I know that for many, this chapter is all about the story of Grandpa and the Sled. If you were at
LauraPalooza22, this story came to life thanks to Patty Dowd Schmitz, who shared pictures and
video of the location where the illicit sled ride happened.

But there is a lot happening in this chapter beyond the sled ride – bathtime rituals to Sunday
temper tantrums to the Grandpa story with the Sunday School-like moral ending to hymns on the
fiddle to Laura’s birthday and the fiddle used for party games. There is a lot packed in there, but
it is brilliant the way Wilder takes you on an arc.

It begins with Laura reminding us that she is the youngest, except for Baby Carrie, and so there
are protocols that are expected to be followed, some based on age and some based on the
arbitrary day of the week. Similarly, Sundays also follow very particular protocols of prescribed
behaviors and dress. At the end of sled story where the boys get spanked after the Sabbath (this
is important), Pa reminds Laura that girls are always expected to be quietly industrious and
always well behaved – and then in the morning after Sunday Pa immediately spanks Laura. That
segue is so smooth, and so perfect. As a little kid, I thought oh how mean – Pa was just waiting
to spank her after the solemness of the Sabbath. As an adult, I see that it is a really slick writing
technique, and the type of thing that shows how sophisticated this book is. We continue to get
juxtapositions of Laura told that girls are expected to have one type of behavior while on her
birthday she is given gifts that allow her to have fun. The hymn of Sunday, the steadiness of
Rock of Ages, is replaced with the hidden surprise of Pop Goes the Weasel.
Life is full of contradictions, little Laura, and you just experienced many of them in just under 20
pages.

On a personal note, this was one of the chapters that most connected me with Laura (this one and
the brown hair versus blonde curls – that story is personal). My mother used to dress me in my
Sunday best, and then my grandparents would pick me and my siblings up to take us to church. I
had to sit very quiet in Sunday School and learn my Bible verse, and afterwards, we’d pile back
into the car and go to my great-grandfather’s home. We spent the day in our church clothes and
we had to play very quietly in the house. I had a box of toys that were kept hidden behind a
chair, and most Sundays I’d be happy to play there for hours, or I’d look at the big brown book
of Bible stories. But one Sunday, it was so beautiful and I wanted to play outside. I snuck out the
front door when everyone was in the kitchen, and I took the path along the side of the house to
the backyard. The big beautiful backyard that I had never played in before. I found an old toy
truck in the dirt but my stockings got caught on a nail and ripped. My dress was dirty. I heard my
grandmother call me and I tried to sneak back in, but tripped and fell on the sidewalk, so now
there was a bloody knee. My grandmother chewed me out for misbehaving and threatened to use
the ruler on my behind. But my great-grandfather, the kindest man who ever lived, stepped in to
protect me.

When my great-grandfather died, quiet Sundays disappeared, and I was allowed to run around
freely in play clothes. And in no other book did Laura have to sit quietly all day on a Sunday.