Memories

I've decided I'm going to start writing down memories. I have a huge love of stories, especially people stories, and history, and connections between the whole thing. It's what makes my world special. I have lots of stories, as anyone who knows me could tell you. One annoying family trait we all have here at the Lane Ranch, though, is that we tend to tell the same ones over and over and over. Stop laughing, yous guys. I have no idea whether I've told someone a story or not, and sometimes it's the seventh time. Bear with me, friends, because we get worse as we get older. :)

I'm going to start this idea with a quote, because it is Inauguration Day today, after all. It is a quote from Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. For those who haven't really ever bothered with the Little House on the Prairie series, I encourage you do do so. It's historic, patriotic, wonderful reading. It reminds people what America IS. I had no idea til I started reading them to my kids. There are a lot of related books with recipes and crafts in them, too.

Anyway, in this excerpt, Almanzo (who becomes Laura's husband) is nearly ten years old. He is at the Independence Day celebration in town. Here is what his father says. Keep in mind the time has to be right around 1866 or so.

The cannons leaped backward, the air was full of flying grass and weeds. Almanzo ran with all the other boys to feel the warm muzzles of the cannons. Everybody was exclaiming about what a loud noise they had made.
"That's the noise that made the Redcoats run!" Mr. Paddock said.
"Maybe," Father said, tugging his beard. "But it was muskets that won the Revolution. And don't forget it was axes and plows that made this country."
"That's so, come to think of it," Mr. Paddock said.
...That night when they were going to the house with milk, Almanzo asked Father:
"Father, how was it axes and plows that made this country? Didn't we fight England for it?"
"We fought for Independence, son," Father said. "But all the land our forefathers had was a little strip of country, here between the mountains and the ocean. All the way from here west was Indian country, and the Spanish and French and English country. It was farmers that took all that country and made it America."
"How?" Almanzo asked.
"Well, son, the Spaniards were soldiers, and high-and-mighty gentlemen that only wanted gold. And the French were fur-traders, wanting to make quick money. And England was busy fighting wars. But we were farmers, son; we wanted the land. It was farmers that went over the mountains, and cleared the land, and settled it, and farmed it, and hung on to their farms.
"This country goes three thousand miles west, now. It goes 'way out beyong Kansas, and beyond the Great American Desert, over mountains bigger than these mountains, and down to the Pacific Ocean. It's the biggest country in the world, and it was farmers who took all that country and made it America, son. Don't you ever forget that.