Christmas in May?

Laura Ingalls Wilder's book, "The Long Winter" was first published in 1940.  This was nearly 60 years from the time that the actual event took place.  It was October 13, 1880 when the first blizzard hit the town of De Smet, in the Dakota territory.  Laura was about 12 years old at the time.  Her sister, Mary, had been blind just over a year and a half. 

Laura's father, Charles Ingalls, had the family move into his store front building in town for convenience and safety from the approaching winter.  But, little did they know that the winter would be so snow-covered and last into the month of May!

As they experienced blizzard after blizzard, the snow piled up all around them.  They were literally trapped in that small town.  The railroad train, that had been their life-line, servicing them with food and necessities, was not able to get through.  Soon the whole town was suffering and near starvation! 

Laura, wrote about that ordeal close to 60 years later.  Obviously it was a tramatic experience!

If you haven't read the book, I suggest you put it on your reading list.  I won't go into too many details here; I don't want to spoil it for you.  But, the ending of the story tells of how the first train finally came through on May 8, 1881.  It was a supply train for the railroad, with only a limited amount of food.  But the next day the train that they were waiting for arrived.  In it was all the items, stuffed in a barrel, which they had purchased for their Christmas celebration.  Since they didn't have the items in December, they decided to hold off the celebration till the train arrived.  So, once the train was in, they planned a big celebration for the next day!

Can you imagine, going through such an ordeal?  I wonder what Mary thought, not being able to see how deep the snow had become!  It was probably a bit of a blessing for her though; being shut in together just after she became blind, caused the family to become even closer knit.  It came at a good time to encourage her.

Here, at Laura's "Sweet Memories", we celebrate "Christmas in May" every year out of remembrance of the Ingalls family experience.  This year the celebration will take place on this Friday & Saturday.  There will be a Christmas tree and special sales in the shop.  If you have the opportunity, I hope you'll stop in to join in the celebration!

Today, because of our weakened economy, we also have some hard times.  But, being a bit of an optomist, I'd rather keep trusting the Lord, as Laura and her family did back then. Laura wrote that they had their Christmas in May and ended up singing a new song, accompanied by Pa's fiddle, "Then what is the use of repining, For where there's a will, there's a way, And tomorrow the sun may be shining, Although it is cloudy today." And she concluded saying, "And as they sang, the fear and suffering of the long winter seemed to rise like a dark cloud and float away on the music. Spring had come. The sun was shining warm, the winds were soft, and the green grass growing."

Merry Christmas!   The Old Man in the Bib Overalls