on, so she’d sing one of the old Andrews Sisters’ songs: “Hold tight, hold tight!…Fododo-de-yacka saki, want some seafood, Mama!” At twelve years old, I wasn’t familiar with the Andrews Sisters, but I became a fan, as the song seemed to fulfill its purpose. And then we’d do it again the next day.
Some days, if I was in the wig for a very long time or had to do a lot of activity that caused my hair to get pulled in any way, the comb and the pins would dig in and cut my scalp in places. On those days, if I ran my hand through my hair and rubbed my scalp, when I pulled my hand out, there would be little flecks of blood on it. Gladys always made sure there was lots of Sea Breeze around for antiseptic. It stung and burned in the cuts at first, but it made my scalp feel better later. And it was better than getting an infection.
The only thing worse than the constant pain was when it stopped hurting. Sometimes, at the end of the day, my scalp would be almost numb. The circulation had been cut off, which meant that when Gladys pulled the whole thing off, the blood would come rushing back into my skin along with sensation. Sometimes I screamed. But then Gladys would sing to me and gently massage my scalp, bending my hair back into place until my head stopped throbbing. And I would learn the words to yet another obscure Andrews Sisters’ tune.
Forever connected to the endurance of pain, I still sometimes hum the songs when I’m at the dentist’s office.
----
THE PRAIRIE PLAYERS
There were so many characters on Little House over its nine years on the air, it’s hard to keep them all straight. (Lars who?) So here is my cheat sheet:
CHARLES INGALLS (MICHAEL LANDON): The poor but proud farmer, carpenter, and patriarch of the Ingalls family. In the original books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, he is the all-perfect Pa, hero to nine-year-old girls everywhere. But as played by Michael Landon, he is transformed into “The Big Hunk on the Prairie,” stripped to the waist, glistening with sweat, and grabbing his wife around the waist with a lust not normally publicly displayed in the 1800s. But don’t buy the macho man act completely; Charles also cries real tears in every other episode.
CAROLINE INGALLS (KAREN GRASSLE): The epitome of the ideal American mother, Caroline is an endless font of unconditional love for her children—but she also won’t take crap from anyone (especially Harriet Oleson). My kind of woman! She can cook, sew, harvest crops…heck, she’s even prepared to cut oft her own leg with a hot kitchen knife in an emergency.
LAURA INGALLS WILDER (MELISSA GILBERT): The real star of this extravaganza, as the whole story is told through her eyes (she wrote the books, after all). She is a freckled, buck-toothed, “everychild” girl or boy, since she acts as her pa’s surrogate son for most of her childhood: fishing, hunting, fighting, and spitting long distances. Despite her parents’ attempts at a proper Christian upbringing, Laura refuses to stifle her feelings of rage, joy, jealousy, or passion, or her right to act on them at any time. She is a fighter for truth, justice, and the American way. If Nellie Oleson wants to start something, Laura will finish it.
MARY INGALLS KENDALL (MELISSA SUE ANDERSON): The beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed, and later blind as a bat older sister of Laura. An eternal goody-goody who does her chores and gets straight A’s, Mary can always be counted on to tell Laura that she’s wrong, then run oft to rat her out to their folks. Eventually, she manages to bag the most ridiculously hot blind guy ever born, Adam Kendall. They start their own school for the blind, which later burns to the ground, killing their baby. Mary temporarily loses her marbles, then regains her sanity, only to have her husband miraculously get his sight back, threatening their marriage.
CARRIE INGALLS (LINDSAY AND SIDNEY GREENBUSH): An adorable but extremely accident-prone dumpling of a child, with no
Some days, if I was in the wig for a very long time or had to do a lot of activity that caused my hair to get pulled in any way, the comb and the pins would dig in and cut my scalp in places. On those days, if I ran my hand through my hair and rubbed my scalp, when I pulled my hand out, there would be little flecks of blood on it. Gladys always made sure there was lots of Sea Breeze around for antiseptic. It stung and burned in the cuts at first, but it made my scalp feel better later. And it was better than getting an infection.
The only thing worse than the constant pain was when it stopped hurting. Sometimes, at the end of the day, my scalp would be almost numb. The circulation had been cut off, which meant that when Gladys pulled the whole thing off, the blood would come rushing back into my skin along with sensation. Sometimes I screamed. But then Gladys would sing to me and gently massage my scalp, bending my hair back into place until my head stopped throbbing. And I would learn the words to yet another obscure Andrews Sisters’ tune.
Forever connected to the endurance of pain, I still sometimes hum the songs when I’m at the dentist’s office.
----
THE PRAIRIE PLAYERS
There were so many characters on Little House over its nine years on the air, it’s hard to keep them all straight. (Lars who?) So here is my cheat sheet:
CHARLES INGALLS (MICHAEL LANDON): The poor but proud farmer, carpenter, and patriarch of the Ingalls family. In the original books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, he is the all-perfect Pa, hero to nine-year-old girls everywhere. But as played by Michael Landon, he is transformed into “The Big Hunk on the Prairie,” stripped to the waist, glistening with sweat, and grabbing his wife around the waist with a lust not normally publicly displayed in the 1800s. But don’t buy the macho man act completely; Charles also cries real tears in every other episode.
CAROLINE INGALLS (KAREN GRASSLE): The epitome of the ideal American mother, Caroline is an endless font of unconditional love for her children—but she also won’t take crap from anyone (especially Harriet Oleson). My kind of woman! She can cook, sew, harvest crops…heck, she’s even prepared to cut oft her own leg with a hot kitchen knife in an emergency.
LAURA INGALLS WILDER (MELISSA GILBERT): The real star of this extravaganza, as the whole story is told through her eyes (she wrote the books, after all). She is a freckled, buck-toothed, “everychild” girl or boy, since she acts as her pa’s surrogate son for most of her childhood: fishing, hunting, fighting, and spitting long distances. Despite her parents’ attempts at a proper Christian upbringing, Laura refuses to stifle her feelings of rage, joy, jealousy, or passion, or her right to act on them at any time. She is a fighter for truth, justice, and the American way. If Nellie Oleson wants to start something, Laura will finish it.
MARY INGALLS KENDALL (MELISSA SUE ANDERSON): The beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed, and later blind as a bat older sister of Laura. An eternal goody-goody who does her chores and gets straight A’s, Mary can always be counted on to tell Laura that she’s wrong, then run oft to rat her out to their folks. Eventually, she manages to bag the most ridiculously hot blind guy ever born, Adam Kendall. They start their own school for the blind, which later burns to the ground, killing their baby. Mary temporarily loses her marbles, then regains her sanity, only to have her husband miraculously get his sight back, threatening their marriage.
CARRIE INGALLS (LINDSAY AND SIDNEY GREENBUSH): An adorable but extremely accident-prone dumpling of a child, with no
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