Auction: The Flash Forward begins at an antique furniture auction set in the fall of 1981, where an auctioneer describes a drop-leaf table that some guy named Charles Ingalls had designed and produced some 100 years earlier (and the "CI" brand that is on it). In the crowd of buyers is a young couple who love shopping for antiques and take special interest in the table.
Flash Forward: In the present day (fall 1981), a young couple buys a table at auction, and learns the story behind the unique table made by Charles' design.
Hollywood Heart Attack: Charles' friend Jack has one while they're camping on the trip back to Walnut Grove after a freight job. His death and its consequences (his children sold his house and force his widow to move, and all traces of his presence in the place are erased) afterwards throw Charles into a crisis, seeking to find a purpose in life and leave a legacy.
Irony: The young couple who buy the table made by Charles wonder if they purchased something valuable, unaware that this table was made by no other than the literary character and father of famous author Laura Ingalls Wilder (a Season 9 episode confirms that Laura would eventually publish her memories and become a sucessful author, turning Charles and the rest of her family into historical celebrities).
Lazy Bum: Uriah Cooper, the man who accepts the offer of farmwork for the Ingalls. He slacks most of the day, eats everything he can get his hands on and is eventually fired by the family.
