Episode Transcript
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(00:21):
What is happening. I'm Alison Argerman. Is the Alison Argham Show. Okay,
well some of you may remember meas Eagle Nellie Olsen, but tonight,
thankfully, I am Alison Argerman.This is the Alison Ingram Show.
And on the Alison Eringham Show,here we talk about things that make you
feel good, the TV shows andthe movies that made us feel good and
the people who made them and peoplewho are doing things now to make the
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world a better and more interesting place. Well, I gotta Doozy tonight.
Yeah. I had her on theshow before. I had her on the
show before, but she was nota published author offul yet. Just book
now. So it's like you comeback in the show because we're talking about
the book, and you know,I say to things that make you feel
good. I just finished this book, and I'm like, just make you
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feel good. Make you feel alot of things, okay, because some
of them are good, but it'sthe heck of a read. This is
amazing. You know. I'm alwayshappy when former child actors write books.
You know, people say that mywriting my book inspired a lot of former
child actors to write their book,and a lot of actors, And I'm
so glad and I'm just like Jazzthat there's you know, been sort of
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an explosion, but that the voicesand experiences of former child actors, Yes,
even people who are babies on shows, need to be heard from and
we need to know what that's like, and what is it like for someone
who's a baby on a shelf inset of twins playing a baby, What
happens to you? What, whatdoes that do? What is the impact
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on your life? And what weneed to be hearing from these people And
now we are and I'm like massivelyhappy about that. Well, my friend
Jennifer here who was on before talkingabout being a baby on TV and being
a heavy equipment operator what he isnow a published author and has spilled the
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tea and then some in her bookMore than Chess, the Prairie and the
Boy more than pretty much everything withme now Fabulous Construction EASTA former television baby
and now published author. Jennifer Donatti. Yeah, Hi, so yeah,
I'm just like the I know itwas good because you sent me. You
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sent me a chapter. You said, Okay, here's this whole chapter about
me being in the hospital, mymother and the thing and it was so
intense. I sat and asked like, oh yeah, I'll open as a
computer. I'll probably read this later. And I just sat there going uh
uh and read the whole thing andwent, Wow, that's that's what you're
putting in the book, okay.And it was so good. And it
was so also like shockingly well written. I mean not, you know,
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it's always funny like when my bookcame out and people said it so well
written. I'm like, are yousaying you thought I was an idiot before?
I just check it, did notthink you were done before. But
dang, it's so good. It'sso good. I am overwhelmed. It's
just marvelous. All of the booksfrom people from our show are so good.
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What is going on was this hotbed of literacy on the little House
in the prairie that was happening morethan just a prairie is a little is
a heavy go. You had agood experience being a baby on a show,
Thank heavens, and thank heavens.I could say everybody leaves is nice
to you, Oh my god,that would like be the worst. But
you have not led an easy lifesince you have been hit by all the
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things that a person can get hitwith during their lives, sometimes literally,
and you put it all in Youjust said, this is what happens to
people. These are real things thathappened to people in their lives and how
you get through them, and youput it all in there. How hard
was this? Well, it's funnybecause me and my sisters, whenever we'd
get together for holidays, we'd sitand talk about our life and we'd always
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end with one of us needs towrite a book because there's a lot that
has happened. But who was goingto read our book? And then I
met all of you guys, andI get asked the same questions over and
over and over again. I'm like, oh, I'm going to write a
book now. And it wasn't Itwasn't hard so much because I already had
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all the stories in my head.I already knew what I was going to
put in the book. If Iever wrote, you had it pertolating.
I mean I have that syndrome too. I mean I know, teens and
twenties even you know, people wouldsay to me, I hope you're writing
this stuff down because you book oneday. And so yeah, I had
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things in my head going hey,and I write the book and I you
know, luckily I made notes somewhereand it was just okay. I mean,
obviously you were a part of aset of adorable twins and you wound
up on Little House on the Prairieplaying Baby Rose. Now this is where
it gets massively confusing for fans andeven for you, the more there's more
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than one set of twins. Imean, we know we have the Baby
Carry twins. You know we havethe Baby Greats twins. But it took
four people to be Baby Rose.Can you explain the quadratic equation that involves
Baby Ros Why there are four people? Well, okay, so we started
off as baby Baby newborn Baby Rose, and we went through season eight,
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season nine, and when they canceledthe show, my mom was like,
okay, cool, give me mybabies back. I'm gonna go, you
know, be a mom. Andthen they called back saying that they wanted
to do these movies to wrap upthe whole thing. And my mom was
already like that was fun. Butit was never her plan to be a
Hollywood mom. She thought maybe we'ddo a commercial something. She never planned
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to have a full time job fora year and a half. So when
they said they were done, shewas she was done. Wait god,
and she did the kids by then? How many? How many are are
there? There were four of us. Yeah, that's so all right.
Yeah. So it's like, well, lay four kids now and go do
yeah. No. And it's interestingbecause when we talked to Wendy, Lulie
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was our baby Grace, similar thing. They were still toddlers. But when
then it ended, they went andlinked like one commercial and saw that most
sets just weren't as nice as littleHouse in the Prairie. It wasn't.
And their mother was like, we'reout of here, We're out of here,
and they said, yeah, wellwe retired and went to kindergarten and
that a lot of these mothers withthese babies just went, yeah, that
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was really interesting. We are sodone now. And what a healthy thing,
because I mean, if you gota kid in the house, it
is like I want to be anactor, and they clearly are. It's
like having a kid is a violinvirtuous or something. What are you going
to do to do this? Butbabies who knows and and the parents who
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just go, I'm gonna make thishappy. Yeah, and I want it
to you know, the parents reallyhave to want it to get them.
There's so much to do, andI think that two young children to say,
well, that was really fun andthey'll have had this experience, but
let's let's get have some normal normalitynow. Of course, when we see
normality, then there's your childhood.Oh you're so like totally savage and out
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in the wild and running amuck inthe woods. And then with the horses,
I'm like, man, you shouldhave been on the show longer.
You could have been able to ride. I mean, you actually knew your
way around horses. You were outin the country. Yeah, I know.
I saw you do an interview withMelissa and you were totally freaked out
about the fact that she had chickensand everything. Like you're very city girl.
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I am the city girl. Iam then Nelly, I am the
city girl like chickens, horses,but you are the real thing. One
of the places you were you weretalking about, uh, one of the
places can I think you're you werenear where I am? It was that
rock house way up there because itwas were you sort of near the Angelus
National Forest because I'm to Hunga andI was kind of going is that where
I think it is. I waslike checking the map going I think you're
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from probably the backside of you.It was like the back because there's like
lake like Hughes or whatever it is. And then you go west or east
of that, and if you gonorth to hit Santa Clarita, Palmdale and
all that, Yeah, you canget to it. There's a back road
you can take and it'll pop youout in Santa Clarida. Yeah, I
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could take it. If I didn'twant to take the fourteen, I could
go trek through the mountains and therewas any tiny what was there. I
think there's like two hundred people thatlived there in a place called settlement.
What was it called the settlement?There were some settlers that were there.
I can't remember what I put it. I had to look it up to
put it in the book three pointsthree point settled the Settlement of three points
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or wit of the ones. Yeah, yeah, And I looked it up
and like, yeah, you're you'reyou're up the hill. Yeah, if
you rolled on the hill from areain my yard. So that's yeah.
Well, because the rock houses,there's a whole section to Hunga that are
those river rock houses. Because innineteen thirteen, a group of I guess
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hit turn of the century hippies cameup here and said, we're going to
live off the land. They werecalled the Little Landers. We're going to
live off the land. Baby,I need a little land. It didn't
work out. The ground was fullof rocks. They built these rock oaks,
and then they left. They couldn'tany food. But yes, I'm
familiar with that area. There wasone line where after you're describing all of
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the running around in the woods,where you go who was watching us?
We yeah, I don't know.I only have one daughter and it terrifies
me, and I feel so badfor her because she doesn't get to do
anything. I was going to say, are you a little protective? Because
I all get like your childhood youeyes were really rough and tumbling out there.
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And ninety percent of the time thisworked out. But then tragically,
your sister did die very very,very very young. And to be a
twin and lose your sister at thatage, yikes. It was a weird.
It was a weird experience, whichin the book I explained like I
didn't fully understand it in the moment. It took several years before you were
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so so young. I was justsaying, I was reading you were so
young, and you even talk aboutthat at that age. And then it
happened so suddenly and so weirdly.They just they show up and just go
your sister did She's just gone?This is nothing spoof that you just kind
of went, well, I'm goingto put that over here and not deal
with it, which is a commonresponse to be that young and have that
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happen, and you openly describe theweirdness of well, I'm a twin and
now she's gone, and every he'slike weirdly paying attention to me, buying
me stuff. Mm hmmm. Thatwas the weirdest and I think I looked
at like her dead. I coulddeal with that, or I could deal
with the fact that everybody wanted togive me their attention. So I just
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that that sounded way more fun.So for years I just went that direction.
It eventually caught up with me.Oh big Jome, But yeah,
a survival mechanism as a little kid, do you think it's made you with
somewhat more No, it's not overprotective, but more cautious protective mom, After
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all, I think so, andI feel horrible because I don't think she
gets to experience life the way Idid. But my mom had backups.
As I say, you know,she had three other kids, and she
said, you know that that wasthe only reason she was able to move
past it is because she still hadthree little kids that she had to take
care of. I couldn't imagine something. I mean when she when she turned
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I was like, you're not goinganywhere or doing anything just to get past
that that milestone. And I've calmeddown. She just started walking to school.
She was totally off the table beforehand. Do you follow her in an
armored vehicle? No? No,But she has a little apple watch that
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she has to call me when sheleaves the house, calls me when she
gets to school, and then andthen she's free. And that's the thing.
It's like, what do you doto walk the line? I mean,
the enormous freedom you had it justlike and the constant crashing about and
this stuff. But it's your yourfather when you talk about the constant moves.
And there was a lot of upand down. I mean, I
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talk about my book to my familybunch of actors, like, oh,
we have money, let's move intoa much bigger house that we can't afford.
Oh wait, we don't money.Let's go over there now. And
we did that, like I don'tknow, I moved like twelve times or
something. Before I was eighteen.I was like this house. I mean
now, I can't believe we stayedhere like twenty I've never stayed anywhere more
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than two or three years of mylife is like that. I've been here
for ten years. I'm like,this is weird. Did you feel weird
that you want to rearrange the furniture? I do constantly. I want to
redo everything because I'm used to movingevery one and a half to two years.
Like, why we still be somewhereyour your father reminds me of Charles
Ingles. That's the funny thing.I'm reading it, and the sort of
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attempting to make it go of andthen no, my family, we're going
to move. We're going to goonward and into the woods. This is
this is Paul Ingles Kansas doesn't workout and now he's in Wall to grow.
This is the nomadic adventurer thing ishappening. Yeah, and I did
like it. Actually, you know, I got a new room every year,
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and you know something just of freshsurroundings. I actually grew to like
it, which is why it's weirdto be in this house. And I'm
like, there's only so many placesi can put the couch. I know.
If I'm so glad we painted,we paint the outside, We've got
to paint the inside with a differentcolors. So something anything moved for it
confused me, make make me thinkI've moved. But yeah, it's your
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family is very adventurous, and Imean there's a lot of tumultuous stuff into
the divorce and then oh well let'shave another divorce and then let's move again,
and let's move and then this,I just it was a little a
little lucy. I mean, doyou feel you have You have seem to
have a much more stable situation forwhat I can see of just you know,
staying in one place with one personfor a while, right. I
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remember standing in the kitchen with mymom when I was a teenager, and
I had made some comment to herabout I think she was already she had
already left husband number four, andI said something, I would never do
that to my daughter, to mykids, because I didn't have any kids
yet, and she about thing overthat counter. She's like, you have
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no idea what you're talking about untilyou're in that situation. So I kind
of it was like, I don'tat that moment, I took her word
for it. Yeah, I don'tknow your situation. But five husbands she
had it seems a lot. Yeah. Then you never know, you know,
people get tangled up with someone andthey find out the person isn't who
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they thought they were and things happen. But for a little kid, five
five seems a lot. Yeah.Yeah, I never I bowed out.
I never wanted to do that,but you never know, Like things happen,
you never really know which way lifeis gonna go. You you somehow
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stick through all of this stuff.You keep it together and you just keep
waiting for the like the next adventure. And I mean there are hilarious parts.
I mean you're like when you whenyou almost fell off a cliff,
it's like you're having a great ideathat that's a great story. It's a
it's the sense of humor that youkeep during all of this. So there
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are people who could have written aboutthis, and it was so awful,
and my family was so terrible becausethey weren't stable, they didn't have any
money, and we moved all thetime. They could have said that it's
supposed to think, you're like thiswas the good part. Yeah, No,
I mean life was never boring.There's never been There's never been a
dull moment that lasts very which couldbe a good thing or a bad thing.
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H I know it's coming. Ijust expect it now. I just
anything I did notice there was atheme. There's a thing that and I
know a lot of people who dothis, and it's it's hard to break
through it that the worry that whensomething starts getting really good, something good
happens, well, something terrible mustnow come to balance it. Yes,
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when that happens twenty times in arow, we start thinking that, how
do you how do you deal withthat now, because that that can be
debilitated. The way I deal withit now is I know that none of
it lasts, you know, weyou know, the good times come back,
things get better again. So eventhough the good times aren't going to
last forever, and neither other badpeople are gone forever, but you know,
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we meet new people, We havenew people come into our lives,
and at the end of it itsomehow balances itself. It takes time.
It's hard to see that right inthe moment when everything's falling apart. There's
so much grief in your book,and you know there's a whole grieving process
someone goes through, but you're barelyinto the grieving process over one loved one
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when the next one goes Yeah.Well, when I was in high school,
we lost classmates like every six months, so we I had trained from
a young age, and it becomesa little uncomfortable because I can move on
from something much faster than the peoplearound, just because I've been through it
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so many times, Like I knowthe steps, I know you know,
and I can get My mom wasa little different. That one took a
while. But while everybody else isstill a mess, I don't know what
to say to make them feel betterbecause I'm already okay, you've already gone
up down the scale, felt terrible, gone through the and out the other
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side, while they're just warming up. Yeah, And that can be very
awkward socially because I don't know howto comfort you. Even when when you
tell me your mom passed, likeit breaks my heart, makes me think
of mine. But now now Idon't know what to say. Now,
I don't know how to because there'snothing I can say that's going to make
you feel better, like you haveto go through this. There's no shortcut
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and that's not a very comforting thingto tell somebody. So I don't know
what to tell me. It's true, it's the only way out is through,
and it's true. I almost doprefer that because I know there was
a book that some reverend wrote andit was all like what not to say
to grieving people, And it wasa whole book of they're in a better
place that they're like, do notsay any of these things? Just don't
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Just doesn't help. It's not justsay I'm sorry and yes, this sucks
and is going to suck, andI, ah, do you need anything
right but this, because none ofthe little platitudes is going to help.
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Bob, my Bob has Bob,who who you talk about. I love
when you get to the end andyou have a chapter called the dirt,
and then of course you say nicethinking and my husband Bob describe because when
my mother died, his mother died, he said, it's a weird sensation
when your mother dies. It's completelyunlike anything else, he said, it's
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that by which you came into theuniverse now no longer exists. Yes,
like the portal closed. Yes,and that sensation is it. You cannot
fully even describe it, And someonethat has never had it happen, they
can't. You don't know until youknow, Yeah, it is. And
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considering all the people that I'd lostlike that, that one was unreal.
The only thing I can say isthat, thank god I never have to
do that again, right, atleast the only lose one. His mother
wants, I don't have to dothat one again. I remember Philiac saying,
like this is major tom to groundcontrol. I felt like on a
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space walk and I'd lost the tether. Yeah, it's like, well I'm
still here, but the thing Iwas dedicated, Yes, I I cried
and cried and cried, and Elieven was like, you need to like
start pulling it together, and I'mlike, I don't want to. I
am not ready to. And Ifelt like I wasn't going to lose control,
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but he was certainly concerned that Iwould just gone off the deep end
and wasn't coming back. And aftereverything you'd been through, who would have
blamed. It would have gone,well, the poor girl, I mean
now say that was the one thatdid it. But it has it's been
almost ninety years now, so it'sit has definitely gotten better, but it's
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such a And then your description isthe thing you sent me with the description
of being in the hospital and tryingto be the advocate for someone you love
who's very ill or is dying,and it's you're sympathetic, you're very nice
about the nurse's step and look,I know they're busy. I know they're
busy. I know it's really hardto be. However, it's so hard
on the people who are trying tobe the advocate when they get busy and
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just go, yeah, no,I'm not helping you right now. It's
like what you're saying, it's likeyou want to go. It's like,
okay, maybe you know it's justbrutal, and anyone who's been through that
knows what it's like, how hardit is. You don't you don't want
to like fight with the staff,but you want to go, Look,
we got to work together. Andif you don't act as the advocate,
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unfortunately, people get lost in theshuffle in the hospital that is how it
is. If someone is not theresaying okay, get you check on them,
can you? It doesn't happen becausethere's just too many people. There's
just too many people and it's ahorrible position to be in. And your
description vivid, shall we say,description of that in the whole sensation,
it's just incredible. It was avery vivid experience. So when you shut
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down to write this, because I'mjust like, yeah, it makes when
you think, you know people fromthe show writing books. You we've written
funny books, you've written sad books. Into this, did you say,
wow, well, this is goingto be interesting because a lot of really
sad stuff is going I had totry and think of other stories to put
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in there that were interesting and notjust to try and keep it balanced.
But it's it's interesting because those werethe harder chapters to write because they weren't
so vivid, they weren't so interesting. I don't know, they didn't spark
anything. So those were that washard to to keep it because you were
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like, oh, oh that wasjust a good day. That was just
it's almost it's amazing because well,I mean, there are people who go
through this and the like where theydo have a grief overload where it's like
one person after another, what doyou do? I mean, obviously those
of us who lived through the midto late eighties, where it's like every
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joke about I keep three ready togo dress black outfoots in my closet for
when someone else has died, ofaids to go to the funeral. You
know, it was an unbelievable timewe bob and if we would lose count
of how many people we knew,and it starts to start having the gallows
humor. You mentioned that the morbidhumor starts to kick in at some point.
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I think your book should have tobe like recommended for people who are
working with people dealing with grief andloss, because if anyone's saying, oh
no, it's too many people forme, I'm having grief overloads, we
make a feel better about their situation. Wouldn't that Oh wasn't that bad?
It was as bad as what Butit's fast because people write about grief,
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but to write about when you havethat kind of grief overload, it's rare
that people sit down and write aboutthat and go, here's what happens when
everybody dies. Back to back right. That's a hard thing to do.
And I'm so glad you did.Like I said, I'm just like totally
like floored, and I do keeplooking at up all the locations. You
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look like you're in the mountains behindmy house. I love that you guys
were so rough and tumbles kids.What was it the one guy who actually
really does hurt himself on the bicycleand you're like, ah, yes,
Sissy laala the car. Dad's likeno, no, no, you don't
understand, like, just leave himalone. He's hid himself in a crucial
(25:33):
area in Actually I did not understandwhat was going on that one. And
you you know, you talk aboutyou know, going through the different financial
periods after the government cheese, youwent through the thing. But the goddesses
a government cheese. Uh, theywe don't have enough food. Uh.
(25:55):
It gets very Little House in theBurning at times. It's very the angles,
the the the you know, upand down and that you know,
not knowing where how we're going tomake it to the next week and where
we're going to live. It's veryingles. Did you did you watch Little
House in the Prairie at the timeever and say, well, well we're
not far from it. No,we started watching when we were pretty young.
(26:19):
I mean, you saw yourself enough. I saw myself, But we
never went back and watched the entireentire thing. I think my mom just
recorded our episodes off TV and shejust had a little tape that she would
play for us. But now Inever actually made that connection, thinking my
mom was really good at it.We didn't really know that it was that
(26:41):
bad. After comparing notes with otherpeople later in life, we realized it
was, oh, that's not anormal thing. Your parents didn't come home
with a big trash bag full ofhand me down clothes from somebody at the
market. That's not normal, right, And that's because they kept it.
Also like, well, isn't thisa great adventure? Isn't this fun?
(27:03):
And it was like, well,you know, you had stuff, and
you had bikes and you had friends. You're like, we always had food
and we always had what we needed. We didn't get to do, you
know, Disneyland once a year oranything like that, but we had everything
that we needed. It was justand then you talk about going to school
(27:25):
that you know, initially not agreat student, not really into what we
had a lot on your mind.I would think and then of all things
for the Virtual Business School, Yeah, I clatched on. I fell in
love with that class. I don'tknow why, I think as it was
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so different than anything that ever madeus do in school. It was like
real world, let's pretend to begrown ups kind of class, and all
the students reacted the same way,and we're very involved and engaged in we
worked really like, we took alot of pride in and we worked really
hard to make sure it, youknow, was the best that could be.
(28:08):
Never did that for any other class. Wow. Well, I think
it was practical knowledge, and itwas dealing with money, which at the
time you didn't have a lot of, and the idea like, wait,
we're doing things here. If Idid these things when I could have money,
what is happening? And what itsounds like is I mean, I
know you, so I know.One of the things I liked about you
(28:30):
right away it's like, well,she's so smart that you're a very very
smart person. And when really smartpeople aren't doing well in school, it's
usually their board. Yeah they're notbeing challenged or they're going yeah, yeah,
I got it, and this ishow am I using this in my
day to day life, gypness newsand when something comes up that's actually a
challenge and is something that could beused and leave to something, it's like
(28:56):
boom. And so suddenly you're goingfrom like trying to at a CE to
like practically being an MBA in highschool. Yeah, my mom was very
happy that I found that because shethought I was gonna flunk right out of
house. Wow wow wow. Andthen of course, you know, then
you wind up in construction and mechanicsand everything, but your your very practical
(29:19):
tone through the whole thing of likegoing, well, this doesn't pay very
well, I need something else.I also love when you google yourself.
I was just talking to someone thatI had an interview I did before.
They were talking about like the don'tgoogle yourself? What if you do?
Don't go past the third page?Weird, and we're talking about all we
(29:42):
were talking about all the impostors ofeveryone that cast a little house on Facebook.
Now the idea that the Internet finallyarrived and you googled yourself and that's
when you went, what do youmean? There's another set of twins,
Jennifer and Michelle Sarah. Her nameis Sarah. Who are these people who
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tells you that, and your tinychildren, and you didn't stay in the
business, so why would you know? Oh yeah, they got other twins,
so this was their name? Andwhat happened? Why? Why there
was no internet until that? Howwould you know? But that this happens.
We're ex child actors google themselves asadults. Go oh was I famous?
Then? Wait? Was that Iwas in one? I don't even
(30:26):
remember making that movie. It's avery weird experience for a child actor.
I'll get to the then google yourselfand check out your early career. It's
kind of mind blowing. But Ilove you googled yourself and go, well,
nobody knows, nobody's even looking forme, and then finding everyone in
Bakersfield. It's just that after allof this, where you're kind of like,
(30:48):
yeah, yeah, yeah, theprairie whatever. And I love that
your mom loves star Trek and wasmore of a Star Trek person than a
prairie person. That was her comforttinga starter. Yes, you finally get
the nerve to go to Bakershield andyou're I said, you're a very smart
for very tough person. In yourbook, you get through all these things
strike you sounded like you were genuinelynervous to come home. Oh my god,
(31:14):
I was having like very close tohaving a heart attack. I was
not okay going in there doing that. I could have easily turned and just
ran away, just be like nevermind. Wow, because it seems to
scare you, okay. I meanyou almost fell off the cliff and you
thought it was funny. I meanyou don't really scare easily. It's no.
(31:38):
I think it was just the wayDean looked at me, like and
yes, and I was not preparedto speak, and I don't like that.
I don't like when I don't knowwhat to say right. And then
he must have been looking at youlike security exactly, And I'm like,
no, no, really, it'sokay. I can pull this together.
(32:00):
Hold on, mad stalker my table. This woman thinks she's my daughter.
Oh yeah, well, I meanhe's still in shock. He's like this,
he still starts. A yellow youngwoman came up to me and said
I think I may be your daughter. And he said, wow, I'm
racking my brain and thinking really fast. No no wait, no that could
(32:20):
oh, and I can say.I'm just like I'm like, no,
no, no, not that poorman and you ready, and it was
Olan, are our artist? Areartist in residence? Buddy Olan? Or
pause? Paintful? The backdrops scoopedyou up? Was like, yes,
yes, we have found her.He's just like, come with me,
(32:43):
and I'm like, I don't.I looked at Eli and I'm like,
who is this person? I followedhim? Anyway, we're in a public
space. Okay, where are wegoing? The first people you meet,
you meet all the twins. Idid, Yes, the other twins,
Yes, Carrie baby Carrie. So, Rachel and Robin were there, and
(33:07):
then Wendy was there with a friendof hers. But yeah, and then
Pam Well, of course, whoeveryone agrees is the nicest person in the
entire universe. Like what how?I don't know how she does that?
She is amazing. Who else wasthere? Hersha was there? Hersha's the
(33:27):
last gig. Do you find aweird relationship with the other girls, the
women who were twins, the wholetwin thing? No? And I noticed
this, A see me that it. I looked around and I you know,
I saw Rachel and Robin, andI saw Wendy and Brenda, and
then you know, Jennifer and Michelle, and I'm like, why am I
totally okay sitting here by myself,Like I shouldn't. I should feel something
(33:52):
and that should not. That couldbe. That could be very bad for
a lot of people would be like, oh wow, well everybody has everybody
the both twins with them today didn'talways happen that we get both. But
oddly I was okay, like itdidn't did not bother me. I think
because you guys have all made mefeel so comfortable that I didn't feel like
(34:15):
I ever have to prove anything orbe anything. I'm very comfortable just being
myself and I you know, Sarahdied over thirty years ago, so I've
been doing things on my own fora long time. But it did strike
me if anything was ever going totrigger me, that should have been.
That should have been the one thatwould have been. I mean, I
(34:37):
found the whole SCENI event and forthose who were just shooting in yees Seem
Valley are huge. The kickoff forour whole year of fiftieth anniversary celebrations where
we went to see me scene ofthe crime as I like to call it,
where we get film location stuff,and just just to make it even
weirder, they you know ol andpainted the flats, and they put up
the flat the sort of three Dpaintings of all the buildings where they originally
(35:00):
were, and then recreated the interiorsets of the house and the mercantile and
the school and put those up ata building. So it was very weird.
It's like, oh, and here'sthe interior sets and here's the exterior
set. Ah and a huge conglomerateof US many many more. And then
Jonathan Gilbert showing up. That wasawesome. Hot, I haven't seen you
(35:22):
since nineteen eighty three. What?Yeah, that was my So I found
that whole event triggering and crazy.I'm in the mercantile and oh my god,
Jonathan's there, and what is happening? What is happening? So I
was my brain was broken. Ididn't know what to do. So I'm
like, yeah, what have youhave? You had all the twins,
(35:42):
we had the other Rose twins,and then we had the baby carry twins
and they don't always travel together.As twins get older, they go,
yeah, I'm sick of the wholetwin thing. Yeah whatever, And Brenda
and Wendy have completely different lives inthe No Word show, so the twin
twin twin twin and then you hangingout? Yeah, just me and I
thought, whoa, okay, thatcould get weird. Well I thought for
(36:04):
a second, I was like,I don't have to share my table with
anybody? Actually is it? Becauseyour mind? Is that not the thing?
It's like you talked about, likethe weird dark humor. I won't
even I'm not even give this oneaway. But anyone who's ever dealt with
what to do with your loved onesashes you will enjoy that chapter very much.
(36:29):
Did I make different choices in thefuture? That was hysterical? Now?
Did you ever wind up because itwas mentioned a puget sound? Did
you ever take any of her upto people sound? Did that happen?
No, because my sister still hasthe other half. Oh, and I
feel like we should take her togetherall as well. I suppose my mother
is in the Straits of Wuanda Fucabecause up there, and she was very
(36:51):
specific about that. I wish tobe scattered in the Straits of Wuanda Fuca
in the International Water Snooze Camp.We're like oddly specific and a weird place
to be. But okay, andso that's my sister, My sister's ashes
were put there. My dad tookher up there, and so my mom
was like, okay, well,I don't expect you to keep me on
a shelf for ten years, whichI have, which and there's a couple
(37:15):
of shells cause she said, yes, it is up the road and I'm
in reading. But it's just it'samazing. And then you include the little
house stuff, and then you breakdown the cast and in each chapter you
do all these sort of things whereeach chapter is almost like a standalone thing,
but it works like okay, andthen this is how I got through
(37:37):
this, and so I got throughthat, and then this happened, and
it all makes it flows very well. And it's also does sort of grab
you by the collar and like makeyats and it really gets you. You
also use Bible passages at the beginningof all of the chapters which view of
(37:57):
the chapters, which could work insome cases that could know where some cases
you read about and going, ohthey're going bunch, yeah, yeah,
yeah, it completely works. Itcompletely works in the chapters you do that
in it totally makes sense. Good. I'm glad, I don't we glad
So did you? When did you? How did you make the decision to
say, well, can you knowI'm going to go with the Bible chapters
(38:19):
in these chapters Bible sex selections.I think because while I was writing certain
chapters, I remembered those verses andI was just like, they just they
were already in my head from akid being a kid, and I was
just like, let's just stick thatin there and see if that's okay.
(38:40):
But they're to me, they're comfortingbecause it's like, this is all part
of normal life. This is uh, you know, going back thousands of
years. This is just how humansmake their way through this little place called
Earth, and it makes it feelmore normal, you know. Well,
yeah, and all the problems andthe struggles we're talking about our eternal they
(39:05):
are things that everyone has gone throughand still will go through. And so
yeah, it's like, yep,we've all done this before. Here.
Our suffering is not unique. Weare not the only ones in our little
bubble that that go through these things. Like as much as we think we're
the only ones in the world experiencingsomething. I mean, since the beginning
(39:27):
of time, people have been dealingwith these things. So and everybody has
a story. Yes I do,too, and I think there's some comfort
in that that we've been this ishow it's been since the beginning of time.
This may not be good, butthis has happened before, and and
I do, I do think that'sright. I'm always encouraging other people to
write, like I said, andhearing from other child actors and me being
(39:49):
baby each other getting these stories outand saying, well, this is what
my life was like. I thinkso many people do have a story and
do need to write, and doneed to get it out there, And
this one I think, I mean, I think it is going to help
a lot of people. Also,can you get me pine nuts? Do
you still have that place for thepine nuts? They are here, you
are harvesting pine nuts, wild pinenuts. They're expensive at the store,
(40:15):
no kidding, and they've gone upand they were bad to begin with.
I use it. If you've seenmy cookie is pine nuts. There's this
recipe that Bob has for the Thanksgivingturkey stuffing. It's it it's a Sicilian
Italian stuffing with the spices and pinenuts are king. And every time I
go to get the pine nuts,I'm like, it's eight bucks. Yeah,
(40:37):
goodle bag for and there's there's abag of normal size, but it's
like eight nine dollars and it's justgone up. And I've taken I've ordered
them online and been able to geta few dollars shaved off, but even
so, a good sized bag.And I like to make pesto pine nuts
gone. Yeah, I love thatninety nine to make a thing of pets.
(41:00):
Right, it's insane. Those werethe most expensive pine nuts I have
ever gotten in my life. Ohwow, So harvesting is a bit of
work. Bit of work, wasit? Well, that was what we
were doing on the way when wecame when we got in the accident.
So those pine nuts into cost themlike two hundred thousand dollars. Yeah,
(41:20):
the hospital builds ambulance. So okay, so when it's been careful, So
how do you harvest pine nuts whenyou're your fatal collision? So it's it's
towards the end of summer before itrains. It's a certain pine tree and
when the pine cones open up,it's a you know, it's a fat
little looks like a bean. Andwhen you start seeing those and it's time
(41:45):
to you get them, and youjust you take the pine cone and you
just whack it on something and allthe beans fall out and then you crack
your true I mean it's a littlelabor intensive, but okay, okay,
but that's why I guess, yeah, that's why there'eventeen ninety bag. Okay,
just a lot of work if youcan. And and god, so
(42:07):
this action. I presume the pietsdid not survive the crash. Did they
know we never got to have thepauts They went to the junkyard with our
car. Yeah, we didn't evenget them. And they brand they throwing
recipes. This was your books,like okay, wow, yes, okay,
and now there's pie, there's recipes. And sometimes it's even after something
(42:31):
terrible has happened and a very difficultchapter, and now this is how you
make these muffins with this like jamglaze on them and you put them in
there. It was very last minute. It was gonna be at the end
of every chapter. And I waslike right at the line where the editor
(42:51):
was expecting this to be turned inand wow, always terrifying, right yeah,
and that she even was like,you didn't tell me there was recide.
That's totally different format. That's athat's a different book. I was
like, it's really just simple,like it doesn't have to be anything,
and I had to keep telling her, I'm like, I don't need this
book to be wildly illustrated and beingformatted and what is an interior design.
(43:19):
I'm like, just make the wordsfit on the page for me. And
she was very disappointed because she couldn'tbe very creative. But I was like,
no, we're like I'm telling you, like super easy, just make
it fit on the page. Ifound the recipes to be kind of a
sort of a dark, sardonic humorthing, because sometimes it was after something
completely awful, like and now potreally blueberries and you gotta go whoa,
(43:44):
wow. Okay, so now we'lljust have a recipe. I guess we
will. Yeah, I could gofor some buy now Jesus, So I
probably should have checked where exactly thosewere getting stuck. And no, that's
why I liked it. I waslike, Wow, that's dark, and
now we'll talk about pot. That'sthat I'd like that. It was like
whoa, whoa, Okay, thatwas heavy. There's your break. I
(44:07):
love. At one point you said, I said, look at it.
There's no such thing as a grownup. There is no such thing as
a grown up. They're all fakingit and making it up. Sick they
are, they really are? Weadult did it was adulting because I'm trying
adulting And it's like mm hmm,we might be adulting because actual adulthood.
It's like, it's not really there. I don't think, Yeah, you
(44:29):
never fully reached that point of alwaysknowing the answer and always doing the right
thing. And I don't. Ihave not seen it. I've not seen
it. Nobody makes it there.We're all taking really good guesses. Yes,
a lot of times it'll work out. How do you feel after this
(44:50):
that you you a you finished writingit and then you finished getting through the
editing process and it's actually in existenceand people are reading it and the response
you're getting from facts, I mean, how I'm amazed. One. I'm
very amazed that I finished it,because I start lots of things and don't
finish. I'm very interested right upto that last little finishing bit, and
(45:16):
then I'm done. I don't wantto I just completely lost interest in doing
it. So I'm one very amazedthat I finished. And for anyone who
hasn't written a book, that isa heck of a process. Yeah,
as soon as you think you're done, you're not. Yes, I mean
(45:37):
I couldn't believe when it was finally, finally done and I was able to
send it to a printer and thenyou still have to wait and then you
got to check it. Yeah.Yeah, yeah, I'm just amazed.
I mean, I don't I like, manifested it out of the ether and
now I have a book, Like, never in a million years thought I
(45:59):
would write one. I always thoughtit would be a good idea, but
never never imagined that it would becomereal. And I like it. And
that's like they're reading it, they'recoming up to the trauma. And that's
the other thing. You're doing allthese these events for someone who's like,
well, I was on this showand nobody knows who I am because they
only know about the other side oftwins. I don't have any You're now
(46:20):
at these the Gravel Road Markets tourthat you're on, the You're in the
fiftieth anniversary tour. You're going areyou You're coming to cherry Blossom you morning
in the morning, I actually seeyou in an airports at Yeah. It's
you're doing all the tours. You'regoing to all of these places all over
the country with the whole gravel roadthing. You're doing Walnut Grove as well.
(46:40):
I'm doing Walnut Grove. Yes,you're doing all of them, love
them. Never in a million yearsthought i'd do that either. Right now
is kind of just like by theseat of my pants here. Uh,
we're just doing everything. We're justgonna ride. Are we doing the one?
The one in what's it? That'sSeptember? That's September. It's in
(47:04):
sight because the end of August isConnecticut. Yes with yes with Susie McCrae.
And then and then it's like midNovembers is the Johnny Cash's Ranch,
Lancaster, Pennsylvania is in there?Yeah, Yeah, we do lank Today's
lancas and then we go Johnny cashFranch. Yeah yeah, and you're you're
(47:25):
doing all of these as well.It's just this has to be mind blowing.
It's it's very surreal. I feellike I am living in a dream
land until i have to show backup at work and run the tractor and
I'm like, what is this that'son the tractor? Ah, But it's
(47:46):
amazing, It's it's so much funand I can't believe I get to be
a part of it and do it, and it's it's amazing. It's like
a dream, not a dream Iever dreamt for myself. But it doesn't
feel real. Wow. What's themost interesting thing would you say? A
(48:07):
fan is said to you after readingthis book, Oh, most interesting thing.
I've had a lot of people tellme their own story. Yeah,
the same things happening with their parents. Ones who have lost their mom and
(48:31):
they only have their sister now andthey couldn't imagine losing their sister. One
woman, Oh my gosh, Ican't even remember now. She listed off
like all these and I'm like,you need to write the book, Like,
even if you never sell it oranything, you need to write that
all out and go through it.Because she had her story was very similar.
(48:52):
I mean, it was just onething after another. And I'm finding
that there's a lot of people thathave similar experiences in this world. I
would think your book is going tobe very helpful to a lot of people.
(49:13):
I hope. So, I hope. I hope people see that they're
not alone, they're not crazy,Like sometimes life is just out of control
and there's nothing we can do about. Like there's really nothing. We can't
prevent it, we can't stop itfrom coming. Like it's just accepting the
fact that this is this is whathappens sometimes in life, and we can
(49:37):
just roll with it and keep going, or you know, don't have a
lot of other choices. Life willgo on, Like you can go kicking
and screaming, or you can justkind of go with the flow and see
how far you make it, youknow. And then there's blueberry pie,
(49:57):
and then blueberry pie, and thenthere's the pumpkin one actually intrigued me.
I'm gonna have to see about doingthe pumpkin one. That was particularly good
A rampin. Yeah, yeah,yeah, I like that. I like
the pumpkin one. It's just likeyou're you are so emotionally vivid and present
(50:19):
in the book. You take onthese things any as you said as a
child, in pure self defense,you put it out of your mind and
said, well, you know,hey, they're taking me close shopping.
I'm just gonna you know, death. But you talk about now in this
book, about death, about goingto the funeral, about seeing these things,
about losing people, and it's absolutelyraw. I haven't told that too.
(50:45):
I thought about softening it a littlebit, but I don't know that
wasn't the experience wasn't soft. No, So if I'm going to tell the
story, then I'll just tell themstory. And I think people who are
suffering in those moments are going toappreciate that. Actually, I hope it
(51:08):
doesn't scare them. So far,nobody has come back saying that that was
wildly intense, like too much.Nobody said that. Nobody said that good,
good, good way. You know, our fans will say whatever is
(51:30):
on their mind. They they willtell us, they will tell us the
way we like that about it.Well, this is amazing. As I
said, I'm going to pass thissong to to Bob and say you might
want to, you know, curlup with a pillow and a drink before
you start this one. And Iwill see you shortly hours away. We'll
(51:52):
be hanging out. Thank you forcoming on the show again because I was
like this again us a whole otherinterview, and thank you so much,
and thank you for being you andfor writing this. And I'll see you
shortly and thank you everyone for watchingthe Alison Argham Show. And that's Jennifer
Donati and I'm Alison Argram I'm fromhelos Bon,
What is happening. I'm Alison Argerman. Is the Alison Argham Show. Okay,
well some of you may remember meas Eagle Nellie Olsen, but tonight,
thankfully, I am Alison Argerman.This is the Alison Ingram Show.
And on the Alison Eringham Show,here we talk about things that make you
feel good, the TV shows andthe movies that made us feel good and
the people who made them and peoplewho are doing things now to make the
(00:43):
world a better and more interesting place. Well, I gotta Doozy tonight.
Yeah. I had her on theshow before. I had her on the
show before, but she was nota published author offul yet. Just book
now. So it's like you comeback in the show because we're talking about
the book, and you know,I say to things that make you feel
good. I just finished this book, and I'm like, just make you
(01:04):
feel good. Make you feel alot of things, okay, because some
of them are good, but it'sthe heck of a read. This is
amazing. You know. I'm alwayshappy when former child actors write books.
You know, people say that mywriting my book inspired a lot of former
child actors to write their book,and a lot of actors, And I'm
so glad and I'm just like Jazzthat there's you know, been sort of
(01:30):
an explosion, but that the voicesand experiences of former child actors, Yes,
even people who are babies on shows, need to be heard from and
we need to know what that's like, and what is it like for someone
who's a baby on a shelf inset of twins playing a baby, What
happens to you? What, whatdoes that do? What is the impact
(01:52):
on your life? And what weneed to be hearing from these people And
now we are and I'm like massivelyhappy about that. Well, my friend
Jennifer here who was on before talkingabout being a baby on TV and being
a heavy equipment operator what he isnow a published author and has spilled the
(02:13):
tea and then some in her bookMore than Chess, the Prairie and the
Boy more than pretty much everything withme now Fabulous Construction EASTA former television baby
and now published author. Jennifer Donatti. Yeah, Hi, so yeah,
I'm just like the I know itwas good because you sent me. You
(02:37):
sent me a chapter. You said, Okay, here's this whole chapter about
me being in the hospital, mymother and the thing and it was so
intense. I sat and asked like, oh yeah, I'll open as a
computer. I'll probably read this later. And I just sat there going uh
uh and read the whole thing andwent, Wow, that's that's what you're
putting in the book, okay.And it was so good. And it
was so also like shockingly well written. I mean not, you know,
(03:00):
it's always funny like when my bookcame out and people said it so well
written. I'm like, are yousaying you thought I was an idiot before?
I just check it, did notthink you were done before. But
dang, it's so good. It'sso good. I am overwhelmed. It's
just marvelous. All of the booksfrom people from our show are so good.
(03:20):
What is going on was this hotbed of literacy on the little House
in the prairie that was happening morethan just a prairie is a little is
a heavy go. You had agood experience being a baby on a show,
Thank heavens, and thank heavens.I could say everybody leaves is nice
to you, Oh my god,that would like be the worst. But
you have not led an easy lifesince you have been hit by all the
(03:43):
things that a person can get hitwith during their lives, sometimes literally,
and you put it all in Youjust said, this is what happens to
people. These are real things thathappened to people in their lives and how
you get through them, and youput it all in there. How hard
was this? Well, it's funnybecause me and my sisters, whenever we'd
get together for holidays, we'd sitand talk about our life and we'd always
(04:09):
end with one of us needs towrite a book because there's a lot that
has happened. But who was goingto read our book? And then I
met all of you guys, andI get asked the same questions over and
over and over again. I'm like, oh, I'm going to write a
book now. And it wasn't Itwasn't hard so much because I already had
(04:30):
all the stories in my head.I already knew what I was going to
put in the book. If Iever wrote, you had it pertolating.
I mean I have that syndrome too. I mean I know, teens and
twenties even you know, people wouldsay to me, I hope you're writing
this stuff down because you book oneday. And so yeah, I had
(04:51):
things in my head going hey,and I write the book and I you
know, luckily I made notes somewhereand it was just okay. I mean,
obviously you were a part of aset of adorable twins and you wound
up on Little House on the Prairieplaying Baby Rose. Now this is where
it gets massively confusing for fans andeven for you, the more there's more
(05:15):
than one set of twins. Imean, we know we have the Baby
Carry twins. You know we havethe Baby Greats twins. But it took
four people to be Baby Rose.Can you explain the quadratic equation that involves
Baby Ros Why there are four people? Well, okay, so we started
off as baby Baby newborn Baby Rose, and we went through season eight,
(05:38):
season nine, and when they canceledthe show, my mom was like,
okay, cool, give me mybabies back. I'm gonna go, you
know, be a mom. Andthen they called back saying that they wanted
to do these movies to wrap upthe whole thing. And my mom was
already like that was fun. Butit was never her plan to be a
Hollywood mom. She thought maybe we'ddo a commercial something. She never planned
(06:00):
to have a full time job fora year and a half. So when
they said they were done, shewas she was done. Wait god,
and she did the kids by then? How many? How many are are
there? There were four of us. Yeah, that's so all right.
Yeah. So it's like, well, lay four kids now and go do
yeah. No. And it's interestingbecause when we talked to Wendy, Lulie
(06:24):
was our baby Grace, similar thing. They were still toddlers. But when
then it ended, they went andlinked like one commercial and saw that most
sets just weren't as nice as littleHouse in the Prairie. It wasn't.
And their mother was like, we'reout of here, We're out of here,
and they said, yeah, wellwe retired and went to kindergarten and
that a lot of these mothers withthese babies just went, yeah, that
(06:46):
was really interesting. We are sodone now. And what a healthy thing,
because I mean, if you gota kid in the house, it
is like I want to be anactor, and they clearly are. It's
like having a kid is a violinvirtuous or something. What are you going
to do to do this? Butbabies who knows and and the parents who
(07:08):
just go, I'm gonna make thishappy. Yeah, and I want it
to you know, the parents reallyhave to want it to get them.
There's so much to do, andI think that two young children to say,
well, that was really fun andthey'll have had this experience, but
let's let's get have some normal normalitynow. Of course, when we see
normality, then there's your childhood.Oh you're so like totally savage and out
(07:31):
in the wild and running amuck inthe woods. And then with the horses,
I'm like, man, you shouldhave been on the show longer.
You could have been able to ride. I mean, you actually knew your
way around horses. You were outin the country. Yeah, I know.
I saw you do an interview withMelissa and you were totally freaked out
about the fact that she had chickensand everything. Like you're very city girl.
(07:53):
I am the city girl. Iam then Nelly, I am the
city girl like chickens, horses,but you are the real thing. One
of the places you were you weretalking about, uh, one of the
places can I think you're you werenear where I am? It was that
rock house way up there because itwas were you sort of near the Angelus
National Forest because I'm to Hunga andI was kind of going is that where
I think it is. I waslike checking the map going I think you're
(08:16):
from probably the backside of you.It was like the back because there's like
lake like Hughes or whatever it is. And then you go west or east
of that, and if you gonorth to hit Santa Clarita, Palmdale and
all that, Yeah, you canget to it. There's a back road
you can take and it'll pop youout in Santa Clarida. Yeah, I
(08:37):
could take it. If I didn'twant to take the fourteen, I could
go trek through the mountains and therewas any tiny what was there. I
think there's like two hundred people thatlived there in a place called settlement.
What was it called the settlement?There were some settlers that were there.
I can't remember what I put it. I had to look it up to
put it in the book three pointsthree point settled the Settlement of three points
(09:00):
or wit of the ones. Yeah, yeah, And I looked it up
and like, yeah, you're you'reyou're up the hill. Yeah, if
you rolled on the hill from areain my yard. So that's yeah.
Well, because the rock houses,there's a whole section to Hunga that are
those river rock houses. Because innineteen thirteen, a group of I guess
(09:20):
hit turn of the century hippies cameup here and said, we're going to
live off the land. They werecalled the Little Landers. We're going to
live off the land. Baby,I need a little land. It didn't
work out. The ground was fullof rocks. They built these rock oaks,
and then they left. They couldn'tany food. But yes, I'm
familiar with that area. There wasone line where after you're describing all of
(09:41):
the running around in the woods,where you go who was watching us?
We yeah, I don't know.I only have one daughter and it terrifies
me, and I feel so badfor her because she doesn't get to do
anything. I was going to say, are you a little protective? Because
I all get like your childhood youeyes were really rough and tumbling out there.
(10:01):
And ninety percent of the time thisworked out. But then tragically,
your sister did die very very,very very young. And to be a
twin and lose your sister at thatage, yikes. It was a weird.
It was a weird experience, whichin the book I explained like I
didn't fully understand it in the moment. It took several years before you were
(10:28):
so so young. I was justsaying, I was reading you were so
young, and you even talk aboutthat at that age. And then it
happened so suddenly and so weirdly.They just they show up and just go
your sister did She's just gone?This is nothing spoof that you just kind
of went, well, I'm goingto put that over here and not deal
with it, which is a commonresponse to be that young and have that
(10:52):
happen, and you openly describe theweirdness of well, I'm a twin and
now she's gone, and every he'slike weirdly paying attention to me, buying
me stuff. Mm hmmm. Thatwas the weirdest and I think I looked
at like her dead. I coulddeal with that, or I could deal
with the fact that everybody wanted togive me their attention. So I just
(11:15):
that that sounded way more fun.So for years I just went that direction.
It eventually caught up with me.Oh big Jome, But yeah,
a survival mechanism as a little kid, do you think it's made you with
somewhat more No, it's not overprotective, but more cautious protective mom, After
(11:35):
all, I think so, andI feel horrible because I don't think she
gets to experience life the way Idid. But my mom had backups.
As I say, you know,she had three other kids, and she
said, you know that that wasthe only reason she was able to move
past it is because she still hadthree little kids that she had to take
care of. I couldn't imagine something. I mean when she when she turned
(12:00):
I was like, you're not goinganywhere or doing anything just to get past
that that milestone. And I've calmeddown. She just started walking to school.
She was totally off the table beforehand. Do you follow her in an
armored vehicle? No? No,But she has a little apple watch that
(12:22):
she has to call me when sheleaves the house, calls me when she
gets to school, and then andthen she's free. And that's the thing.
It's like, what do you doto walk the line? I mean,
the enormous freedom you had it justlike and the constant crashing about and
this stuff. But it's your yourfather when you talk about the constant moves.
And there was a lot of upand down. I mean, I
(12:43):
talk about my book to my familybunch of actors, like, oh,
we have money, let's move intoa much bigger house that we can't afford.
Oh wait, we don't money.Let's go over there now. And
we did that, like I don'tknow, I moved like twelve times or
something. Before I was eighteen.I was like this house. I mean
now, I can't believe we stayedhere like twenty I've never stayed anywhere more
(13:03):
than two or three years of mylife is like that. I've been here
for ten years. I'm like,this is weird. Did you feel weird
that you want to rearrange the furniture? I do constantly. I want to
redo everything because I'm used to movingevery one and a half to two years.
Like, why we still be somewhereyour your father reminds me of Charles
Ingles. That's the funny thing.I'm reading it, and the sort of
(13:24):
attempting to make it go of andthen no, my family, we're going
to move. We're going to goonward and into the woods. This is
this is Paul Ingles Kansas doesn't workout and now he's in Wall to grow.
This is the nomadic adventurer thing ishappening. Yeah, and I did
like it. Actually, you know, I got a new room every year,
(13:46):
and you know something just of freshsurroundings. I actually grew to like
it, which is why it's weirdto be in this house. And I'm
like, there's only so many placesi can put the couch. I know.
If I'm so glad we painted,we paint the outside, We've got
to paint the inside with a differentcolors. So something anything moved for it
confused me, make make me thinkI've moved. But yeah, it's your
(14:09):
family is very adventurous, and Imean there's a lot of tumultuous stuff into
the divorce and then oh well let'shave another divorce and then let's move again,
and let's move and then this,I just it was a little a
little lucy. I mean, doyou feel you have You have seem to
have a much more stable situation forwhat I can see of just you know,
staying in one place with one personfor a while, right. I
(14:33):
remember standing in the kitchen with mymom when I was a teenager, and
I had made some comment to herabout I think she was already she had
already left husband number four, andI said something, I would never do
that to my daughter, to mykids, because I didn't have any kids
yet, and she about thing overthat counter. She's like, you have
(14:58):
no idea what you're talking about untilyou're in that situation. So I kind
of it was like, I don'tat that moment, I took her word
for it. Yeah, I don'tknow your situation. But five husbands she
had it seems a lot. Yeah. Then you never know, you know,
people get tangled up with someone andthey find out the person isn't who
(15:18):
they thought they were and things happen. But for a little kid, five
five seems a lot. Yeah.Yeah, I never I bowed out.
I never wanted to do that,but you never know, Like things happen,
you never really know which way lifeis gonna go. You you somehow
(15:43):
stick through all of this stuff.You keep it together and you just keep
waiting for the like the next adventure. And I mean there are hilarious parts.
I mean you're like when you whenyou almost fell off a cliff,
it's like you're having a great ideathat that's a great story. It's a
it's the sense of humor that youkeep during all of this. So there
(16:04):
are people who could have written aboutthis, and it was so awful,
and my family was so terrible becausethey weren't stable, they didn't have any
money, and we moved all thetime. They could have said that it's
supposed to think, you're like thiswas the good part. Yeah, No,
I mean life was never boring.There's never been There's never been a
dull moment that lasts very which couldbe a good thing or a bad thing.
(16:27):
H I know it's coming. Ijust expect it now. I just
anything I did notice there was atheme. There's a thing that and I
know a lot of people who dothis, and it's it's hard to break
through it that the worry that whensomething starts getting really good, something good
happens, well, something terrible mustnow come to balance it. Yes,
(16:48):
when that happens twenty times in arow, we start thinking that, how
do you how do you deal withthat now, because that that can be
debilitated. The way I deal withit now is I know that none of
it lasts, you know, weyou know, the good times come back,
things get better again. So eventhough the good times aren't going to
last forever, and neither other badpeople are gone forever, but you know,
(17:12):
we meet new people, We havenew people come into our lives,
and at the end of it itsomehow balances itself. It takes time.
It's hard to see that right inthe moment when everything's falling apart. There's
so much grief in your book,and you know there's a whole grieving process
someone goes through, but you're barelyinto the grieving process over one loved one
(17:41):
when the next one goes Yeah.Well, when I was in high school,
we lost classmates like every six months, so we I had trained from
a young age, and it becomesa little uncomfortable because I can move on
from something much faster than the peoplearound, just because I've been through it
(18:04):
so many times, Like I knowthe steps, I know you know,
and I can get My mom wasa little different. That one took a
while. But while everybody else isstill a mess, I don't know what
to say to make them feel betterbecause I'm already okay, you've already gone
up down the scale, felt terrible, gone through the and out the other
(18:25):
side, while they're just warming up. Yeah, And that can be very
awkward socially because I don't know howto comfort you. Even when when you
tell me your mom passed, likeit breaks my heart, makes me think
of mine. But now now Idon't know what to say. Now,
I don't know how to because there'snothing I can say that's going to make
you feel better, like you haveto go through this. There's no shortcut
(18:52):
and that's not a very comforting thingto tell somebody. So I don't know
what to tell me. It's true, it's the only way out is through,
and it's true. I almost doprefer that because I know there was
a book that some reverend wrote andit was all like what not to say
to grieving people, And it wasa whole book of they're in a better
place that they're like, do notsay any of these things? Just don't
(19:15):
Just doesn't help. It's not justsay I'm sorry and yes, this sucks
and is going to suck, andI, ah, do you need anything
right but this, because none ofthe little platitudes is going to help.
(19:36):
Bob, my Bob has Bob,who who you talk about. I love
when you get to the end andyou have a chapter called the dirt,
and then of course you say nicethinking and my husband Bob describe because when
my mother died, his mother died, he said, it's a weird sensation
when your mother dies. It's completelyunlike anything else, he said, it's
(19:59):
that by which you came into theuniverse now no longer exists. Yes,
like the portal closed. Yes,and that sensation is it. You cannot
fully even describe it, And someonethat has never had it happen, they
can't. You don't know until youknow, Yeah, it is. And
(20:21):
considering all the people that I'd lostlike that, that one was unreal.
The only thing I can say isthat, thank god I never have to
do that again, right, atleast the only lose one. His mother
wants, I don't have to dothat one again. I remember Philiac saying,
like this is major tom to groundcontrol. I felt like on a
(20:45):
space walk and I'd lost the tether. Yeah, it's like, well I'm
still here, but the thing Iwas dedicated, Yes, I I cried
and cried and cried, and Elieven was like, you need to like
start pulling it together, and I'mlike, I don't want to. I
am not ready to. And Ifelt like I wasn't going to lose control,
(21:10):
but he was certainly concerned that Iwould just gone off the deep end
and wasn't coming back. And aftereverything you'd been through, who would have
blamed. It would have gone,well, the poor girl, I mean
now say that was the one thatdid it. But it has it's been
almost ninety years now, so it'sit has definitely gotten better, but it's
(21:33):
such a And then your description isthe thing you sent me with the description
of being in the hospital and tryingto be the advocate for someone you love
who's very ill or is dying,and it's you're sympathetic, you're very nice
about the nurse's step and look,I know they're busy. I know they're
busy. I know it's really hardto be. However, it's so hard
on the people who are trying tobe the advocate when they get busy and
(21:56):
just go, yeah, no,I'm not helping you right now. It's
like what you're saying, it's likeyou want to go. It's like,
okay, maybe you know it's justbrutal, and anyone who's been through that
knows what it's like, how hardit is. You don't you don't want
to like fight with the staff,but you want to go, Look,
we got to work together. Andif you don't act as the advocate,
(22:21):
unfortunately, people get lost in theshuffle in the hospital that is how it
is. If someone is not theresaying okay, get you check on them,
can you? It doesn't happen becausethere's just too many people. There's
just too many people and it's ahorrible position to be in. And your
description vivid, shall we say,description of that in the whole sensation,
it's just incredible. It was avery vivid experience. So when you shut
(22:52):
down to write this, because I'mjust like, yeah, it makes when
you think, you know people fromthe show writing books. You we've written
funny books, you've written sad books. Into this, did you say,
wow, well, this is goingto be interesting because a lot of really
sad stuff is going I had totry and think of other stories to put
(23:14):
in there that were interesting and notjust to try and keep it balanced.
But it's it's interesting because those werethe harder chapters to write because they weren't
so vivid, they weren't so interesting. I don't know, they didn't spark
anything. So those were that washard to to keep it because you were
(23:40):
like, oh, oh that wasjust a good day. That was just
it's almost it's amazing because well,I mean, there are people who go
through this and the like where theydo have a grief overload where it's like
one person after another, what doyou do? I mean, obviously those
of us who lived through the midto late eighties, where it's like every
(24:00):
joke about I keep three ready togo dress black outfoots in my closet for
when someone else has died, ofaids to go to the funeral. You
know, it was an unbelievable timewe bob and if we would lose count
of how many people we knew,and it starts to start having the gallows
humor. You mentioned that the morbidhumor starts to kick in at some point.
(24:22):
I think your book should have tobe like recommended for people who are
working with people dealing with grief andloss, because if anyone's saying, oh
no, it's too many people forme, I'm having grief overloads, we
make a feel better about their situation. Wouldn't that Oh wasn't that bad?
It was as bad as what Butit's fast because people write about grief,
(24:45):
but to write about when you havethat kind of grief overload, it's rare
that people sit down and write aboutthat and go, here's what happens when
everybody dies. Back to back right. That's a hard thing to do.
And I'm so glad you did.Like I said, I'm just like totally
like floored, and I do keeplooking at up all the locations. You
(25:07):
look like you're in the mountains behindmy house. I love that you guys
were so rough and tumbles kids.What was it the one guy who actually
really does hurt himself on the bicycleand you're like, ah, yes,
Sissy laala the car. Dad's likeno, no, no, you don't
understand, like, just leave himalone. He's hid himself in a crucial
(25:33):
area in Actually I did not understandwhat was going on that one. And
you you know, you talk aboutyou know, going through the different financial
periods after the government cheese, youwent through the thing. But the goddesses
a government cheese. Uh, theywe don't have enough food. Uh.
(25:55):
It gets very Little House in theBurning at times. It's very the angles,
the the the you know, upand down and that you know,
not knowing where how we're going tomake it to the next week and where
we're going to live. It's veryingles. Did you did you watch Little
House in the Prairie at the timeever and say, well, well we're
not far from it. No,we started watching when we were pretty young.
(26:19):
I mean, you saw yourself enough. I saw myself, But we
never went back and watched the entireentire thing. I think my mom just
recorded our episodes off TV and shejust had a little tape that she would
play for us. But now Inever actually made that connection, thinking my
mom was really good at it.We didn't really know that it was that
(26:41):
bad. After comparing notes with otherpeople later in life, we realized it
was, oh, that's not anormal thing. Your parents didn't come home
with a big trash bag full ofhand me down clothes from somebody at the
market. That's not normal, right, And that's because they kept it.
Also like, well, isn't thisa great adventure? Isn't this fun?
(27:03):
And it was like, well,you know, you had stuff, and
you had bikes and you had friends. You're like, we always had food
and we always had what we needed. We didn't get to do, you
know, Disneyland once a year oranything like that, but we had everything
that we needed. It was justand then you talk about going to school
(27:25):
that you know, initially not agreat student, not really into what we
had a lot on your mind.I would think and then of all things
for the Virtual Business School, Yeah, I clatched on. I fell in
love with that class. I don'tknow why, I think as it was
(27:47):
so different than anything that ever madeus do in school. It was like
real world, let's pretend to begrown ups kind of class, and all
the students reacted the same way,and we're very involved and engaged in we
worked really like, we took alot of pride in and we worked really
hard to make sure it, youknow, was the best that could be.
(28:08):
Never did that for any other class. Wow. Well, I think
it was practical knowledge, and itwas dealing with money, which at the
time you didn't have a lot of, and the idea like, wait,
we're doing things here. If Idid these things when I could have money,
what is happening? And what itsounds like is I mean, I
know you, so I know.One of the things I liked about you
(28:30):
right away it's like, well,she's so smart that you're a very very
smart person. And when really smartpeople aren't doing well in school, it's
usually their board. Yeah they're notbeing challenged or they're going yeah, yeah,
I got it, and this ishow am I using this in my
day to day life, gypness newsand when something comes up that's actually a
challenge and is something that could beused and leave to something, it's like
(28:56):
boom. And so suddenly you're goingfrom like trying to at a CE to
like practically being an MBA in highschool. Yeah, my mom was very
happy that I found that because shethought I was gonna flunk right out of
house. Wow wow wow. Andthen of course, you know, then
you wind up in construction and mechanicsand everything, but your your very practical
(29:19):
tone through the whole thing of likegoing, well, this doesn't pay very
well, I need something else.I also love when you google yourself.
I was just talking to someone thatI had an interview I did before.
They were talking about like the don'tgoogle yourself? What if you do?
Don't go past the third page?Weird, and we're talking about all we
(29:42):
were talking about all the impostors ofeveryone that cast a little house on Facebook.
Now the idea that the Internet finallyarrived and you googled yourself and that's
when you went, what do youmean? There's another set of twins,
Jennifer and Michelle Sarah. Her nameis Sarah. Who are these people who
(30:03):
tells you that, and your tinychildren, and you didn't stay in the
business, so why would you know? Oh yeah, they got other twins,
so this was their name? Andwhat happened? Why? Why there
was no internet until that? Howwould you know? But that this happens.
We're ex child actors google themselves asadults. Go oh was I famous?
Then? Wait? Was that Iwas in one? I don't even
(30:26):
remember making that movie. It's avery weird experience for a child actor.
I'll get to the then google yourselfand check out your early career. It's
kind of mind blowing. But Ilove you googled yourself and go, well,
nobody knows, nobody's even looking forme, and then finding everyone in
Bakersfield. It's just that after allof this, where you're kind of like,
(30:48):
yeah, yeah, yeah, theprairie whatever. And I love that
your mom loves star Trek and wasmore of a Star Trek person than a
prairie person. That was her comforttinga starter. Yes, you finally get
the nerve to go to Bakershield andyou're I said, you're a very smart
for very tough person. In yourbook, you get through all these things
strike you sounded like you were genuinelynervous to come home. Oh my god,
(31:14):
I was having like very close tohaving a heart attack. I was
not okay going in there doing that. I could have easily turned and just
ran away, just be like nevermind. Wow, because it seems to
scare you, okay. I meanyou almost fell off the cliff and you
thought it was funny. I meanyou don't really scare easily. It's no.
(31:38):
I think it was just the wayDean looked at me, like and
yes, and I was not preparedto speak, and I don't like that.
I don't like when I don't knowwhat to say right. And then
he must have been looking at youlike security exactly, And I'm like,
no, no, really, it'sokay. I can pull this together.
(32:00):
Hold on, mad stalker my table. This woman thinks she's my daughter.
Oh yeah, well, I meanhe's still in shock. He's like this,
he still starts. A yellow youngwoman came up to me and said
I think I may be your daughter. And he said, wow, I'm
racking my brain and thinking really fast. No no wait, no that could
(32:20):
oh, and I can say.I'm just like I'm like, no,
no, no, not that poorman and you ready, and it was
Olan, are our artist? Areartist in residence? Buddy Olan? Or
pause? Paintful? The backdrops scoopedyou up? Was like, yes,
yes, we have found her.He's just like, come with me,
(32:43):
and I'm like, I don't.I looked at Eli and I'm like,
who is this person? I followedhim? Anyway, we're in a public
space. Okay, where are wegoing? The first people you meet,
you meet all the twins. Idid, Yes, the other twins,
Yes, Carrie baby Carrie. So, Rachel and Robin were there, and
(33:07):
then Wendy was there with a friendof hers. But yeah, and then
Pam Well, of course, whoeveryone agrees is the nicest person in the
entire universe. Like what how?I don't know how she does that?
She is amazing. Who else wasthere? Hersha was there? Hersha's the
(33:27):
last gig. Do you find aweird relationship with the other girls, the
women who were twins, the wholetwin thing? No? And I noticed
this, A see me that it. I looked around and I you know,
I saw Rachel and Robin, andI saw Wendy and Brenda, and
then you know, Jennifer and Michelle, and I'm like, why am I
totally okay sitting here by myself,Like I shouldn't. I should feel something
(33:52):
and that should not. That couldbe. That could be very bad for
a lot of people would be like, oh wow, well everybody has everybody
the both twins with them today didn'talways happen that we get both. But
oddly I was okay, like itdidn't did not bother me. I think
because you guys have all made mefeel so comfortable that I didn't feel like
(34:15):
I ever have to prove anything orbe anything. I'm very comfortable just being
myself and I you know, Sarahdied over thirty years ago, so I've
been doing things on my own fora long time. But it did strike
me if anything was ever going totrigger me, that should have been.
That should have been the one thatwould have been. I mean, I
(34:37):
found the whole SCENI event and forthose who were just shooting in yees Seem
Valley are huge. The kickoff forour whole year of fiftieth anniversary celebrations where
we went to see me scene ofthe crime as I like to call it,
where we get film location stuff,and just just to make it even
weirder, they you know ol andpainted the flats, and they put up
the flat the sort of three Dpaintings of all the buildings where they originally
(35:00):
were, and then recreated the interiorsets of the house and the mercantile and
the school and put those up ata building. So it was very weird.
It's like, oh, and here'sthe interior sets and here's the exterior
set. Ah and a huge conglomerateof US many many more. And then
Jonathan Gilbert showing up. That wasawesome. Hot, I haven't seen you
(35:22):
since nineteen eighty three. What?Yeah, that was my So I found
that whole event triggering and crazy.I'm in the mercantile and oh my god,
Jonathan's there, and what is happening? What is happening? So I
was my brain was broken. Ididn't know what to do. So I'm
like, yeah, what have youhave? You had all the twins,
(35:42):
we had the other Rose twins,and then we had the baby carry twins
and they don't always travel together.As twins get older, they go,
yeah, I'm sick of the wholetwin thing. Yeah whatever, And Brenda
and Wendy have completely different lives inthe No Word show, so the twin
twin twin twin and then you hangingout? Yeah, just me and I
thought, whoa, okay, thatcould get weird. Well I thought for
(36:04):
a second, I was like,I don't have to share my table with
anybody? Actually is it? Becauseyour mind? Is that not the thing?
It's like you talked about, likethe weird dark humor. I won't
even I'm not even give this oneaway. But anyone who's ever dealt with
what to do with your loved onesashes you will enjoy that chapter very much.
(36:29):
Did I make different choices in thefuture? That was hysterical? Now?
Did you ever wind up because itwas mentioned a puget sound? Did
you ever take any of her upto people sound? Did that happen?
No, because my sister still hasthe other half. Oh, and I
feel like we should take her togetherall as well. I suppose my mother
is in the Straits of Wuanda Fucabecause up there, and she was very
(36:51):
specific about that. I wish tobe scattered in the Straits of Wuanda Fuca
in the International Water Snooze Camp.We're like oddly specific and a weird place
to be. But okay, andso that's my sister, My sister's ashes
were put there. My dad tookher up there, and so my mom
was like, okay, well,I don't expect you to keep me on
a shelf for ten years, whichI have, which and there's a couple
(37:15):
of shells cause she said, yes, it is up the road and I'm
in reading. But it's just it'samazing. And then you include the little
house stuff, and then you breakdown the cast and in each chapter you
do all these sort of things whereeach chapter is almost like a standalone thing,
but it works like okay, andthen this is how I got through
(37:37):
this, and so I got throughthat, and then this happened, and
it all makes it flows very well. And it's also does sort of grab
you by the collar and like makeyats and it really gets you. You
also use Bible passages at the beginningof all of the chapters which view of
(37:57):
the chapters, which could work insome cases that could know where some cases
you read about and going, ohthey're going bunch, yeah, yeah,
yeah, it completely works. Itcompletely works in the chapters you do that
in it totally makes sense. Good. I'm glad, I don't we glad
So did you? When did you? How did you make the decision to
say, well, can you knowI'm going to go with the Bible chapters
(38:19):
in these chapters Bible sex selections.I think because while I was writing certain
chapters, I remembered those verses andI was just like, they just they
were already in my head from akid being a kid, and I was
just like, let's just stick thatin there and see if that's okay.
(38:40):
But they're to me, they're comfortingbecause it's like, this is all part
of normal life. This is uh, you know, going back thousands of
years. This is just how humansmake their way through this little place called
Earth, and it makes it feelmore normal, you know. Well,
yeah, and all the problems andthe struggles we're talking about our eternal they
(39:05):
are things that everyone has gone throughand still will go through. And so
yeah, it's like, yep,we've all done this before. Here.
Our suffering is not unique. Weare not the only ones in our little
bubble that that go through these things. Like as much as we think we're
the only ones in the world experiencingsomething. I mean, since the beginning
(39:27):
of time, people have been dealingwith these things. So and everybody has
a story. Yes I do,too, and I think there's some comfort
in that that we've been this ishow it's been since the beginning of time.
This may not be good, butthis has happened before, and and
I do, I do think that'sright. I'm always encouraging other people to
write, like I said, andhearing from other child actors and me being
(39:49):
baby each other getting these stories outand saying, well, this is what
my life was like. I thinkso many people do have a story and
do need to write, and doneed to get it out there, And
this one I think, I mean, I think it is going to help
a lot of people. Also,can you get me pine nuts? Do
you still have that place for thepine nuts? They are here, you
are harvesting pine nuts, wild pinenuts. They're expensive at the store,
(40:15):
no kidding, and they've gone upand they were bad to begin with.
I use it. If you've seenmy cookie is pine nuts. There's this
recipe that Bob has for the Thanksgivingturkey stuffing. It's it it's a Sicilian
Italian stuffing with the spices and pinenuts are king. And every time I
go to get the pine nuts,I'm like, it's eight bucks. Yeah,
(40:37):
goodle bag for and there's there's abag of normal size, but it's
like eight nine dollars and it's justgone up. And I've taken I've ordered
them online and been able to geta few dollars shaved off, but even
so, a good sized bag.And I like to make pesto pine nuts
gone. Yeah, I love thatninety nine to make a thing of pets.
(41:00):
Right, it's insane. Those werethe most expensive pine nuts I have
ever gotten in my life. Ohwow, So harvesting is a bit of
work. Bit of work, wasit? Well, that was what we
were doing on the way when wecame when we got in the accident.
So those pine nuts into cost themlike two hundred thousand dollars. Yeah,
(41:20):
the hospital builds ambulance. So okay, so when it's been careful, So
how do you harvest pine nuts whenyou're your fatal collision? So it's it's
towards the end of summer before itrains. It's a certain pine tree and
when the pine cones open up,it's a you know, it's a fat
little looks like a bean. Andwhen you start seeing those and it's time
(41:45):
to you get them, and youjust you take the pine cone and you
just whack it on something and allthe beans fall out and then you crack
your true I mean it's a littlelabor intensive, but okay, okay,
but that's why I guess, yeah, that's why there'eventeen ninety bag. Okay,
just a lot of work if youcan. And and god, so
(42:07):
this action. I presume the pietsdid not survive the crash. Did they
know we never got to have thepauts They went to the junkyard with our
car. Yeah, we didn't evenget them. And they brand they throwing
recipes. This was your books,like okay, wow, yes, okay,
and now there's pie, there's recipes. And sometimes it's even after something
(42:31):
terrible has happened and a very difficultchapter, and now this is how you
make these muffins with this like jamglaze on them and you put them in
there. It was very last minute. It was gonna be at the end
of every chapter. And I waslike right at the line where the editor
(42:51):
was expecting this to be turned inand wow, always terrifying, right yeah,
and that she even was like,you didn't tell me there was recide.
That's totally different format. That's athat's a different book. I was
like, it's really just simple,like it doesn't have to be anything,
and I had to keep telling her, I'm like, I don't need this
book to be wildly illustrated and beingformatted and what is an interior design.
(43:19):
I'm like, just make the wordsfit on the page for me. And
she was very disappointed because she couldn'tbe very creative. But I was like,
no, we're like I'm telling you, like super easy, just make
it fit on the page. Ifound the recipes to be kind of a
sort of a dark, sardonic humorthing, because sometimes it was after something
completely awful, like and now potreally blueberries and you gotta go whoa,
(43:44):
wow. Okay, so now we'lljust have a recipe. I guess we
will. Yeah, I could gofor some buy now Jesus, So I
probably should have checked where exactly thosewere getting stuck. And no, that's
why I liked it. I waslike, Wow, that's dark, and
now we'll talk about pot. That'sthat I'd like that. It was like
whoa, whoa, Okay, thatwas heavy. There's your break. I
(44:07):
love. At one point you said, I said, look at it.
There's no such thing as a grownup. There is no such thing as
a grown up. They're all fakingit and making it up. Sick they
are, they really are? Weadult did it was adulting because I'm trying
adulting And it's like mm hmm,we might be adulting because actual adulthood.
It's like, it's not really there. I don't think, Yeah, you
(44:29):
never fully reached that point of alwaysknowing the answer and always doing the right
thing. And I don't. Ihave not seen it. I've not seen
it. Nobody makes it there.We're all taking really good guesses. Yes,
a lot of times it'll work out. How do you feel after this
(44:50):
that you you a you finished writingit and then you finished getting through the
editing process and it's actually in existenceand people are reading it and the response
you're getting from facts, I mean, how I'm amazed. One. I'm
very amazed that I finished it,because I start lots of things and don't
finish. I'm very interested right upto that last little finishing bit, and
(45:16):
then I'm done. I don't wantto I just completely lost interest in doing
it. So I'm one very amazedthat I finished. And for anyone who
hasn't written a book, that isa heck of a process. Yeah,
as soon as you think you're done, you're not. Yes, I mean
(45:37):
I couldn't believe when it was finally, finally done and I was able to
send it to a printer and thenyou still have to wait and then you
got to check it. Yeah.Yeah, yeah, I'm just amazed.
I mean, I don't I like, manifested it out of the ether and
now I have a book, Like, never in a million years thought I
(45:59):
would write one. I always thoughtit would be a good idea, but
never never imagined that it would becomereal. And I like it. And
that's like they're reading it, they'recoming up to the trauma. And that's
the other thing. You're doing allthese these events for someone who's like,
well, I was on this showand nobody knows who I am because they
only know about the other side oftwins. I don't have any You're now
(46:20):
at these the Gravel Road Markets tourthat you're on, the You're in the
fiftieth anniversary tour. You're going areyou You're coming to cherry Blossom you morning
in the morning, I actually seeyou in an airports at Yeah. It's
you're doing all the tours. You'regoing to all of these places all over
the country with the whole gravel roadthing. You're doing Walnut Grove as well.
(46:40):
I'm doing Walnut Grove. Yes,you're doing all of them, love
them. Never in a million yearsthought i'd do that either. Right now
is kind of just like by theseat of my pants here. Uh,
we're just doing everything. We're justgonna ride. Are we doing the one?
The one in what's it? That'sSeptember? That's September. It's in
(47:04):
sight because the end of August isConnecticut. Yes with yes with Susie McCrae.
And then and then it's like midNovembers is the Johnny Cash's Ranch,
Lancaster, Pennsylvania is in there?Yeah, Yeah, we do lank Today's
lancas and then we go Johnny cashFranch. Yeah yeah, and you're you're
(47:25):
doing all of these as well.It's just this has to be mind blowing.
It's it's very surreal. I feellike I am living in a dream
land until i have to show backup at work and run the tractor and
I'm like, what is this that'son the tractor? Ah, But it's
(47:46):
amazing, It's it's so much funand I can't believe I get to be
a part of it and do it, and it's it's amazing. It's like
a dream, not a dream Iever dreamt for myself. But it doesn't
feel real. Wow. What's themost interesting thing would you say? A
(48:07):
fan is said to you after readingthis book, Oh, most interesting thing.
I've had a lot of people tellme their own story. Yeah,
the same things happening with their parents. Ones who have lost their mom and
(48:31):
they only have their sister now andthey couldn't imagine losing their sister. One
woman, Oh my gosh, Ican't even remember now. She listed off
like all these and I'm like,you need to write the book, Like,
even if you never sell it oranything, you need to write that
all out and go through it.Because she had her story was very similar.
(48:52):
I mean, it was just onething after another. And I'm finding
that there's a lot of people thathave similar experiences in this world. I
would think your book is going tobe very helpful to a lot of people.
(49:13):
I hope. So, I hope. I hope people see that they're
not alone, they're not crazy,Like sometimes life is just out of control
and there's nothing we can do about. Like there's really nothing. We can't
prevent it, we can't stop itfrom coming. Like it's just accepting the
fact that this is this is whathappens sometimes in life, and we can
(49:37):
just roll with it and keep going, or you know, don't have a
lot of other choices. Life willgo on, Like you can go kicking
and screaming, or you can justkind of go with the flow and see
how far you make it, youknow. And then there's blueberry pie,
(49:57):
and then blueberry pie, and thenthere's the pumpkin one actually intrigued me.
I'm gonna have to see about doingthe pumpkin one. That was particularly good
A rampin. Yeah, yeah,yeah, I like that. I like
the pumpkin one. It's just likeyou're you are so emotionally vivid and present
(50:19):
in the book. You take onthese things any as you said as a
child, in pure self defense,you put it out of your mind and
said, well, you know,hey, they're taking me close shopping.
I'm just gonna you know, death. But you talk about now in this
book, about death, about goingto the funeral, about seeing these things,
about losing people, and it's absolutelyraw. I haven't told that too.
(50:45):
I thought about softening it a littlebit, but I don't know that
wasn't the experience wasn't soft. No, So if I'm going to tell the
story, then I'll just tell themstory. And I think people who are
suffering in those moments are going toappreciate that. Actually, I hope it
(51:08):
doesn't scare them. So far,nobody has come back saying that that was
wildly intense, like too much.Nobody said that. Nobody said that good,
good, good way. You know, our fans will say whatever is
(51:30):
on their mind. They they willtell us, they will tell us the
way we like that about it.Well, this is amazing. As I
said, I'm going to pass thissong to to Bob and say you might
want to, you know, curlup with a pillow and a drink before
you start this one. And Iwill see you shortly hours away. We'll
(51:52):
be hanging out. Thank you forcoming on the show again because I was
like this again us a whole otherinterview, and thank you so much,
and thank you for being you andfor writing this. And I'll see you
shortly and thank you everyone for watchingthe Alison Argham Show. And that's Jennifer
Donati and I'm Alison Argram I'm fromhelos Bon,
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