Adam Blumer

What are you reading these days? For a total change of pace, I just read “The Long Winter” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. If you think you had a rough winter (let’s admit it: we complain), read this amazing story about the long winter in De Smet, South Dakota, in 1880-1881 and be grateful. They had a blizzard every third or fourth day, and each one lasted two or three days. One blizzard struck the school, and the kids huddled in groups ventured forth, trying to find the town, though they couldn’t see it through the snow. If they went the wrong way, they’d stray into the prairie and freeze to death. They had no insulation in their houses. Laura woke up many mornings and noted the frosted nails in the ceiling. When they ran out of coal for the main heater, they huddled around the cook stove and burned twisted…