"No Trains" for the Foreseeable Future

My favorite cover.  Most likely the girls are Laura and Mary Powers.  Not sure who the devilish little boy is.  Cap Garland is probably one of the background figures.

I often ask myself, "How did Laura Ingalls Wilder get through hard times?"  The Ingalls family didn't lack challenges.  There was cancelled school, countless trips to Fullers, and no coal.  During this period of self-quarantine, I decided to reread The Long Winter to discover - What Would Laura Do?

Chapter 14 - "No Trains"

Laura wakes up to another blizzard and thinks about sleeping in.  Unfortunately, early Bird Ma is calling for the girls to get going.  

An engaging arithmetic book from the 1880s.

Laura goes downstairs and has a minor meltdown.  She wails, "How can I ever amount to anything when I can get only one day of school at a time?"  Laura has forgotten Ma is one tough Pioneer Woman.  Ma chastises Laura and tells her a few lousy blizzards shouldn't get her down.  Ma points out that Laura's arithmetic book has plenty of problems to keep her busy.  Ma's motivational speech ends with her saying, "Nothing keeps you from learning."

Ma would tell me a pandemic shouldn't stop me from learning.  She's right.  I am taking an on-line art class.  I enjoy the structure of watching lessons and then trying out the techniques.  My results are "Meh", but I am allowing myself to be a beginner - which is much harder than it sounds.  

Also, my son and I ordered ukuleles.  This idea has been floating around awhile, but there wasn't time to learn a new instrument.  Well.  Now there is time.  My friends are embracing novelty by making cinnamon rolls, playing mahjong, and planting gardens.  It is invigorating to learn new things.  Truth?  Some days I don't want to learn anything new.  I am pretty sure Ma wouldn't be supportive of me stagnating.  But, I am okay with it.  

Grace Ingalls was three during the long winter.  I would NOT want to be huddled around a cookstove with a three year old.

Ma moved the table into the kitchen.  The Ingalls are going to save coal by only using the cookstove for heat.  That means 9 people are hunkered down in the kitchen.   Pa, once again, decides to go to Fullers to buy coal.  He might have to use money from Mary's college fund to buy coal.  Carrie is frightened when Laura uses the last drop of kerosene to fill their lamp. 

Mary and Laura settle in to do arithmetic problems.  They painstakingly work each problem forward and backward to make sure their answer is correct.  (That seems excessive.  I remember just looking in the back of the book.)     

Pa returns with bad news. There is no coal or kerosene to buy.  (LIW doesn't mention toilet paper or hand sanitizer.)  Also, school is cancelled indefinitely.  The afternoon crawls by.  Ma mends.  Carrie studies her speller.  Mary braids a new rug and Laura crochets lace.  Pa is kept busy with frequent trips to the stable.  (LIW doesn't mention ukuleles or sour dough starters.)
  

I wonder if Laura would enjoy this movie?

The family goes to bed immediately after supper to save kerosene and coal.  They even leave the dirty dishes until morning!  "Laura felt that it was the same day over again. . . the same supper of potatoes and bread with dried-apple sauce. . . and going to bed at once to save kerosene and coal."  

Late into the third afternoon, the blizzard stops.  Surprisingly, Pa decides to go to Fullers just as Ma is about to dish up supper.  Pa returns with news that everyone is fine and work will start tomorrow on clearing railroad track at Tracy.  Ma ends the chapter on a positive note - "Surely we're bound to have pleasant weather.  We've already had more, and worse, storms than we had all last winter."

WWLD

1. Have short, concise meltdowns
2. Continue learning - no matter what
3. Make sacrifices for the good of the family

Prairie Eydie gearing up for a trip to Fullers.

See you soon for Chapter 16 - "Fair Weather."

Prairie Eydie