A Sorryful Saga

You may recall that I've done several Puffman Blogs on Ruth McLaughlin's "Memoir from the Western High Plains".That is to say that ruthless Ruth grew up AND lived near  Culbertson in eastern Montana. The book is "Bound Like Grass" and this is one powerful tome and one of the best I've ever read. No wonder it won the Montana Book Award. I'm happy to say that Ruth, who now lives in Great Falls and is married to one of my old school mates, Mike, is coming to Shelby next Monday to speak about her book and her life at our Toole County Library. I'll give you more details (times, etc) late this afternoon (Tuesday) at 4:35. Ruth is my special guest today and I can hardly wait to discuss "Bound Like Grass". We just finished reading it up at the Heritage Center before we started our current read, "Forever Friends" by Helena author Lenore Puhek (think Buick!). "Bound Like Grass" bound my attention and I was truly fascinated by this true life story. What's the book about? To sum it up (in my words): little or no money, horrendous weather, cold temperatures, snow, wind, rocks in the soil, broken down cars, and food as bad or worse than they're serving in the slammer these days. Throw in some mental illness, cancer, stroke, death and funny looking hand-me-down clothes, and bad roads and here we are with Ruth growing up on the plains of eastern Montana. And all of this is on a good day. Wait until you hear some of the negatives. Ruth, by the way, teaches literacy and writing in Great Falls and weaves a fascinating saga of what her and her family's life was actually like. Looking forward to finding out more this afternoon at 4:35 and also looking forward to Ruth's presentation next Monday at the Toole County Library. She appeared at the Conrad Library last year and I missed it. I won't do that this time for sure.