Picture this: the year is 1974 (yeah, yeah--I know I'm old) and a 13-year-old, highly hormonal me plops herself down in a darkened theater. The movie starts and it's beautifully filmed and it's all about a culture I don't know anything about and it has a father and his four children struggling to make ends meet in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. And then the dad gets sick. And dies. Hello. I'm crying already. And the movie has hardly started. So of course I had to get the book when I found it in the bookstore.
"Where The Lilies Bloom" by Vera and Bill Cleaver is the story of what happens to the Luther famiy. Because the oldest sister, Devola, is "cloudy headed," father, Roy asks his next child, 14 year old Mary Call, to make take care of the family after his death. He makes her promise to keep the children together, hold onto their home, and to keep Devola from marrying Kiser Pease, their landlord. While Roy is ill, Kiser also becomes ill and Mary Call is able to basically barter his care for the deed to their home and land. Then she finds a book on "wild-crafting" left by her mother. This enables the children to use the wild herbs they pick on their property to sell in town for their medicinal properties. It seems the children will be able to make it on their own after their father dies until they discover that Kiser never owned the land they live on, his sister does. She turns them out and the children are left to survive the winter in a cave. And, yes, I did cry while I was reading this book. Even though I just told you yesterday that I hardly ever cry during a book.
The movie starred Rance Howard (father of Ron Howard), Harry Dean Stanton, and Jan Smithers, who would go on to play Bailey on
WKRP in Cincinnati. Which, of course, many of you have never heard of because you weren't born yet. But trust me, it was a huge t.v. hit. Sadly, this is another movie that can only be found used. It really is a timeless movie, that, like the book, is a wonderful story for young adults.
Picture this: the year is 1974 (yeah, yeah--I know I'm old) and a 13-year-old, highly hormonal me plops herself down in a darkened theater. The movie starts and it's beautifully filmed and it's all about a culture I don't know anything about and it has a father and his four children struggling to make ends meet in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. And then the dad gets sick. And dies. Hello. I'm crying already. And the movie has hardly started. So of course I had to get the book when I found it in the bookstore. 
"Where The Lilies Bloom" by Vera and Bill Cleaver is the story of what happens to the Luther famiy. Because the oldest sister, Devola, is "cloudy headed," father, Roy asks his next child, 14 year old Mary Call, to make take care of the family after his death. He makes her promise to keep the children together, hold onto their home, and to keep Devola from marrying Kiser Pease, their landlord. While Roy is ill, Kiser also becomes ill and Mary Call is able to basically barter his care for the deed to their home and land. Then she finds a book on "wild-crafting" left by her mother. This enables the children to use the wild herbs they pick on their property to sell in town for their medicinal properties. It seems the children will be able to make it on their own after their father dies until they discover that Kiser never owned the land they live on, his sister does. She turns them out and the children are left to survive the winter in a cave. And, yes, I did cry while I was reading this book. Even though I just told you yesterday that I hardly ever cry during a book.
The movie starred Rance Howard (father of Ron Howard), Harry Dean Stanton, and Jan Smithers, who would go on to play Bailey on WKRP in Cincinnati. Which, of course, many of you have never heard of because you weren't born yet. But trust me, it was a huge t.v. hit. Sadly, this is another movie that can only be found used. It really is a timeless movie, that, like the book, is a wonderful story for young adults.
I sadly have not heard of this but it sounds like something I would have read and watched as a child.
ReplyDeleteI've looked at this book several times a month when I'm putting books back on the shelf and thought it sounded like a great story. Now I know that I need to read it sometime so that I can recommend it to a student!
ReplyDeleteI've never read the book but I have seen the movie a few times and bawled my eyes out each time. Truthfully I never realized there was a book. I'll have to look into reading it.
ReplyDeleteOh, my goodness - the part about them being turned out by the sister sounds just awful! And living in a cave too! Definitely sounds like a tear-jerker.
ReplyDeleteI was 13 when this movie came out as well. I don't remember if I saw it in the theater or on TV, but I remember all the characters vividly, which leads me to believe I saw it more than once. I remember thinking they had very strong accents and odd names back then. Would love to see this again.
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