Snow Days?

I have just read the following article and thought that I would share it.  After the weather that we have had over the past weeks it is an interesting read.  No such thing as a snow day back then.

Winter 1882

Thank you for sharing this, Marilyn. Times sure have changed. I posted about this article on my blog. Hope someone is also willing to stop by and add their comments at http://lauralittlehouseontheprairie.blogspot.com/2014/01/have-we-turned-into-weather-wimps.html

Here is another article related to snowy weather during the blizzard season that Laura wrote about. I have the book mentioned in the article but I have never read it. Perhaps this might be a good time.

The Children's Blizzard

A train stuck in snow in southern Minnesota, March 29, 1881

Wilder was, by her own admission, a writer of historical fiction. Most of the people, places and events she describes are actually from her own life, but she sometimes juxtaposed events and compressed characters in the interest of good storytelling.[citation needed] The Long Winter, however, contains far less fiction than her other books; it is, for the most part, an accurate description of that winter in De Smet. The Long Winter runs from the fall of 1880 to the spring of 1881, a season of such frequent blizzards that it went down in history as "The Snow Winter". Accurate details in Wilder's novel include the names of the townspeople (with only minor exceptions), the blizzards' frequency and the deep cold, the Chicago and North Western Railway stopping trains until the spring thaw when the snow made the tracks impassable, the near-starvation of the townspeople, and the courage of Almanzo Wilder and Cap Garland, who ventured out on the open prairie in search of a cache of wheat that no one was even sure existed.

The fictionalized material includes the "Indian warning" in an early chapter and the duration and frequency of blizzards. While historical records indicate a larger than usual number of blizzards that winter, Laura's description of storms lasting on average three days each, with only two to two-and-a-half days separation, from late October until early April, would imply about 35 separate blizzards during that time frame, which may be dramatic license. Local oral history and research by Ingalls' biographers also indicate that Wilder and Garland traveled about 12 miles south of De Smet to find the wheat, not 20 as she states in the book. Almanzo Wilder is portrayed as being roughly six years older than Laura, when he was in fact ten years older. Aside from these minor variations, however, the book is an accurate portrayal of that legendary winter in Dakota Territory.

LIWnut wrote:

Here is another article related to snowy weather during the blizzard season that Laura wrote about.  I have the book mentioned in the article but I have never read it.  Perhaps this might be a good time.

The Children's Blizzard

I have this book, too. I started it, but never got a chance to finish it.

Another article to show how tough it was then and how blessed we are today.

Laura Knew Long Winters

Great article Marilyn! Sure does make you stop and think!

we should all be blessed how we live today. :) great thinking.

YEAH! True indeed we don't have it that bad.

I would hate to live that type of bad winter cold in Laura's day! I'M getting chills just thinking about it.

sweetkrissy2011 wrote:

YEAH! True indeed we don't have it that bad.

Exactly.  We have frigid, snowy winters where I live.  But we have central heating, and an army of snowplows to clear the roads.  We complain about the cold, and having to shovel our driveways, but really, it's only a minor inconvenience.  There's nothing life-threatening like there was in Laura's day.

Rob wrote:

sweetkrissy2011 wrote:

YEAH! True indeed we don't have it that bad.

Exactly.  We have frigid, snowy winters where I live.  But we have central heating, and an army of snowplows to clear the roads.  We complain about the cold, and having to shovel our driveways, but really, it's only a minor inconvenience.  There's nothing life-threatening like there was in Laura's day.

Yes! True! But I still not a fan of shoveling snow or the cold. lol

i am not a big fan of the cold. but i like snow. haha.

where is the snow in sweden? it only raining.