Creeker - Backwoods in Appalachia - Excellent Book
Written: Jul 02 '02 (Updated Jul 02 '02)
Product Rating:
Pros: Inside look at life in the Appalachian poverty belt.
Cons: Very traditional males may not like this one.
The Bottom Line: Creeker is a vivid story of growing up in Kentucky and moving out into the world though still hanging on to that sense of family and culture.
CyndiA's Full Review: Linda Scott Derosier - Creeker: A Woman's Journey
Aunt Edna gave Creeker to my Poppaw before he died. I can’t believe that anyone had the nerve to get this book for my grandfather. Sisters can get by with more than regular folk, but Aunt Edna was pushing it with this book. I’m not sure if she read it before she gave it to him, but I can’t imagine that she did.
Poppaw probably cussed all the way through the book, and he probably was still cussing when he put it deep back in the bookshelves (in 1999) where it stayed lost until last month (2002). He wasn’t one to throw a book away for any reason, but I doubt he wanted any of us (especially the womenfolk) to read Creeker--A Woman’s Journey.
Linda Scott DeRosier grew up in eastern Kentucky in the Appalachian poverty belt. If you’re not familiar with the area and what being backwoods Appalachia means, then you might want to think of “Larry, Darryl, and my other brother Darryl.” The mountains in Kentucky, Tennessee, NC, VA, and West VA are beautiful, but they are hard living. Most live in the hollers (or the dips between the mountains) and close to water. That’s where the title of the book came from. DeRosier’s “people” lived next to the creek and were called creekers. This term would be kind of like hillbilly, but the hill folks would live a little higher up as a rule.
Creeker is about Linda Sue who did not really fit in very well back in the hills. She was too loud and energetic, and she did not fill-out like a good woman should. She said that she probably would have been diagnosed ADD if doctors had known about that 60-plus years ago. As it was, she just ran around and laughed and worried about not finding a husband.
Finding a husband is pretty much the ultimate in mountain culture even today. That does not include the town folks, of course. Town folks live a different culture altogether. Town kids often go to college while hill folks go to work or find a husband. It’s been that way for generations, and it’s likely to stay that way for a good time to come.
Since Linda Sue was not snapped up by a man, she went on to college on scholarship. She selected the closest college (an hour away), and she went to find a husband. I had to smile about that, because my first college roommate went for the same reason. She stayed 4 years and never even finished up her 2 year program. She didn’t get her Mrs. until after she got kicked out of school. But, she eventually married her a farmer and had a house full of kids. She looked real happy and pregnant last time I saw her.
At college, Linda Sue decided to change her approach to life. The first step was to give herself a new name. She called herself Lee. That may sound strange, but one of my aunt’s changes her name just every so often. In addition to changing her first name, she also gets married regular. Between the name changes and her “new looks,” I’m never quite sure who will show up at the family reunion from year to year. The strangest was the year she came in a black mini skirt and a sequin blouse and flirted with all the male relatives. This year, she wore knee length baggy shorts and tennis shoes with no socks.
Lee did land a husband at college and one from town. She thought she would work a short while and then start being the housewife she had always dreamed of being. Her husband had other ideas though. He insisted that she finish up the degree. He didn’t want a woman hanging on his arm and word every second of the day. He wanted to play golf more than anything else, and that’s mostly what he did.
All the “learning” ruined Lee as far as her family could tell. She found a good job and then started taking more college classes. After earning a MA and a PhD, Lee (who went back to being called Linda) got divorced and started teaching Appalachian cultural classes (with a focus on women).
Eventually, Linda married a soulmate (though it cost both jobs at a major university) and continued to build her academic career. Today, she teaches and writes and is still happily married. She’s still close friends with the first husband, and the families blend as needed to cover all the bases.
This book really captures the “feel” of the mountain culture. You’ll laugh, cry, and ponder as you follow Linda from childhood to old age. It’s a very honest telling of an interesting journey. It’s hard to explain what it’s like to be from a very unique culture within the United States.
I think most people would enjoy Creeker with the exception of Poppaw and anyone who has a problem with women doing more than staying home and cooking, cleaning, and raising kids. Poppaw probably thought Linda Sue was a hell raiser of the worst sort. He never had to get up and refill his glass of tea during his entire life as far as a I know. Grandma always did what she was supposed to as did all four of his daughters (for the most part). My generation of the girls got “runt” just like Linda Sue. Poppaw would probably just as soon we had not found this book. He would figure it would give us more bad ideas.
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