Laura Days

As the first gusts of winter's cold weather set down, all I want to do is curl up under thick blankets and dive into a good book (with my imaginary fireplace crackling in the background, of course).  It's times like these that I most want to read Laura Ingalls Wilder, so I'm here pre-Turkey Day to suggest you take a journey through the Big Woods and the rolling prairie along with her sometime.  

Two of my favorite excursions in my fiance and I's recent Road-Trip to End All Road-Trips were our visits to two tiny towns few people have likely ever heard of — Pepin, Wisconsin, and De Smet, South Dakota.  Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in both, in Pepin as a child and De Smet as a teenager.  Last year, I read the entire Little House series of books, something I've been trying to do since I myself was a child and teenager.  I'd picked up Little House in the Big Woods (the first in the series) dozens of times from the library but never got very far, though certainly not due to lack of interest.  It finally clicked for me last year, and I found myself zipping through each novel with the fervor I expect a Harry Potter fan reading about the wizards for the first time must feel.

There's a steadiness to Wilder's prose that hooks you, and if you're open to it, a fascinating development of a young woman's awareness of the world around her.  There are maple sugarings and fiddle tunes around the fireplace, family togetherness and separations and dramas, and even Indians in the living room.  The Wilder family survives loss of crops, loss of homes, loss of morale, the brink of starvation, and one destined-to-not-be-the-right-choice after another courtesy of Pa Wilder.  

Through it all, Laura watches and learns how to stay steady on her own two feet.  At age 15, she taught school, bringing home a precious few dollars each week to help support her family.  In 1885, at age 18, she told her husband-to-be Almanzo Wilder not to expect her to obey him by virtue of any vow they were about to take.  He never batted an eye, and the two were happily married until Almanzo's death at age 90.  Laura herself lived well into her nineties, though I can't imagine the little girl on the prairie driving an automobile or watching television.

I prefer to visit her with her family on one of their many cozy nights spent enjoying each other's company and the warmth of a strong fire.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Catherine :)

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