can see it now: the covered wagon against the blue, clear sky coming to a halt atop a steep hill. The first quiet notes of the opening theme song filtering in as Pa and Ma watch their kids run through the tall grass.
Oh, how I wanted to be Laura Ingalls with those braided pigtails flapping behind her!
As a little girl I watched Little House on the Prairie in syndication with my mother and sister every Saturday morning. Mom would be wearing her robe, a cup of tea in hand, and we'd climb next to her on the couch in our pajamas.
I loved Laura. She was scrappy with a deep-rooted need to stand up against injustice — namely, Nellie Oleson. I can still hear Mom calling Nellie a brat to the television set. "That girl needs a slap!" she'd say, shaking her head.
At the end of the first episode I ever watched with Mom, her eyes started to water, and I asked why she was sad. She told me she was crying because she was happy. To the 5-year-old me, that made no sense.
"When you're older, you'll understand," she said.
Almost every episode after that, during the last few minutes as the plot was wrapping up, my sister and I would look over at Mom. Without fail, she'd have a tissue up to her eyes.
"There she goes again!" we'd say, and Mom would just smile and laugh, tears streaming down her cheeks.
It took awhile, but now, at 31, I understand exactly what Mom meant. Life is hard, and boy, did the Ingalls face their share of hardships. (Mary went blind! Ma almost had to cut off her own leg! Remember when Jack the dog died?) Yet, at the end of each episode, they came out the other side a stronger, more connected family.
Watching Little House on the Prairie with Mom was my first exposure to the harsh reality that things aren't always fair and that people, even adults, aren't always nice.
More importantly, perhaps, during those cherished Saturdays, I realized when you stay true to who you are and champion what's good and what's right — just like they did in Walnut Grove — others follow.
If that's not cause for tears of joy, I don't know what is.