[ SECRET POST #4063 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4063 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 50 secrets from Secret Submission Post #582.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

1. Mary Ingalls went to school on a full scholarship. This fact was redacted from the story, or so I'm told, largely through Rose Wilder Lane's influence; she was wildly libertarian and didn't want to show the family relying too much on the government. The money they saved for Mary was for her extras; things like her clothes and some spending money, possibly her books and slate.

2. Those CRAFTS were in fact monetarily useful. I don't know whether she ever sold her beading, which she might have, but it's on the record that aside from getting a full academic education she was also taught a trade: after returning home she made fly-nets for horses to be sold for her family's income. She did it for the rest of her life.

[(Anonymous)]

SA

Forgot to add; it's noticeable that for all their scrimping and saving, the other children generally weren't deprived. All the time Mary is at school the girls are all shown as nicely dressed, in shoes, and allowed small indulgences like calling cards and candy. They sent Mary what they could, but they still kept some back for the other kids.

[erinptah]

I grew up on the books and have the general idea that stuff was changed, but I didn't know either of these details, so thank you! (Also: good going Mary.)

[(Anonymous)]

I'll be honest... if I were Laura, I'd be a little resentful that I, at age 15-16, had to work in a job I didn't like in order to pay for my sister's clothes and spending money while she went to college.

[(Anonymous)]

Apparently Laura’s mom was the one who fixated on Laura being a teacher, because she wanted a teacher in the family, not just for the money.

[(Anonymous)]

Perhaps that is true in real life. In the book though, the whole "Laura has to work as a teacher to help support Mary going to college" is repeated quite a lot. Laura definitely does not enjoy teaching and finds it a stressful, isolating experience. THAT is what would make me really resentful.

[tabaqui]

No, Laura *wants to* earn the money, but her mother and father both say she should spend her teacher salary on herself, rather than give it to them, and Laura says she 'has everything she needs' and 'please use it for Mary'.

Like anon said above - the books are sanitized a bit, but she didn't resent her sister at all.

[(Anonymous)]

Me too. Laura was a freaking SAINT for doing that.

[(Anonymous)]

I think Laura looked at it as more of something to be proud of; being able to provide for her family. She's shown having to be convinced to keep some of her wages to herself, not to mention her keeping back how awful her first teaching situation was from her parents, since they would never have let her go on with it if they had known.

I feel like it's pretty consistent throughout the series that Laura likes being useful. She may hate what she's doing (twisting hay into fuel, sewing buttonholes), but she's proud of the result.

[(Anonymous)]

Sure. Don't get me wrong, I'd want to help out my family, too. But I'm not a saint - having to forgo my own schooling in order to work full time in a job I didn't like in order to buy nice clothes for my college going sister would, in time, make me really resentful and angry.

[(Anonymous)]

You're really fixated on this.

This isn't modern day. This is legit a product of the times. "Nice clothes" is bullshit, it's "decent clothes that keep you warm or cool depending on weather and means you don't get sick possibly killing you." It's not like she could walk to the thrift store on the corner and buy a heap of clothing.

[(Anonymous)]

They didn't have thrift stores back then? I know they had a lot of church charities.

[(Anonymous)]

Do you come from a long line of rich people or something? Leaving school early to support your family was ridiculously common through probably the 1940s for the poorer folks in most communities. Chipping in to the "make sure your disabled sister isn't wandering around barefoot and in rags" fund is part of supporting the family.