Dads on Books

MUSIC 0:01
(P) I'm Mike Walker. I'm David Patrick. (P) We are dads on books. I'm online. (P) Dads on books. (P) Two minutes later... (P) But we are dads on books. We're addicted to books, we sit on books, and we even talk about books. (P) Welcome to another episode of Dads on Books.

MIKE 0:21
(P) Well, hello again, David.

DAVID 0:24
Hello again, Mike, how are you?

MIKE 0:25
(P) I'm good. Good, good, good. Now I'm better, because... Before we recorded today, we sat and talked for... (P) Gosh, almost

DAVID 0:35
an

MIKE 0:35
(P)

DAVID 0:35
hour?

MIKE 0:36
An hour and a half.

DAVID 0:37
(P) Oh, are you right?

MIKE 0:38
(P) I wasn't sure when we were going to start recording the episode, so I just hit the record button and kept recording. And there were 62 minutes, because we had coffee breaks and

DAVID 0:50
And things. (P) And things? (P)

MIKE 0:51
things.

DAVID 0:53
Yes.

MIKE 0:53
(P) So now we are actually recording our episode of Dads on Books.

DAVID 0:58
(P) Dads

MIKE 0:58
And...

DAVID 0:58
on Books!

MIKE 0:59
(P) We are talking about...

DAVID 1:03
Who was Laura Ingalls Wilder?

MIKE 1:05
(P) Who was Laura Ingalls Wilder? And why are we talking about Ms. Wilder?

DAVID 1:11
(P) Well, because Mike, funny you should ask, by the time this is dropped, we will have also dropped little house in the big woods.

MIKE 1:18
(P) Little House in the big woods.

DAVID 1:19
(P) By

MIKE 1:21
Laura Ingalls Wilder.

DAVID 1:23
(P) Yes. And one of the things I've discovered over the years with reading books with my kids is that the Who Was series is a great way, especially for an adult. to very quickly learn about somebody who was or is famous. (P)

MIKE 1:37
Absolutely.

DAVID 1:38
And so you and I were talking about, hey, maybe we should include an episode or a number of episodes on Books like that. We've done so many episodes, I don't remember, but I think this is the first time that we're doing a book about one of our authors. Is that true?

MIKE 1:54
(P) I believe (P)

DAVID 1:55
(P)

MIKE 1:55
True.

DAVID 1:55
Mm-hmm.

MIKE 1:56
Which made it easy for me because I didn't have to go and do research. (P) Because it was all in the book.

DAVID 2:02
(P) This is the research, exactly.

MIKE 2:04
(P) However

DAVID 2:05
that

MIKE 2:06
I inadvertently maybe had done research because after we read Little House in the big woods. I read the rest of the series.

DAVID 2:16
(P) Yes you did.

MIKE 2:17
(P) So I already had almost all of the history that they put into Who Is Laura Ingalls Wildler.

DAVID 2:26
(P) Yes now I am the other hand as you know did not read the books. And after we decided to do this book, I thought wait a second, if I read this book, I am going to be spoiled. There will be spoiler on the right. (P) And then when I finally sit down and read the rest of the books, I will already know everything that happened and it will be terrible. (P) So I thought maybe we should pick a different book. So before I asked you that, I asked my girls and they said oh no no no, don't read that. Read the books first. Because you'll know who she marries.

MIKE 2:59
(P) I'm

DAVID 3:01
like, so when I come across Mr Wilders, should I fain the surprise that she marries him? (P)

MIKE 3:09
Well actually, there are two Mr Wildlers in the books.

DAVID 3:13
(P) Oh yes, I have a note about

MIKE 3:15
that. (P) Because Mr. Wilder has an older brother.

DAVID 3:19
(P) Yes,

MIKE 3:19
(P) But then he'd be really old

DAVID 3:22
yes.

MIKE 3:22
if he married Laura, because even the Mr. Wilder that did marry Laura was 10 years her senior.

DAVID 3:30
(P) Which back in those days was like 140 years older, I think? (P)

MIKE 3:33
Probably. (P)

DAVID 3:35
No, but I just decided two things. A) Get over it and B) I'm 50 years old. I'll forget everything. So

MIKE 3:46
time

DAVID 3:46
if

MIKE 3:46
to

DAVID 3:46
we finally have eat all of the little house in the prairie's books, I'll be like, oh, she marries Mr. Wilder! (P) Oh! So anyway, here we are.

MIKE 3:58
(P) Oh my god, that's funny.

DAVID 3:59
(P) Well, so again, these are very short and easy reads. And they're a great sort of, what was it? Monarch notes, cliff notes? (P)

MIKE 4:06
Cliff notes. Who's monarch notes? I've never heard of that.

DAVID 4:09
I think it was Brand of the same thing. Clif notes were yellow and black. I think monarch was red and white. I don't know.

MIKE 4:15
(P) Interesting.

DAVID 4:15
Oh my gosh. So one thing we're never gonna do, Mike, we're never gonna do an episode on the cliff notes version of something. We will not stoop that low. Can we make that deal right now?

MIKE 4:24
(P) No.

DAVID 4:25
(P) I was drinking water when you said that. So now I have to wipe the water off my computer. (P)

MIKE 4:32
So you said red and white?

DAVID 4:35
(P) Yeah, monarch was red, I think. Monarch notes. Are you finding it?

MIKE 4:39
(P) Monarch notes are a series of study guides that offer summaries, analyses, and critical insights into classic works of literature.

DAVID 4:48
That's a nice way of saying cheating.

MIKE 4:51
similar to cliff notes. I'm reading from the Google AI overview. Mostly I read that because right below that there are pictures and some of them have both the cliff and the monarch notes in them. You would be correct in the cliff notes are black and yellow. However, the monarch notes are red and black with white. So they're actually three color. I mean sorry two color with

DAVID 5:23
Nice,

MIKE 5:23
white.

DAVID 5:23
is white a color who

MIKE 5:24
knows? No, it's not when printing as you explained to me. Long, long ago.

DAVID 5:30
Many, many episodes ago. Yeah, back in the day.

MIKE 5:32
Woo, back in the day.

DAVID 5:33
But the point is the branding. I got the colors

MIKE 5:36
Yes,

DAVID 5:36
based.

MIKE 5:37
basically. And I had never actually heard of monarch notes. Because I was all cliff notes. I think I used them once for a Shakespeare thing. Because I couldn't read Shakespeare. It's hard to read.

DAVID 5:49
It is.

MIKE 5:50
And it's harder to read when you have no context

DAVID 5:54
Yes.

MIKE 5:54
and when you have ADHD.

DAVID 5:57
Yes. And. have to read the footnotes. There's like footnotes and then translations. And this is what this word meant because it was 500 years ago.

MIKE 6:06
Right.

DAVID 6:06
But thankfully, as long ago as Laura Ingalls wilder wrote, it was not that long ago.

MIKE 6:12
It was not, it's. It is a whole other world.

DAVID 6:16
It is

MIKE 6:16
the time that she wrote about and lived,

DAVID 6:18
totally

MIKE 6:18
of course. But does that's what she wrote about?

DAVID 6:20
And we might get to this a little bit later, even in her lifetime, there were different worlds.

MIKE 6:25
That's kind of what I meant. Like,

DAVID 6:27
yeah,

MIKE 6:27
it was kind of an overview of, oh, my gosh. Like, not only did she live in a different world from us, but she lived in a different world than what she was born into.

DAVID 6:38
Absolutely. So back to the spoiler alert thing early on in the book. It talks about some things that happened during Little House in the Big Woods. I just wrote.

MIKE 6:49
Yeah.

DAVID 6:49
Pa poured lead in a mold to make bullets. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, thank God. I already read Little House in the Big Woods. Because that

MIKE 6:58
point.

DAVID 6:58
major plot I would have been devastated to have known that already. That

MIKE 7:02
Right.

DAVID 7:02
that's how he made bullets.

MIKE 7:03
Whoa. Crazy.

DAVID 7:06
I know. And then another funny thing in this is you, you had done some research when we read Little House in the Big Woods. And I think one of the things you said was her real life was even harder

MIKE 7:17
Yes.

DAVID 7:17
than what's portrayed in the books. And I remember reading the who was book. It said that, you know, she had a baby brother born, little Freddie. And I remember saying out loud to Monica. Because my wife Monica has read all the books or many of them.

MIKE 7:31
Yep.

DAVID 7:31
And I said, I don't remember there being a boy. And then like a sentence you he died at six months old.

MIKE 7:38
I think it was seven,

DAVID 7:39
but which was very common back in those days.

Laura Ingles Wilders said that she decided not to put him in because it was too sad for her. And she felt it would be too sad for her readers. So that's probably why you discover her real life was harder than what she actually portrayed.

MIKE 7:57
Yes. Well, and when you think about it, you have to kind of put it into the context of. The books that she wrote that got published are not the first books that she wrote about her life.

DAVID 8:11
Yes.

MIKE 8:12
First book, I believe, was called Prairie Girl.

DAVID 8:15
I

MIKE 8:16
did not look up to see if it. Actually, it's in print anywhere. But that it was not a kids book. So what I had read was that she had written her story and her daughter Rose was a newspaper writer.

DAVID 8:36
She may have already been in published

MIKE 8:38
books. I was going to say and she had also published books by this point. So she had people to give the book to. But nobody was interested in publishing her book because there were other books at the time, I believe that were about the Prairie life. So it was not anything new to them. So they rose and Laura went back and actually tried to make a book for smaller kids. And then one publisher said, "It doesn't really work." You What's not out there is there's nothing about this subject that is geared towards middle school.

DAVID 9:19
older kids.

MIKE 9:19
So that's how we ended up with the little house on the Prairie books was she wrote those specifically for middle school aged kids.

DAVID 9:31
And the rest is history. I think it talked about persistence, which is obviously something that she had her entire life growing up.

MIKE 9:38
Yeah.

DAVID 9:38
But that was what she and Rose did.

MIKE 9:40
Yeah.

DAVID 9:40
They got rejected by many publishers and the versions that we know and love and read were the third try from adult to little kids to older kids. That was pretty cool. What was also fun for me reading this book. ..is, Again, spoiler alert, when she Mary's Mr. Wilder. When I was reading about that in this book, monaco was in the same room as, eh, as me or I or whatever the pronoun is.

MIKE 10:09
Come on.

DAVID 10:12
all right. She, uh, I said, wow, because it described their initial life and they lived on a nice farm, and he was already successful, and their crops were amazing, and they had a, I said monaco, man, she, she married up. I mean, well, so did he, but they had a really easy life. And that was literally, I'm gonna, I need to go to the pages because it was very funny. The top of page 83 were bottom of 82. They owned 320 acres of good fertile soil, and they had a house that was almost like Al-Manzo built, and I was like, that was great. And then the next page, this should have been a happy and carefree time. However, their first four years together were the hardest of their lives. And I was like, OK, never mind.

MIKE 10:54
Read the first, the first four years. Uh, it's, yeah.

DAVID 10:58
The fire destroyed their new,

MIKE 10:59
That actually is, I that there were points in the books like all of the whole series.

DAVID 11:06
mm-hmm.

MIKE 11:06
There were points in the series where things got tough. And then I read that book, and I was like, oh wow, that's even worse than most of the other stuff. Like it's kind of, condensed down. Everything else is like one year of her life,

DAVID 11:23
OK,

MIKE 11:23
and then the first four years is four years of her life condensed into one book, and it really is just mostly all the bad times during that four years, which didn't seem like there were any good times.

DAVID 11:38
I was gonna say, I mean, here's a three-sense paragraph. The fire destroyed their new home, hail and drought, ruin their crops. Illness left Al-Manzo with lint for the rest of OK, never mind.

MIKE 11:52
Yeah, they're, yeah, not, not happy,

DAVID 11:56
not happy. But the other thing I mentioned earlier is, and I was thinking this as, you know, they settled in Missouri. Their daughter rose, went out into the world, became a successful writer, never felt comfortable living on the farm. And all of that.

MIKE 12:11
Yeah.

DAVID 12:11
And I just thought about the things that saw in her lifetime and how much the world changed. And I didn't even realize think she passed away in 1957.

MIKE 12:22
Yeah. So born in 1867?

DAVID 12:26
Yeah.

MIKE 12:27
Died in 1957?

DAVID 12:29
Yes. And I, you know, I said she saw the invention of airplanes and the Great Depression and War War One, and then I wrote later, oh, and War War Two, oh, and beyond as she kept living,

MIKE 12:41
and the telephone,

DAVID 12:42
and the telephone. And she didn't even start any of this writing until she was in her 60s,

MIKE 12:47
which is

DAVID 12:48
So

MIKE 12:48
amazing.

DAVID 12:48
if I'm doing my math, yeah, if I'm doing my math correctly, I've a little over two years before I even have to start writing anything.

MIKE 12:54
Exactly. We're getting in early on this podcast thing, because, you know, we shouldn't have really started until we were

DAVID 13:02
Exactly.

MIKE 13:02
63.

DAVID 13:02
And as far as this new book thing, now that we know that books kind of are going to stick around, maybe I should write a book or something. I don't know.

MIKE 13:10
You totally

DAVID 13:11
totally

MIKE 13:12
talk about your years on the prairie.

DAVID 13:15
Of North Dallas.

MIKE 13:17
Oh, and all of your travels and you move to New Jersey, and then you move to LA and all of the places in between.

DAVID 13:26
Don't forget college and Massachusetts and Chicago before LA, which is why I know.

MIKE 13:31
And Philadelphia.

DAVID 13:32
What? Hey, I was in Pensacola for a week when I joined the Navy. And then after all of that, my wife and I decided to move west. We moved to Mine, Texas on the frontier area right near DFW airport and then two towns over in Keller.

MIKE 13:47
Whoa, dude.

DAVID 13:48
Crazy.

MIKE 13:50
Crazy. Crazy, crazy. And I thought I had it rough.

DAVID 13:53
Oh, I know.

MIKE 13:54
I

DAVID 13:54
Near in the, you know, near Western suburbs of Chicago for crying out loud.

MIKE 13:59
never. picture of myself here. But it's a good place.

DAVID 14:03
Same thing. When I quit acting in LA, as you may remember, I got a job selling copiers and I thought I can do this and maybe buy a house and maybe have a family and then I can do acting on the side and then once the kids are grown. But it didn't take long for me to realize I'm going to go home. I'm going back to Texas.

MIKE 14:21
Yeah.

DAVID 14:21
But...

MIKE 14:21
And I didn't have a home to go to.

DAVID 14:23
And what do you?

MIKE 14:24
Because my dad's in the army and we moved all over the place. I would say the world except we didn't really hit like the Asian,

DAVID 14:34
the Eastern hemisphere,

MIKE 14:36
Asia and Australia, you know, or South America. So really, it's just two continents that I was really on.

DAVID 14:45
But you never went to Antarctica. your dad ever stationed there?

MIKE 14:49
No, but I think we once flew over it when we first moved to Germany, I think. I seemed to recall somebody talking about how we landed in New York, took off from there, and like, went over the top of the world to get to Germany.

DAVID 15:05
Oh, that would be the

MIKE 15:06
And I could totally be wrong, but, you know, that makes me feel like I was close to the North Pole at some point in my life.

DAVID 15:12
Yeah, no, I was, I was asking about Antarctica, but you definitely

MIKE 15:15
flew away. Oh,

DAVID 15:16
Arctic.

MIKE 15:17
Yeah, I miss

DAVID 15:18
I miss herd you. I may have mispronuncy and then see

MIKE 15:20
I heard "ick".

DAVID 15:22
There was an "A" and an "ick", but that middle part.

MIKE 15:25
Yeah.

DAVID 15:26
One more thing, what we're here for? Oh, yes.

MIKE 15:29
The book.

DAVID 15:30
Who was Laura Ingalls Wilder? One of the other things I liked, and I don't

have you read any of the other who was books?

MIKE 15:37
I think I did a long, long time ago, but I don't remember any of them, so I'm going to say no.

DAVID 15:43
Okay, one of the things I like about all of them, and I've read a few more recently. For example, when I listened to and watched Hamilton, the musical,

MIKE 15:51
I

DAVID 15:51
went and got the

who was Alexander Hamilton, which was really cool and helpful. Thankfully, I thought, "You know what? Maybe I should buy this book." Well, I spilled coffee on it. So when I to the library, I was like, "I want to return this, but if you look on page 76, it's a big brown circle. That's my coffee." And they said, "Yeah, you better buy it." Type-y type-y. That'll be four dollars. I'm like, "Oh, okay. I

MIKE 16:17
that."

DAVID 16:17
can afford

MIKE 16:18
New problem.

DAVID 16:19
But what these books have that I love are the little sidebars.

MIKE 16:23
Yes.

DAVID 16:24
That teach you little historical things that are related to what you're reading. I see you nodding saying, "Yes, were there a couple that you liked or stand up for you?"

MIKE 16:33
I do, while you were talking, I was flipping through the book to see if there was anything that I really wanted to talk about. And I realized where you were going with what you were saying. And I passed a page about Saud Houses.

DAVID 16:50
Oh, cool!

MIKE 16:51
And it talks about Saud Houses and how settlers made Saud Houses by cutting bricks out of the grass-covered ground. Then they lay the bricks root side up. I don't need to read the grass. But

DAVID 17:02
Right.

MIKE 17:04
then it would grow together and make a stronger bond.

DAVID 17:09
Yeah, the wall grows

MIKE 17:10
It would make a

DAVID 17:11
together.

MIKE 17:11
cool, yeah. It was like, "Oh my God. I totally didn't know that." And that's really super interesting.

DAVID 17:18
That really is. And it's not shocking to learn that that help with insulation. But I too was like, "Oh, the growing together. Then it would occur to me. That's really cool."

MIKE 17:28
I know. It is really cool. I've who would have thought of putting grass on top of grass but face-to-face. So then the roots would have to grow together somehow and insulates."

DAVID 17:41
"Huh,

MIKE 17:42
Cool.

DAVID 17:42
And that was an inspiration for a very popular song later called "Grow Together." Right now, over me.

MIKE 17:50
Over me. Over you?

DAVID 17:53
Over them.

MIKE 17:54
Over the hill.

DAVID 17:57
And Dale.

MIKE 17:57
So I did not realize that Nelly Olson was not Nelly Olson, but Nelly something else

DAVID 18:07
Yes, she changed a couple

MIKE 18:08
changed.

DAVID 18:08
of names.

MIKE 18:09
Change the names to Nelly Owens, but that doesn't sound as exciting as Olson.

DAVID 18:15
No.

MIKE 18:16
Or as Snooty.

DAVID 18:20
Exactly. Well, you make it interesting. You protect the innocent. Whatever her motives were to change some things.

MIKE 18:27
So back to the Saad Houses for

DAVID 18:29
Yes.

MIKE 18:29
one second.

DAVID 18:30
Yes,

MIKE 18:30
yes. Because I just remembered something I wanted to talk about was I was on the phone with our friend Tim and he was on a Facebook call with his sister.

DAVID 18:43
And

MIKE 18:44
she lives in Wallnut Grove. And I was like, I want pictures. Please send me pictures, Patty. So I think at some point, I might get some pictures. But we started talking a little bit and she said like there's actually the place where they had that Saad House. I think they rebuilt it.

DAVID 19:04
Oh, the Saad House was in Wallnut Grove?

MIKE 19:06
Yeah.

DAVID 19:07
Oh, because I knew she lived there at one point, but I didn't know which house it was.

MIKE 19:11
Yeah. So she lived many,

DAVID 19:12
Yeah.

MIKE 19:12
many places, but that was actually where the Saad House

DAVID 19:14
Oh,

MIKE 19:15
was.

DAVID 19:15
cool.

MIKE 19:16
And you do find that out in this book

DAVID 19:18
But.

MIKE 19:19
because I wasn't sure where the Saad House was. I thought it was someplace else. But then when I was reading, it said, yeah, it was in Wallnut Creek.

DAVID 19:29
That's awesome.

MIKE 19:30
Well, that Creek,

DAVID 19:31
Well, not grow?

MIKE 19:31
yeah, Wallnut Creek, Wallnut Grove, I don't know. Well, not somewhere.

DAVID 19:35
Minnesota.

MIKE 19:35
Picon, Baroque. No, I just made that up.

DAVID 19:40
That was like, if it didn't,

MIKE 19:41
But they did live near something called Baroque.

DAVID 19:44
Baroque. Right.

MIKE 19:44
Baroque. Don't fix it.

DAVID 19:46
haha. Well, hey, back to the sidebars as well, you click the one that stood out

MIKE 19:49
Mhm.

DAVID 19:49
for me. I was a history major, so there was one. I wrote in my notes the Dakota Land Rush.

MIKE 19:54
Yes.

DAVID 19:55
And apparently, no, it was the great Dakota boom.

MIKE 19:58
Yes.

Following was trying to get this big piece of land from the government. And this is one of the places where it, it is kind of controversial. And it really made me think more about it because, you know, our climate these days is a little different than when, you know, when I grew up in the 70s and 80s. But the whole story of the Native Americans, the Osage tribe, and how Pa built the house on

DAVID 20:49
their territory,

MIKE 20:50
their territory, and then they had to have a long powwow about, are we going to go to war with the US government? Or are we going to just And they chose to move because they knew that they were vastly outnumbered.

DAVID 21:10
Yes. Had nothing to do with justice or who actually owns the land, it was, we will die.

MIKE 21:14
Exactly. Because we have all these treaties with these people, and how do we keep getting, uh, How do we keep getting the short end of the stick?

DAVID 21:25
mmm-hmm.

MIKE 21:25
Because they make these treaties and then they never stick to them. So it did make me, uh, dislike the American government at that point that they did not stick to treaties.

DAVID 21:38
Mhmm, they made a treaty and then said, oh, we need to make a new

MIKE 21:42
Well, we're just break this one

DAVID 21:43
one.

MIKE 21:44
and we'll send, we'll try and get more people to move out that way and just encroach on somebody else's land.

DAVID 21:50
Yeah.

MIKE 21:50
Because there's no title or documents saying this is your land. Oh, wait, that was in the treaty. Oh, anyway.

DAVID 21:58
There's a song about it though. This land is your land. This land is my land.

MIKE 22:02
So it's all

DAVID 22:03
That's

MIKE 22:03
our land,

DAVID 22:03
all our land.

MIKE 22:03
so I can move into anyone else's house. I'd

DAVID 22:06
like to go to Oklahoma.

MIKE 22:07
Yeah. And then we'll have a land rush there.

DAVID 22:09
Yes.

MIKE 22:10
And I believe that was

DAVID 22:11
rush.

MIKE 22:11
a land

DAVID 22:11
Yes, literally, very literally.

MIKE 22:14
Anyway, so that was, that's my little political statement of, of the day was that it, if you really think about it, you know, it's great this whole going out west and trying to make it on your own and, and do your part to, you know, build up the US. But there's this other side that is really crappy about pushing people out of their land and, you know, killing all their buffalo. Because at some point, one of the, one of the books, they the settlers were just killing buffalo. I think just to get them off the land.

DAVID 22:58
Well, and it says that the O Sage were nomadic

MIKE 23:02
Yeah.

DAVID 23:02
and literally lived off the buffalo.

MIKE 23:04
Yeah.

DAVID 23:05
Which I knew in general with certain tribes and they were one of the ones, probably the Sue also in the Dakota area. And maybe I don't know the Dakotas.

MIKE 23:14
Yeah. It's possible. So anyway, so yeah. So we're not always just happy podcast. We do actually want to like give some real information.

DAVID 23:27
We do.

MIKE 23:28
And, and this I think is, is important to really think about about this. But at the same time, you have to admire someone's spirit for going hundreds thousands of miles from where they were and trying to make it. You know, it's not like going to New York City. If you make it there, you

DAVID 23:54
Make

MIKE 23:54
can make

DAVID 23:54
it

MIKE 23:54
it

DAVID 23:54
anywhere.

MIKE 23:55
anywhere. If you go to the plains of Kansas,

DAVID 23:57
that's tough.

MIKE 23:59
And don't get killed by Native Americans. And don't get killed by the fact that. Grasshoppers came and ate all of your

DAVID 24:07
Crop.

MIKE 24:07
wheat.

DAVID 24:08
Yep.

MIKE 24:08
Yeah.

DAVID 24:09
Or you had

MIKE 24:10
If you

DAVID 24:10
a.

MIKE 24:10
can make it there, you can make

DAVID 24:13
You

MIKE 24:13
it.

DAVID 24:13
can make it through a long winter. Where, you know, someone has to walk many, many miles in the snow.

MIKE 24:20
Yeah.

DAVID 24:21
Just to get wheat from someone so you can live. Yeah. No, that was.

MIKE 24:25
Yeah.

DAVID 24:26
I love studying history for all those reasons. But I, you know, to come back to these books, history is so often wars and treaties and presidents. To read someone's like how did people live? That is also important with history.

MIKE 24:43
... very, I would almost say more important, when I had read the whole, well, actually, when I read the second book, uh, 'Farmerboy'. I realized between that book and the first book, that if, you know, if there was Armageddon, and we, you know, like all of our structure of, uh, government, and our life was completely disrupted.

DAVID 25:08
No power,

MIKE 25:09
so, um,

DAVID 25:10
all those things.

MIKE 25:10
Yeah, all of those things. What would I want to have with me? I think, like, having these books, because they give you ideas of the things they had to do to survive. The whole, Softhouse

DAVID 25:26
yes.

MIKE 25:26
thing, like, I had no idea, you know, it's, it's really, really interesting, looking at how they survived.

DAVID 25:35
Yes. So what you're saying is all those, uh, those kits that you can buy, that have, like, meals ready to eat that can last two years, they should include these books.

MIKE 25:43
Absolutely.

DAVID 25:43
As a manual of how to

MIKE 25:44
Absolutely.

DAVID 25:45
live,

MIKE 25:45
to...

DAVID 25:45
I

MIKE 25:45
That,

DAVID 25:46
used

MIKE 25:46
and there was another one that I read recently that was kind of the same, I'm like, ok, so between those and that.

DAVID 25:53
Hmm,

MIKE 25:53
I should totally... Of course, I don't remember what that

DAVID 25:56
I was

MIKE 25:56
was.

DAVID 25:56
gonna say, it wasn't the Chronicles of Narnia. While I enjoyed them, they're not very practical as a guide on how to live.

MIKE 26:02
And we haven't read and discussed them yet.

DAVID 26:06
Correct.

MIKE 26:07
Although it is always good to have a wardrobe.

DAVID 26:09
Always.

MIKE 26:10
Always.

DAVID 26:11
It was very important, especially in today's age with, you

MIKE 26:14
Absolutely.

DAVID 26:14
know.

MIKE 26:15
It's actually very important because, you know, if you run out of fuel, you can always burn your

DAVID 26:22
Yes,

MIKE 26:22
wardrobe.

DAVID 26:23
exactly. Or you can bust up your shiffer robe.

MIKE 26:25
Yes.

DAVID 26:26
In the S. M. Firewood.

MIKE 26:27
Yes.

DAVID 26:27
We might have to

MIKE 26:28
book.

DAVID 26:28
read that

MIKE 26:28
Kill Mocking?

DAVID 26:29
Yes! Yes, yes, yes, good for you, you,

MIKE 26:32
I don't think I ever read it.

(laughs)

DAVID 26:39
For those of you wondering, no, my avid did not go bad. That was real silence.

MIKE 26:46
I can't believe you didn't hear the...

DAVID 26:50
(laughs)

MIKE 26:50
The jaw hitting the floor, or the

DAVID 26:52
Just

MIKE 26:52
death.

DAVID 26:53
the jaw, the David. (laughs) I had to pick myself up. When we have time, we will read that book, because I've told you before, by two favorite movies are The Godfather and To Kill a Mockingbird. And they're both adaptations of books. One of the books is okay. The other book is unbelievable. The movies are phenomenal, but To Kill a Mockingbird is a fantastic book. And it's a long one, but we should read it and do one of our future episodes on it when we have time to read.

MIKE 27:26
Absolutely. When we have a summer break.

DAVID 27:28
Yeah.

MIKE 27:29
Oh wait,

DAVID 27:29
Oh.

MIKE 27:30
this is summer.

DAVID 27:30
Oops. School starts in three weeks. Whoa, whoa, whoa. No, but it...

MIKE 27:35
But by the time this comes out, school will be in session, so.

DAVID 27:38
Exactly.

MIKE 27:39
Welcome back to school,

DAVID 27:40
Hey,

MIKE 27:40
everyone.

DAVID 27:41
welcome back. Okay, just...

MIKE 27:43
Hope you're listening in your car waiting for your kids.

DAVID 27:45
Yes, this is a great time to listen. I don't really have anything else. I just think in general, the who was, books are a great way to learn, not a replacement. But just if you need to learn quickly about someone who's famous, they're great to do that.

MIKE 27:59
Yeah. And if there's somebody that you think you might find interesting, it really is a good, quick read of... Okay, what are things that make them

DAVID 28:12
the

MIKE 28:13
And then hopefully that inspires you to do more research, because I had done so much research between the time we read Little House in the Big Woods. And now, I actually was so interested in the books and really thinking about all of the things that happened that I started doing more research. So when you brought it up, I'm like, "Oh, great. I can use some of the knowledge that I found."

DAVID 28:40
It's awesome. I love it.

MIKE 28:41
Yeah.

DAVID 28:41
And also in the back of the book, I don't know if you looked at that, there's a timeline of Laura Ingalls' Wilder's life.

MIKE 28:47
Yes.

DAVID 28:47
And next to it, a timeline of the world of events that we're going on in comparable years. And then of course, one of my favorite parts of any good book is the bibliography in the back. So if you want to actually do more reading, you can. And yeah, so it's awesome. I really, sometimes more than once when my kids were littler and we'd spend a lot of time at the library, I would grab one of these books to check out and I'd finish it before we left.

To reshell the book at the library, they will kick you out. So you better not reshell if you have to put it on the reshellving cart.

MIKE 29:21
Right. Even if you put it back exactly where you got it from.

DAVID 29:25
They prefer to put it on the reshellving, reshellving book case cart.

MIKE 29:31
You're taking someone's job.

DAVID 29:32
I'm sorry. Actually, you're not going to include this in the final part of the episode and the edit

MIKE 29:39
will.

DAVID 29:39
if

MIKE 29:39
Am

DAVID 29:39
you

MIKE 29:40
I?

DAVID 29:40
Oh, no, never. I often go to libraries and just take books off the shelves and put them in every shelf and cart to keep people employed. But don't, don't tell anyone that, okay?

MIKE 29:48
You hear that, Keller? Public Library?

DAVID 29:51
True. I will deny it.

MIKE 29:53
Okay. All

DAVID 29:54
right.

MIKE 29:55
Okay.

DAVID 29:55
Okay, so hey, this is the part of our show where we say, yeah, neat book. And then what should we do next? I think given life to Kill a Markingbird is probably not a good choice right now.

MIKE 30:05
Probably a little bit deep. What have you got?

DAVID 30:09
I don't have anything. I forgot to prepare some suggestions. Did you think of anything?

MIKE 30:16
I have a book here that I'm holding up to show David.

DAVID 30:20
Sleeping cutie.

MIKE 30:21
Yeah.

DAVID 30:22
Third of it, or Andrea Davis Pinkley

MIKE 30:26
Pinkney.

DAVID 30:27
Pinkie

MIKE 30:27
Pinkney. And illustrated, the illustrator is Brian Pinkney.

DAVID 30:33
Oh, they might. Could they be

MIKE 30:35
Ah,

DAVID 30:37
related? They probably.

MIKE 30:38
I wonder, we'll find out

DAVID 30:40
time.

MIKE 30:40
next

DAVID 30:40
Did some books together and said, hey, I like you. I like you, too.

Anyway,

MIKE 30:46
uh-huh. Maybe we don't know

DAVID 30:48
which came first. The book of the marriage. Find out and listen.

MIKE 30:51
But it was a very it was a very fun book that I read to my girls. And they really enjoyed, I think, even though when I asked them about it. I asked Stella about it on our trip. She did not remember it at all.

DAVID 31:10
Oh no,

MIKE 31:10
So.

DAVID 31:11
how old do you

MIKE 31:11
I'm

DAVID 31:11
think

MIKE 31:11
like, but we read it so much. And then I was like, oh, but then we probably stopped reading it when you're four or so.

DAVID 31:18
Right.

MIKE 31:18
Okay. So,

DAVID 31:18
Okay.

MIKE 31:19
yeah. I don't remember what I did when I was four.

DAVID 31:21
Neither do I. Except

MIKE 31:23
I know I was living.

I

DAVID 31:28
read about that in the who was Mike Walker book that you were indeed living when you were four. It says that on the timeline. Indeed

MIKE 31:35
indeed. And I died when I was old.

DAVID 31:37
Spoiler

MIKE 31:40
I die someday.

DAVID 31:42
I haven't read it yet.

MIKE 31:43
2042. Not

DAVID 31:45
20. No, no,

MIKE 31:46
than that. Hope

DAVID 31:47
no,

MIKE 31:47
I didn't just

DAVID 31:47
no,

MIKE 31:48
say that.

DAVID 31:48
no, much

MIKE 31:48
I

DAVID 31:48
longer than that. Much longer

MIKE 31:49
meant like 2442 was what I

DAVID 31:51
Yeah.

MIKE 31:51
meant.

DAVID 31:52
Based on your lifestyle, at least,

MIKE 31:54
at least. Yeah. At least, at least. All right. Well, there you have it. Go read a book.

DAVID 32:00
Go read a book and then tell us about it and email us if you'd like or comment on our Facebook page. What are some suggestions of things to read and/or talk about?

MIKE 32:10
Absolutely. There are many ways to get in touch with us. Facebook, Instagram, sometimes we check those things. Someday we'll have to talk I hear. I hear from all of the people who tell me, you guys need to have a talk.

DAVID 32:24
We're also going to one day have a YouTube channel. So look for that.

MIKE 32:27
Oh, yeah, yeah. That might be someday too. Probably in 2042.

And we'll, you know, by 2442. We'll own YouTube. So,

DAVID 32:38
Yeah. That's

MIKE 32:39
you

DAVID 32:39
our

MIKE 32:39
know,

DAVID 32:39
plan.

MIKE 32:39
because we'll probably buy it for like $10, because nobody else uses it anymore.

DAVID 32:43
Okay. I didn't know that was part of

MIKE 32:44
in

DAVID 32:44
the

MIKE 32:45
2035. Oh, 202235. I meant. Anyway, yeah. So.

I will see you.

DAVID 32:56
Oh, it's a dad's on books at Jameil. I'm sorry, Gmail.com. It's simply dad's on books at Gmail.com. And I forgot to say one thing about the book. Two things that I have to put in.

MIKE 33:06
Please.

DAVID 33:06
One, it kept saying Ingles is like.

MIKE 33:10
Yes,

DAVID 33:10
don't want to say Ingles is every time I mentioned the plural. And the other is

MIKE 33:14
Ingles, I.

DAVID 33:15
I, Pa being an Engle married Ma, who's made a name was quiner. And three of the quiner sisters married three of the Engels brothers in real life. And I was like, oh, it was only three brides for three brothers. But anyway, I thought that was pretty funny. Yeah.

MIKE 33:30
It's funny how that sometimes works out. Uh, uh, someone I knew

DAVID 33:35
Uh-huh.

MIKE 33:35
school was dating a guy. I think he was a twin.

DAVID 33:39
Mm-hmm.

MIKE 33:40
And her younger sister ended up dating the other

DAVID 33:45
Okay.

MIKE 33:45
twin. And they did get married to their respective twins, I believe.

DAVID 33:51
Did they combine the wedding?

MIKE 33:53
I don't think so.

DAVID 33:53
Because I know of a. I have a friend from high school. Uh, she married someone and her sister also married the person's brother and they did a double

MIKE 34:03
Wow. Wild.

DAVID 34:05
as a father of three, we're going to make sure that my three girls, if they get married, that we make sure we have one giant wedding could save a ton of money.

And then there's Bob. He shows our clothes. There's a parody of the, it's my three sons, right?

MIKE 34:24
Yes.

DAVID 34:25
There's a parody of it where someone adds the words. and it actually mentions the person who's like the helper of the house. And then there's Eh, eh, eh, he sells our clothes.

MIKE 34:35
(laughter)

DAVID 34:36
I don't think he sold the clothes in the '60s, I think that was more related to lower angles while they're... anyway.

MIKE 34:41
Could be. All right, well.

DAVID 34:43
We digress.

MIKE 34:45
Happy reading.

DAVID 34:46
Happy reading, y'all.

MIKE 34:47
We'll talk to you soon.

DAVID 34:49
Dad's on book, check it out.