Okay, so I am making up my own holiday. But I am so excited to recognize this day. We are going to celebrate with peppermint bon bon icecream and thin mints.
Here's the deal. I have been captivated, mesmerized, engrossed in the family history book my Aunt Jan put together. There are pictures and stories and fun facts that keep my jaw dropped most of the time.
But by far, my favorite story in the book is about The Grasshoppers.
You have to read this:
"The grasshopper plague (Rocky Mountain Locusts) which fell upon the Minnesota frontier in 1873 and 1874 threatened complete destruction to the early settlement (my great grandpa Carl's settlement that he farmed with his dad in Dunnell, Minnesota...then Lake Fremont Township) In 1877 and 1878 the hoppers spread over the entire western part of the state. They took everything in the gardens, destroyed most of the corn, oats and wheat. They were especially fond of timothy and the scattered plots of tobacco. They would come down like a snowstorm until the ground was nearly covered. In 24 hours everything was stripped. They even got into the houses unless doors and windows were kept closed. They usually stayed two or three weeks. They bored holes in the ground and deposited eggs in a square foot of ground. Many means of fighting the pests were tried, including paying bounty for catching and destroying the hoppers but all human means seemed in vain.
"Many settlers lost faith in the future of the country and left. In the spring of 1877, after seeing the fields stripped again the people turned to God for help. Governor Pillsbury was petitioned to appoint a day of fasting and prayer for deliverance from the pests, which he did on April 27th 1877. The church people gathered in their respective churches and joined in prayer.
"Their prayers were heard. In the early summer when the wings of the grasshoppers had grown and they were strong enough to fly, they all at once rose into the sky, darkening the sun by their numbers, and left for parts unknown. Sailors on the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean are said to have found millions of the insects floating on the waters. They had flown away without depositing any eggs and so the Minnesota frontier was saved."
What a story! Can you imagine the surface of those waters? Just covered in dead grasshoppers. And that they all left like that, all at once, before laying their eggs. Incredible.
So tomorrow I am going to eat something minty and chocolatey and think about the wonder of an entire state praying and fasting and the miracle that followed when their prayers were heard.
(And, yes, I see the irony of eating chocolate cookies on a day recognized for fasting. But wouldn't Grasshopper Day be much more likely to catch on if we include mint chocolate brownies or mint bon bon icecream cake?!!)
