West From Home- L Ingalls Wilder

In 1915, Laura Ingalls Wilder took a series of trains west from Missouri to San Francisco, where her daughter, Rose, was living with her husband. This was the year of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, about which many of Laura's letters home to her husband revolve.

It seems things were still difficult, financially speaking, and Laura's visit was also a sort of exploratory thing to see if she and Almonzo should move to the Bay Area (not then known as such). She visited San Francisco, San Jose and even Mill Valley in search of information on the cost of farming. Even then, the higher prices commanded for chickens and eggs (their main business in MO) is noted, as is also the difficulty in finding out the price of grain to feed the birds.

Before she sets out, her daughter writes to Laura: "...It will be foggy and dusty and windy and gray and you will not like San Francisco while you are here, and then when you go away you will always want to come back. Tis ever thus." Tis, indeed. I grew up in this city, and can vouch for the above statement.

It was interesting to read about places I recognized, even almost 100 years later. It was also interesting to read about the high rents- even then- in the foggy place. Also of note is the fact that, in order to persuade her to come, Rose offered to pay her mom for the time she'd be missing at the farm so there wouldn't be a burden imposed.

It was also during WW1 when Laura visited- she writes of this, of the armaments at the head of the Golden Gate, and of ships in the Bay and the possibilities of which ones will be sunk by German boats once they leave the area. She sees a number of films, including footage of the German capture of Przemys.

Truly it is an interesting time- a turning point in history. This book offers a glimpse into what the 'person on the street' saw. Laura's voice is fresh and her observations are sharp. She is one of the least judgemental writers I have seen- plain-spoken but not without point.



On her way out, she meets many people on the trains. One couple, a man who used to be a Bryan Democrat, but who is turning Socialist, and his wife who votes. (Women in Ogden had the vote by 1915. Utah may not be totaly lost, eh?) Bryan, most 'famous' for his part in the Scopes Monkey Trial, was before this, a populist candidate for President (there is, in North Miami Beach, an elementary school named for him which I attended for two years in first and fifth grades). Apparently, the man Laura met had woken up to the truth of Capitalism's failures and was switching over. It's impossible to say for certain, though, as he is afforded only the one sentence.

Utah, surprisingly enough, given its present political makeup, has a long and somewhat bloody labour history. More on this in part two....