things, and she did them anyway!  She almost drowned in the creek!

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I'm over halfway in that book now.  It's growing on me.  I'm ready for the test you'll probably give me.

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They skipped a lot of years...Ma and Pa have a new baby and Mary is blind.  When Ma and the girls were traveling on the train to meet Pa and she had the baby on her lap, you know she was nursing, too.

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Ma is out of flour and they have no coal!  They are burning hay.  It's about to get me down.  Why don't they kill some of the livestock so they'll have something to eat?

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I finished The Long Winter tonight.  I felt so sorry for them; I couldn't read too much at a time.  I do think that by the time they got the Christmas barrel 6 months later, that turkey would have been defrosted and not fit to eat.

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Laura's not afraid of work, is she?  She sewed all those shirts and only made a quarter!  That's really low!  And she gave all that money to Ma and Pa for Mary's college.

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How come you didn't tell me the mice ate Pa's hair?????

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Laura's teaching, and that  woman is SO mean to her!  Laura's afraid to go to sleep!  I think she's jealous of Laura.  Almanzo is so good to Laura, coming and getting her, even in the bad weather.  And when Laura was at home, she never let on to Ma and Pa about that crazy woman.

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That mean girl tried to get Almanzo away from Laura, but she set him straight!  And Ma and Pa bought that organ for Mary and she didn't come home that summer.  Then when she came home and saw the organ, she said she wished she'd come home.

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She got married in a black cashmere dress!  I'll bet that was hot!  Don't you know that it got stinky?  I'm finished with that book, and it was my favorite.

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I forgot to tell you that I bought The First Four Years.  It's really good.  I've had some cooking disasters like the one when Laura forgot to put sugar in that pie.  There wasn't much talk about her being pregnant.  One minute she's sick, then the doctor tells her she's going to have a baby, then a few pages later, there's the baby.

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I'm done with the books.  I didn't want the story to end.  Reading about Ma and Pa and everyone -- it really gets into your blood.  I'm watching the TV show on the Hallmark channel now.  I was flabbergasted when I saw that they had a boy.  That Mrs. Oleson who runs the store is so snotty to Ma and Pa and Laura!


Well done, Mom!  You did make me happy!  I'm really pleased and so proud of you for rising to the challenge.

If I don't do another thing of note this year, at least I've helped to give the world another Bonnethead.