| | Once Upon a Time -- Question |    |
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jes9
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 |  Subject: Once Upon a Time -- Question  Sun Apr 13, 2008 5:13 am | |
| I just watched "Once Upon a Time", and I had a question about it. At the beginning of the episode, Laura is wrapping up her substitute teaching duties, filling in for Miss Plum, who injured her ankle. We're led to believe that Laura has been filling in for Miss Plum for several weeks. My question is, who was watching Rose? Surely, Almanzo would have been busy during the day working on the farm and in town. For that matter, who watched Rose while Laura and Jenny were in Minneapolis for weeks? Is this another writing blunder?
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|  | | Rhonda
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| | Subject: Re: Once Upon a Time -- Question Sun Apr 13, 2008 6:12 am | |
|  It always bothered me that when the women were in town or working, we never knew who had the children. It bothered me even more to know that once a young woman married, she could NOT continue teaching, and yet, the women went back to teaching ALL the time........In the case of who was watching Rose when she was substituting.....I would imagine it would've been one of the older women in town......Mrs. Whipple, Mrs. Foster, etc. When Laura and Jenny went off, Almanzo took care of Rose, since he encouraged her to take the trip in the first place.......he probably then had the same older women taking care of Rose while he went off to work. 
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| | | | bethandmanly
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| | Subject: Re: Once Upon a Time -- Question Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:20 am | |
| Me too Rhonda. Married women didn't work and they didn't wait to have children solely because they wanted to work for a couple more years, like Laura said to Almanzo in "The Nephews". I think it's rare for a show to actually address the whereabouts of the main character's children except upon rare occasions. I mean, how often did Caroline go into town without her children? Then when she went to work we sometimes saw Grace in the kitchen and other times we had no idea where she was.
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| | | | Savannah
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| | Subject: Re: Once Upon a Time -- Question Sun Apr 13, 2008 4:45 pm | |
| Me, three. I mean, we're talking about a time period when female teachers literally signed a contract with the school board, agreeing that they would remain single. They generally would also be required to agree to a morality code, agreeing to abide by a certain code of conduct, written out by the school board. (This continued well into the early 1900's) If they married, they lost their job. And they certainly never allowed a woman who was expecting to teach. They may, however, have allowed an older married woman (Mrs. Whipple, Mrs. Foster, etc......) to teach, since they were beyond child-bearing years, and their own children were grown. Little historical errors like that bug me. I know that Little House isn't meant to be a history lesson, but a lot of times, what people see in a tv show or movie sticks with them more than what they've read in a history book. So, kids end up thinking that married women taught regularly back in pioneer days, when it really was pretty much unheard of in America back then.
And, I agree about the lack of an explanation about what they did with the little ones. It was rather sloppy of them to not think about that. But then, as we've mentioned before........they didn't know that a bunch of obsessed devoted fans would be watching these episodes over and over, and pouring over the show. If they had, they may have been more careful....................................................Nah. 
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| | | | Vanesa
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| | Subject: Re: Once Upon a Time -- Question Tue Apr 15, 2008 12:02 pm | |
| Yes. But Donald Zochert tell us that Miss Beadle , Laura's techer, must have been a married woman. Laura wrote that Miss Beadle was named "Eva", but Zochert examined Walnut Grove records and the only Eva Beadle at the time, was Mr. Lafayette Bedal's daughter..currently FOUR years old. So, the only solution Zochert found is to said that Miss Beadle (really Bedal), must have been a "Mrs".
This is what he wrote in page 82
"...Laura remembered that the teacher's name was Eva Bedal, and that she had a face that seemed very sweet and welcome the two country girls going to school there for the first time. But the only Eva Bedal at town was Mr. Bedal's little daughter, and she was only four years old.Perhaps, the postmaster's wife, Clementina Bedal, was the teacher..."
By the way, I'm always surprised about American Educational Laws from Laura's time. Here in Argentina at that time, a married woman could reach the post of principal of a school. In fact, most f them were married. Sarmiento, our president between 1870-1876, brought a lot of teachers from the USA's to work here, and some of them were professors. They were all married. Maybe they left EEUU for they couldn't work there as married persons?
Vanesa.
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| | | | Vanesa
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| | Subject: Re: Once Upon a Time -- Question Tue Apr 15, 2008 12:07 pm | |
| | bethandmanly wrote: | | Me too Rhonda. Married women didn't work and they didn't wait to have children solely because they wanted to work for a couple more years, like Laura said to Almanzo in "The Nephews". I think it's rare for a show to actually address the whereabouts of the main character's children except upon rare occasions. I mean, how often did Caroline go into town without her children? Then when she went to work we sometimes saw Grace in the kitchen and other times we had no idea where she was. |
I think that at these times, women had a lot of children. So the elders would care for the littler. This was the case of one of my great-great grandmothers. She had exactly ten children. But she was always busy going to see friends or simply drinking tea and mate in her kitchen. However, none of her children had an accident, and all were well educated and behaved. The reason? The elder of them would watch for their little brothers and sisters. They don't need to have a baby-sitter. In some cases, neighbors will watch over the children. And you must remember that a child of seven was considered old enough to care of himself/herself and his/her little brothers and sisters.
Vanesa.
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| | | | Savannah
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| | Subject: Re: Once Upon a Time -- Question Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:57 pm | |
| | Vanesa wrote: | Yes. But Donald Zochert tell us that Miss Beadle , Laura's techer, must have been a married woman. Laura wrote that Miss Beadle was named "Eva", but Zochert examined Walnut Grove records and the only Eva Beadle at the time, was Mr. Lafayette Bedal's daughter..currently FOUR years old. So, the only solution Zochert found is to said that Miss Beadle (really Bedal), must have been a "Mrs".
This is what he wrote in page 82
"...Laura remembered that the teacher's name was Eva Bedal, and that she had a face that seemed very sweet and welcome the two country girls going to school there for the first time. But the only Eva Bedal at town was Mr. Bedal's little daughter, and she was only four years old.Perhaps, the postmaster's wife, Clementina Bedal, was the teacher..." |
Another possible solution is that he had an unmarried sister named Eva living with him, or just living in the same town. The women, unfortunately, weren't always listed by name if they were unmarried. 
It really doesn't seem very likely that Laura would mistake two such different names as Eva and Clementina. But I suppose anything is possible.
I remember you mentioning before how different the laws were in Argentina regarding female school teachers around Laura's time, compared with America's laws. It really is quite interesting!
| Vanesa wrote: | | bethandmanly wrote: | | Me too Rhonda. Married women didn't work and they didn't wait to have children solely because they wanted to work for a couple more years, like Laura said to Almanzo in "The Nephews". I think it's rare for a show to actually address the whereabouts of the main character's children except upon rare occasions. I mean, how often did Caroline go into town without her children? Then when she went to work we sometimes saw Grace in the kitchen and other times we had no idea where she was. |
I think that at these times, women had a lot of children. So the elders would care for the littler. This was the case of one of my great-great grandmothers. She had exactly ten children. But she was always busy going to see friends or simply drinking tea and mate in her kitchen. However, none of her children had an accident, and all were well educated and behaved. The reason? The elder of them would watch for their little brothers and sisters. They don't need to have a baby-sitter. In some cases, neighbors will watch over the children. And you must remember that a child of seven was considered old enough to care of himself/herself and his/her little brothers and sisters.
Vanesa. |
In this instance, though, the older children were in school at the time.......So when the older children were in school, and Ma was at the restaurant, it seems like the writers could have had Ma mention in passing where Grace was. For instance, commenting that she's thankful to have someone like Mrs. Foster to watch Grace while she works, or whatever..........But it seems like the writers just put Grace up on the shelf, out of the way. 
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| | | | bethandmanly
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| | Subject: Re: Once Upon a Time -- Question Fri Apr 25, 2008 3:50 pm | |
| Hope you don't mind me hijacking this thread for a moment. My girls were watching "Once Upon A Time" today and I kept thinking the plot sounded familiar. Then I realized that parts of it were like the Anne 3 movie. Both Anne and Laura travel away from home and they do it for their writing. Both women are like fish out of water--the small town girl in the big city. Both women end up dealing with less than honest publishing houses. Russell (LHOP) and Jack Garrison (Anne3) like their alcohol a bit too much and admire the writing of the women they end up working with. And in the end, both women return home without a published novel.
I bet it's sheer coincidence, but it was driving me crazy until I figured out why it sounded so familiar to me.
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