Uphill both ways...fact or fiction?

Growing up in Northern Michigan, winter wasn’t just a season but a survival challenge. The snow didn’t gently fall; it descended like a vengeful force determined to bury everything in sight. And did we get snow days? No. We dug ourselves out and trudged like Hobbits marching toward Mount Doom.

My late maternal grandmother, who grew up during the Great Depression, used to tell me about walking to school “uphill both ways.”

As a kid, I rolled my eyes, figuring she was exaggerating the way all grandparents seem to do. But now, having moved from Michigan to Lincoln County, where winter barely dust...