Laura Ingalls and Little House on the Prairie

Inspired by a rustic kitchen design

We’re househunting. We’ve lived in the suburb for over two decades but never really managed to integrate into the local life. We got ourselves a nice house on a hill with a pretty vegetable garden for our retirement years but, as it turns out, retirement breeds idleness and idleness wipes out the zest for life.

So, househunting. An adjunct to househunting is interior design in case renovations are required. And I was poring over kitchen designs. I like wood especially when combined with stone — rustic, inviting, comforting, informal. I hate stainless steel anything.

I was going over “rustic” kitchen designs when I heard a flock of birds making noise just outside the window. And the first thing that flashed through my mind was Little House on the Prairie. Of course, I could see the association. My eyes staring at the image of a rustic kitchen while my ears heard the chirping birds that most people associate with country life. Power of suggestion, right?

But I’m not a fan of Little House on the Prairie. I saw a few episodes because all the girls in school were talking about it — fangirling Melissa Gilbert. But a few episodes was all I could manage. It just wasn’t for me.

Decades later, still not a fan of Melissa Gilbert, I reconsidered my dismissiveness of Little House. I still won’t watch the TV series but the books might be interesting. I just read a background on the novels and… They might be labeled “novels” but, essentially, they are autobiographical. It’s the Wild, Wild, West from the perspective of Laura Ingalls who was an educated woman.

The Wild, Wild, West. Stories about this era are a dime a dozen in Hollywood. Mostly told from the male perspective. Cowboys and Indians. Dirty sheriff. Train robbers. Neverending testosterone-driven war oozing with machismo. So boring.

But there’s Laura Ingalls — teacher, writer and author of children’s books — documenting her life during the same period. Should be interesting.

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s works are now public domain, by the way.