I am a true daughter of Appalachia. Born and raised in the mountains of southeast Kentucky like my mother and grandmother before me. It is no wonder then, that I fell in love with the book, Christy, by Catherine Marshall. It is my heritage. My mother and grandmother lived as the characters in the pages of her book lived. Poor, but proud. Uneducated, but extremely intelligent. Leary of the outside world, but always willing to help a neighbor.
I have read the book many times. I have loaned several copies, only to have them not be returned. My first copy was a birthday present from my oldest dear son who was in the 6th grade at the time. I have been to the real Cutter Gap in Tennessee. The real Fairlight's grandson still lives there. I have visited the Museum of Appalachia where one of the episodes of the television series was filmed. I bought a couple of props that were used on the set...an old art book with leaves pressed in the pages and a small wooden bowl.
Mike Hickman as Birds Eye Taylor
During our trip to Townsend, I had the pleasure of meeting Mike Hickman. Hickman played Birds Eye Taylor in the TV series. He works at the motel where we were staying. You could not meet a nicer man. He told us that he had recently had a stroke and that it had affected his speech. It was barely noticeable. I learned that years ago, he had done volunteer work at a mission in our county. We talked for a few minutes and then he said he wanted to give me something, even though I hadn't asked. He walked over to a filing cabinet and took out an 8x10 pix and autographed it for me. He told me he had finished filming a new movie, The Lena Baker Story which should be out in 2008. We talked a few more minutes and thanked him for his time.
Hand drawn map
As we were leaving, he asked if we had been to the old TV set where Christy was filmed. We told him that we hadn't. He took out a piece of paper and drew us a map to the set! To have played the bad guy in the series, you would not believe what a sweet soul Mike Hickman really is. He told us he wasn't "near as mean" as Birds Eye. We thanked him again and left to go to our room, somewhat stunned at how nice he was.
The next morning, we left the motel just after daylight to go look for "Cutter Gap". The fog was so thick we couldn't see anything. We stopped and talked to a little old man who had walked down his driveway to get his morning paper. He told us that we were driving right by it, but that the fog was so thick you couldn't see anything. I was disappointed, but glad to know that we were in the right place. We will try again another trip. The Smokies have always been such a special place to me. Now I have another reason for loving them.
