ALMANZO WILDER - An Inspiration
So much has been going on this month that I have found too little time to make blog entries here. As those of you who check in regularly know we announced a revised release date for Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura on the 13th of February. The 13th was Almanzo’s 151st birthday, so the timing was excellent. This year also marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of Farmer Boy, so this is one of Almanzo’s big years. Our new release window of September 2008 will allow us to shoot more footage in Malone NY this summer focusing on Morgan horses and other life stock which populated the Wilder farm during Almanzo’s youth. With those animals again in residence, if only briefly, we will be able to capture for audiences the way it really was there during Almanzo’s youth. In addition to the animals, today we got word from Malone that the local historic society will be making their collections of historic photographs available to us for inclusion in the program. This is great news and will enhance the authenticity of visual storytelling enormously. Having grown up myself in a country setting I remember all too well the daily rituals of feeding horses, repairing fences, cutting trees, watering plants…it was stuff that my brother and I did with our father and grandfather and it was meaningful. On the surface it was meaningful because the work had to be done and it made sense to focus our energies on activities that actually produced positive results and got things done. We didn’t always do things as well as our older relations would’ve liked, but we were always encouraged to participate. This was the greatest gift of all and it served an enormously important purpose because through our efforts we became bonded us to our family and to the land on which we lived. My life experience through the decades tells me that this was one of the really great things our parents did for us as kids…they made us participate and that participation led to commitment. In Almanzo’s time, as in ours, shared participation in family related tasks is essential to the creation of family bonds and connectedness. In my opinion its not enough to simply be a member of a family. For a young person to become truly part of a family it is essential that they be called upon and counted on to give something of themselves for the shared benefit of all. In reading Farmer Boy I was deeply impressed and touched by how much was expected of Almanzo and his siblings from a very early age. It wasn’t a game for James and Angeline Wilder. They needed their children to be contributors. From sun-up to sun down and into the night there were things to do and it never stopped…except on Sundays. For all the things that fill our days now, very few of us living in this country today will ever experience the all encompassing effort required by Almanzo and his family to simply survive. Isn’t it amazing what they did? Like many readers I’m sure…I found myself filled with with awe and appreciation as I read about the endless chores, season by season, that were required to keep the farm successful and productive. The Wilder’s had their priorities squarely in order. Deviation from those priorities of feeding, plowing, or planting, or threshing for even a day would have a ripple effect that could be unrecoverable. Today, when we don’t have something we need, we just go to the store and get it. Back in the 1860s if Almanzo and his family didn’t have what they needed they could only look to themselves to know why or why not. It was a much simpler, less ambiguous time. That being said, I don’t think many of us would choose to return to those years…we like our cars and our appliances, our TVs, computers, and cellular telephones, but reading Farmer Boy and Laura’s other wonderful books inspires a romantic connection to the simple reality that people held their fates in their own hands and they survived or failed based on their own efforts. As we prepare our program for release this coming September we will be focused on putting the simple truths Almanzo’s youth on the screen knowing that his boyhood experiences and the lessons he learned from his parents have an eternal ring of truth that can positively impact the lives of people living in any age. Dean
February 26th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Tina Russell
February 27th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Excellent post Dean! We’re so excited about this new DVD on Almanzo. I agree with everything you’ve said here. I believe that is the continued attraction of the Little House books and the series–family pulling together and depending upon on another. They faced difficulties you and I only read about in books, and yet they seemed content and looked forward to the future. It often comes up at the Little House forums about whether people would like to live during Laura and Almanzo’s time. I could never do it. While the romantic in me would love the simplier times, the realist realizes that I find caring for a small vegetable garden a tedious and almost impossible chore, and I could never hope to live the life that Laura and Almanzo did.
BTW, do you plan to film any of the Franklin County Fair for the documentary? Chapter 21 of “Farmer Boy” talks about the Wilder family’s visit to the County Fair and I wondered if we would get the chance to see any of that on the DVD.
Thanks. Keep up the great work that you do. We Divas are loving it!
Cheryl
February 28th, 2008 at 1:35 am
I love your post too, Dean, you will soon find it translated to german on ukf.net.
Unlike Cheryl I actually could imagine to live during Laura’s and Almanzo’s time. I believe I could manage to do without modern conveniences. Not completely on my own of course, but with the help and togetherness of a loving and caring family. I am perfectly aware that it has nothing to do with romance and is based on hard work day in and day out.
In one point I agree with Cheryl though - Dean, keep up the great work. We Divas are loving it.
Martha
March 1st, 2008 at 6:14 pm
As always, it is a great pleasure to read your posts. You’re a very good and interesting writer ! Thanks for taking the time to sahre all this online,
Eric.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
That book was amazing. I think about this concept a lot too.
March 12th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I dont, speak english so mach, but i need say about the dean, the actor: I love it!!, is a excelent work and Almanzo was a very good person, with excelnt heart. I see every day the little house thorout de film zoon, private tv in Santiago Chile
March 30th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Tribute to an excellent writing! I look forward to read more.
Little House inspires viewers and readers worldwide equal of what age they are. I remember well myself looking Little House on television
during my childhood. Today I still read the books have been translated to German. Unfortunately not all material written by Laura Ingalls Wilder or produced by Little House series is available in Germany. So I will try to get more in English. In my opinion the message described so well by you Dean - should be everlasting - and not be dedicated to a historical period.
The meaning that a strong family bond of love, care and help each other is
the thing that can make each living one happy and gives the best “tools of life” to make each day better or to go through good and bad times due to that the knowledge and feelings about are with us. Sorry for my english is not so well. Hope to read more from you Dean.
Kathrin
March 30th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Dean - All this talk of LIW’s books has reminded me of how much I learned from re-reading The Long Winter last year with my daughter. I had forgotten how much that book focused on Almanzo and how much I learned about him from it. If you haven’t looked at it recently you might want to think about giving it another look. Mary M-L
August 17th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Dean,
Despite the inaccuracies and very few inconsistencies, Michael Landon and the entire Little House cast did an excellent job in bringing the stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder to the small screen.
I will refer to these as historical fiction because that’s exactly what they were. They were true in essence to the books with a little fiction behind it to enhance the plots and give the television audience exactly what they were looking for. The show ran from 1974 to 1982 and is still in syndication. It is still immensely popular; bringing in new generations of fans year to year.
From the pilot to Country Girls to Days of Sunshine, Days of Shadow, they gave us an insight to what life was like on the prairie and to the courting and eventual enduring marriage of Laura and Almanzo Wilder. Without the television series, I would have never read the books and had never come to know these remarkable true life characters.
Susan
August 17th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I feel the same way Susan. It was the show that got me interested in the books and in finding out more about Laura’s real life.
Cheryl
August 17th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Before the show I didn’t even know about the books and I started watching the show because of Michael Landon.