I was feeling sorry for Papa Glenn until tonight – he and Mama Glenn just don’t seem to be a good match. However, he lost major points in my book when he made those comments about not wanting stepchildren. Dude, you’ve got stepchildren, you’ve already made a committment to them by getting married to their mother, DEAL WITH IT. They seem like nice kids, so it’s not even as if there was the added pressue of having terrible, juvenile delinquent kids. (And even if they were, you would still have to deal with it).
It was great to see how much all the kids liked school! And how excited they were by the orange! I bet none of the kids would have given an orange a second thought before. There’s a scene in one of the Little House books where the girls each get an orange for Christmas, and they are just awed by it.
I felt so bad for the little Glenn boy when it came time to slaughter the pig. I understand that it’s an important truth, but it’s not as if he was raised on a farm. You could tell that even the adults were conflicted about the idea of killing the pig, but as grown-ups, they were ready to commit to the notion that you had to kill livestock in order to eat. It’s a big sea change for an adult who is not used to having a direct relationship with an animal. For a little kid whose only animal relationship relationships have been with pets, it must be overwhelming. I’m not explaining this very well – I’m not disagreeing with killing pigs – heck, I love bacon – but I feel for that kid, because he seemed powerless. Too bad he couldn’t have found a spider to impress folks with the fact that it was “SOME PIG” 
I also cried in empathy when Erinn was talking about leaving Snowball, her horse.
The Brooks, of course, continue to amaze me. Kristen gets a big thumbs up for me for just leaving her dirty breakfast dishes. And how about Nate talking about leaving the Frontier? Swoon! Swoon!
I have to admit I was more impressed by Mama Clune as the series went on. She did the best she could, and worked very hard. I still think Gordon is a raving lunatic, although I can see why these same traits make him a successful executive. He’s probably not completely off-base when he claims that the most successful Frontier people were probably the ones who were aggressive and creative thinkers. However, he’s missing the point when he uses this to justify his cheating. Sure, a frontier family would have taken advantage of finding items in the woods, but they would have also taken advantage of a freaking time warp that brought them to the parking lot of a Wal-Mart.
One thing that kept bugging me was how the women (and Gordon) seemed to trot around in a state of undress. Was I seeing things, or did one of the girls go to school wearing just her corset? I’m convinced that real frontier women would have stripped down while doing housework and farmwork, but wouldn’t they have dressed properly as soon as they had contact with people outside of the family, like school, or going to the store? I thought it was very interesting that even the producers saw this is a sign of independent womanhood on the frontier. Nate, of course, can take off his shirt any time he darn well pleases
Not really the point of the show, but it was interesting to hear the mention of September 11. Mama Clune making her flag – that was great. It’s impossible to put myself in that situation, but I think I would have freaked out if I had been taking part in a frontier show, and all of a sudden heard about 9/11. As a New Yorker, my impulse would be to hightail it back to NY immediately, especially in the first days when it wasn’t clear if people were needed to help, donate blood, etc.
This thread has been so much fun! I’m glad PBS showed this series three nights in row, I’m the kind of person who always loses track of the day, and forgets to watch weekly shows. Wouldn’t it be fun to have “Little Town on the Prairie” populated by Dopers?
I thought the exact same thing.