Listening to The Long Winter

I read Laura Ingalls' books when I was in primary school in Brazil. The images have remained vividly in my mind all of these years, revisited at times by discussing the books with the children. Now we have been listening to them in the car and the experience has been exhilarating!

This past week we listened to The Long Winter, perhaps the one volume that has left the deepest memories. I could have never dreamed, as a child, that one day I would be living right here--in Laura's prairie! Laura's words blend in with the landscape all around us.

Husband has never read the books, and I am simply delighted to expose him to the amazing quality of writing in her books. He has admitted these are books of universal value. The whole family cringed together in the car as blizzard after blizzard terrified the Ingalls family along with the other few families in that tiny new town on the prairie. The places she refers to: Silver Lake, Volga, Lake Preston, Brookings--those are right around where Husband works.

Seems like we'll need to do a day trip to DeSmet again and soon!

A note on this audio edition (we borrowed it from the library): the many songs Pa played and sang in his fiddle are also played and sung in this recording! I never knew what they sounded like!