{"id":15597,"date":"2004-12-23T15:36:13","date_gmt":"2004-12-23T20:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=15597"},"modified":"2025-02-27T12:09:13","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T17:09:13","slug":"yes-virginia-there-is-a-cartwright-family-by-robin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=15597","title":{"rendered":"Yes, Virginia, There is a Cartwright Family (by Robin)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary:<\/strong>\u00a0 The question every little girl wants to know the answer.<\/p>\n

Rating:\u00a0 T\u00a0\u00a0 (805 words)<\/p>\n

Author’s Note:<\/strong> \u00a0The REALLY Losts are satires of the series written with much affection, eye rolling,\u00a0\u00a0and winks. \u00a0And can be somewhat risque’.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, Virginia, There is a Cartwright Family<\/strong>
\nA REALLY Lost Episode<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Over one hundred years ago, eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun<\/em>, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial in the Sun on Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters, commercials and stamps. At this time of the year, it appears left, right and sideways.<\/p>\n

The Sun<\/em> was a New York newspaper that was published from 1833 until 1950. It was considered a serious paper, like the city’s two more successful broadsheets<\/a>, the New York Times<\/em><\/a> and New York Herald Tribune<\/em><\/a>. The Sun was the most politically conservative of the three. This paper continued until January 4<\/a>, 1950<\/a>, when it merged with the New York World-Telegram<\/em><\/a> to form a new paper called the New York World-Telegram and Sun<\/em>; in 1966, this paper became part of the New York World Journal Tribune<\/em><\/a>, which folded the following year.<\/p>\n

During 2002, a new newspaper<\/a> was launched in New York with the same name but no other association with the original Sun<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Not too many people are aware of the granddaughter\u2019s letter that was written recently to Professor F. L\u2019annel Sheets, noted Bonanza Expert:<\/p>\n

Dear Prof. Sheets: <\/em><\/p>\n

I am 58 years old. <\/em><\/p>\n

Some of my cranky, menopausal friends say there never was a Cartwright Family. There was never a Ponderosa! Bonanza was all fictional! Great-grandpapa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN, it’s so.’ Sadly, the Sun folded decades ago. Hopefully you can tell me what I need to know.<\/em><\/p>\n

Please tell me the truth: was there a Cartwright Family? Was there really a Ben Cartwright? Adam Cartwright? Hoss Cartwright? Little Joe Cartwright?<\/p>\n

VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
\n115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.<\/em><\/p>\n

PS And what about Jamie?<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

VIRGINIA, <\/em><\/p>\n

Your little old friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see and they all probably stayed at Woodstock far too long or had their minds tainted by watching too much \u201creality TV\u201d and holding their cell phones too close to their heads. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s or cranky menopausal women, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.<\/p>\n

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Cartwright Family. The Ponderosa exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Cartwright Family. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.<\/p>\n

Not believe in Cartwright Family! Not believe in the Ponderosa and Bonanza? You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch all the cable stations to catch Cartwright Family, but even if they did not see Cartwright Family riding out through the meadow and that burning map burn down, what would that prove? Nobody always sees Cartwright Family, but that is no sign that there is no Cartwright Family. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men nor menopausal women can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.<\/p>\n

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.<\/p>\n

No Cartwright Family! Thank God! they live in the Ponderosa inside our hearts, and they live forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, Bonanza will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Jamie WHO?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

    *****End*****<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    <\/div>\n

    <\/g><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Summary: The question every little girl wants to know the answer.<\/p>\n

    Rating: T (805 words)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":14367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-humor","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-4-id"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":747,"today_views":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ARLE-e1497282889671.png?fit=570%2C416&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15992,"url":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=15992","url_meta":{"origin":15597,"position":0},"title":"High Finance (Or, How to Keep Your Mutton-Headed Sons From Getting Robbed) (by pjb)","author":"pjb","date":"February 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"SUMMARY:\u00a0 Oh, the lengths a father must go to in order to protect his sons. . . . Rating:\u00a0 K\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Word count:\u00a0 1,100","rel":"","context":"In "Alternate Universe"","block_context":{"text":"Alternate Universe","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/credit-card.jpg?fit=640%2C426&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/credit-card.jpg?fit=640%2C426&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/credit-card.jpg?fit=640%2C426&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15645,"url":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=15645","url_meta":{"origin":15597,"position":1},"title":"A Tale Within a Tale (by Hart4Ben)","author":"Hart4Ben","date":"March 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Summary: A descendent of the Cartwright family discovers his family history. 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