Over at our Little House on the Prairie
forum, a fan posted a link to an
article from 2008 titled, "My Nagging Questions About Little House on the Prairie." I have to admit I was feeling a bit zany last night when I answered these questions, but I thought it would be neat to add them here. Hope you'll comment on any that catch your eye.
Why did the Ingalls have the crappiest house in Walnut Grove? How
did the Garveys (and everyone else in the town) end up with a much larger home?
Didn’t Jonathan work at the same exact mill as Charles? (Granted, the Garveys
only had one mouth to feed…but you get my point.)
Because, if
the Ingalls family had a bigger house, it would be called “Little House That is
Now a Big House on the Prairie.” LOL! Actually, I think a lot of it does have to
do with the fact that they had more kids. People with larger houses were
business people or had fewer or no kids: the Widow Thurman, the Olesons, snippy
Christie who was a town girl, Mrs. Craig, and Lars Hanson. Often the houses
shown for other townsfolk were smaller than the Ingalls's farm. My question was
how did Almanzo (a farmer) and Eliza Jane (a teacher) afford that nice
house?
Why wasn’t older Carrie ever given a storyline? (I think
the last time she was featured was when she fell down the hole.) If the
attention wasn’t on either Laura or Albert, it was on the new adoptees James and
Cassandra. As it was, Carrie barely ever spoke.
For whatever reason, they opted not to expand Carrie's character, but she remains important to the show. "The Godsister" episode proves the twins could hold their own with the other actors.
It appears developing the character of Carrie didn't seem crucial to the direction of the show. Or, maybe they always saw her as a baby and never let her grow up, which is why in later years Carrie became a whiner. No matter the reason, it at least will allow me to expand Carrie's character in fan fiction stories.
Why were the older males never meant to have love? Mr.
Edwards lost two families and then gave up a blind girl because he felt he was
too old. And how about Dr. Baker? He also gave up Anne Archer because of
age.
No kidding. Even the Reverend Alden ended up married.
Speaking of love, why didn’t Hester Sue and Joe Kagan ever get
together?
They did. After Hester Sue almost married that
horrible funeral director, she leaves the church on the arm of Joe Kagan. He
asks her if that means they’re engaged, and she says something like, “I’ll have
to see how you work out.” Then in "Second Chance" (Season 8), Hester Sue’s
ex-husband returns, and she admits to Caroline that she didn’t marry Joe
because she couldn’t rid herself of her feelings for Sam.
Was
Charles the only person in town who could solve things with his
fists?
I think Jonathan Garvey did a good job of that
too.
When the families temporarily left Walnut Grove to make
money in other towns (like Winoka), what did Dr. Baker do?
He
stayed to take care of Lars, who had a stroke, and a few others. But why did
Mrs. Foster stay? Or anyone else who hung around when there was no church and no
store. It couldn’t have been easy to get supplies.
Why didn’t
Laura and Almanzo volunteer to take more orphans in? (I’m not counting Shannen
Doherty since she was technically a relative.) Laura knew what it was like to
grow up in a large family and she had a huge house. She could have offered to
take James and Cassandra in when they were looking for parents. Heck - she could
have even offered to trade homes with her cramped
parents.
Because, until Charles and Caroline left, Ma and Pa were the
role models of the community. They were the parents, and they fixed the problems.
Also, Charles felt responsible for the Cooper children.
Exactly
how much older was Almanzo to Laura?
They don’t really say. In "
Back to School," Charles asks Caroline how old he is. He assumes he’s in his 20s,
but I don’t think we ever know. In real life, there was a ten year difference between Laura and Almanzo, and there is an eight year age difference between Melissa Gilbert and Dean Butler.
When the Ingalls were struggling,
how did Charles always find money for tobacco?
Maybe he has a
patch hidden in the wheat. LOL! Even sugar ran out at times, but never tobacco.
When Mary’s baby died in the
fire, how did Dr. Baker know the fire started in the basement? Was he also the
town fire marshal?
Doesn’t Hester Sue open the door to the
basement and see the fire? However, I would think the pipe would have been destroyed by
the intense heat.
Whatever happened to the black doctor Hiram
brought on?
He’s working on the same alternate prairie as Dr.
Marvin, who cures Jenny. He is mentioned in the Season 8 episode, "A Farway Cry," so we can only assume he's around, but we never see him again.
If there were approximately 100
residents in Walnut Grove, why did only 20 of them show up to church every week?
I think more people ate at Nellie’s during their franchise
stint.
Some lived pretty far out of town. They probably didn’t
come all the time. But I'm sure no one ate at a restaurant that
often.
Why were Caroline and Hester Sue responsible for running
every shift at the restaurant? Couldn’t Mrs. Oleson find someone for the
breakfast rush?
Now, where’s the fun in that?
Why
did Hester Sue feel it was necessary to sing after every
event?
Considering Ketty Lester was a singer, that doesn’t
surprise me.
When did Charles and Caroline find the time to
produce more children? Not only did they lack bedroom doors - Carrie slept in
the same room!
They are very inventive or quiet.
.JPG)
