As I prepare to write and produce ALMANZO WILDER: Life Before Laura I am immersing myself more in Laura’s books with the goal of being able to capture the tone of her wonderful style in our documentary. While reading THESE HAPPY GOLDEN YEARS…the most powerful source material supporting my first season on the television series… I realize, more profoundly than ever, how important that book was in helping to create the high level of interest for what we did in front of the camera.  While our episodes ran something less than an hour in length and covered the ground necessary to make an entertaining episode of the on-going series,  readers of THESE HAPPY GOLDEN YEARS had a deeply personal connection to Laura’s largely unspoken romance with Almanzo.  This was no more clearly covered in the series than in SWEET SIXTEEN which was a compressed telling of not only Laura’s time at the Brewster School (we made it much more pleasant…and warmer), but also of Almanzo’s very quiet courting of Laura during sleigh and carriage rides over a period of several years before matters came to a head following Laura’s resolve not to continue shared Sunday afternoon drives with Nellie Oleson.  I think young girls reading this book can’t help but be touched by the dignity and quiet confidence that informed Laura’s reserve.  And I think young men can learn a lot about being a gentleman from Laura’s representation of Almanzo’s unspoken, gentle determination to win her.  More than twenty five years later, I wish we had done a better job of capturing Laura’s growing maturity in her transformation from girl to young woman in that arc of shows. I think we did nice job and I’ll always be proud of that work, but we could’ve told those stories much more thoroughly and I have no doubt that the audience would’ve absolutely loved it. Despite the relatively brief courtship we presented on television the audience was right there with us filling in all the blanks with their awareness of Laura’s beautifully written autobiographical story.  Once again, I feel so fortunate to have been a part of this wonderful coming of age story and candidly I think I understand a little better the affection that was lavished on the show and on me by viewers and readers all over the world.  At the same time I can also understand the sense of disappointment that some viewers felt as they longed to see the story as Laura lived it and wrote it.  Fortunately Laura’s books will always be there for readers young and old who enjoy our show but want to know more.  Our upcoming documentary will be much better  because of the influence of Farmer Boy and the other Little House books. I have no doubt that readers of this blog have lots of opinions on this subject.  Share as you desire…Dean