The Crying Game

[Sterling Holobyte]

Do you think the real life Charles Ingalls would have been as respected as he was in the community if he was as weepy as Michael Landon's interpretation of him? I mean, I have nothing against men being sensitive - I can be pretty sensitive myself - but we're taking about the late 1800's here, when men were men, and Alan Alda hadn't even been invented yet. But it seemed like Michael's Charles Ingalls would turn on the waterworks at the drop of a hat. He could look at a horse taking a dump in the road and probably start weeping.;)

[Brenda Brown]

:( I remember in the Little House Book, "The Long Winter," Pa would sing something called the "Sunflower Song" when he was worried or upset...it was a signal to his family that something was wrong. It was a song about a sunflower, very silly, and it wasn't a manly song at all. But his family knew what it meant. The real Charles seems to have been very in control of his emotions.

[bttf4444]

There were several instances in the book when Laura said that it was "shameful to cry". I'm under the impression that Laura was taught that crying was immature and babyish, and that one should never cry.