Where the Red Fern Grows

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I was about ten or eleven going to elementary school in Pocatello, Idaho, and living with my mother, stepfather and stepbrother in a little house with a white picket fence. I remember Wilson Rawls came to visit our school one day. He was a tall man just what you might think a country farmer would look like. Tall and a bit unkempt. The kids were called into the auditorium for a surprise assembly that day. We never knew what these were about but usually something important. I remember he stood up on the stage beside a mike and a stack of papers more than half as tall as he was. That was a lot of papers. Come to find out that was his manuscript for "Where the Red Fern Grows" the wonderful story of a young boy's dream to have his own hunting dogs and what he goes through to get them, train them, and hunt with them. It has always been a favorite book of mine. I had always enjoyed books but after hearing Wilson Rawls speak and reading his story I think that might have been one of the first things that got me interested in writing. It wasn't until 3 or 4 years later and meeting who was to be my BFF that the writing thing really took off. But "Where the Red Fern Grows" and that meeting of Wilson Rawls meant a great deal to me. The book was written with such love and you could tell he loved those dogs. It was about his childhood in the Ozark Mountains. The book came out in 1961 and was made into a movie in 1974 with Stewart Peterson, James Whitmore, Beverly Garland, and Jack Ging in it and, had a sequel in 1992. Billy Colman was the boy's name, Old Dan and Little Ann were the dog's names. Redbone hounds. If you haven't read this book you need to. The movie was okay but the book is wonderful. The picture is courtesy of allmovies.com