Harrison's Flowers (2000)

Harrison Lloyd, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Newsweek photojournalist, travels on his last assignment to the dissolving Yugoslavia in 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. While there, he is presumed to have been killed in a building collapse. His wife travels to the region to find him, believing him to be in the city of Vukovar. Travelling through the war-torn landscape, she arrives in the city, and bears witness to the massacre which took place there. Back home, Harrison's son Cesar cares for his father's flowers in their greenhouse.

Harrison's Flowers (2000)

May 4, 2000: Top of Page Some of the stories are still bearing on my mind that were told about Freck last week. I understood that the first school teacher was Epley Parnell, who taught before the school burned. This was around the year 1932 and another was built about 1935, as best some of the folks remembered. They spoke of the long timbers used in the school building out of virgin trees which were cut and sawed by the men of the community. I believe Mr. Parnell was teaching when, once upon a time, one of th eboys stuck a gun shell inside of a stick of stovewood, making the old stove dance and the stovepipe curve and twist when it went off. It was a Shipman responsible, but poor Ben Davis was accused. When the teacher looked at Ben, pointed his finger at him and said, "Ben, you did that," Ben, who, for a wonder, was not guilty, ran like a chicken with its head cut off and no more schooling for him. Verl Shipman was not left unpunished. A Mr. Swafford and Mrs. Keeling were also teachers at Freck. Neville (Davis) and Dwight remembered about 16 children attending school, with Ver, Buey and Odell Davis being the oldest students attending during Neville's time. Church was also held in the school house. Dwight said he remembered when he went to church hearing Floyd and Gertie Smith's cowbells. He declared that Floyd had bells on every one of them. That was music we heard over the hills once upon a time. Uncle Tom and Uncle Andrew Davis were very active in church there. Once when a Ray or Roy Barnes rode up on a horse, Tom greeted him and told him how proud he was t see him at church. Barnes said, "It sure is rough roads here." Uncle Tom replied, "Yes, and there are a lot of rough roads between here and Heaven, too." Vance Shipman remembered the first time he saw a bulldozer. Dee Phillips was the operator and was building the road above the Freck Church and the schoolhouse. Once when Dwight was taking Aunt Millie Davis somewhere in a wagon, I don't think he was the best driver, at least, something happened tht made Millie fall out of the wagon and roll down the hill. She got up dusted her clothes, slapped her hands together and said, "That's one steep hill.". No bones were broken, though. She used to have certain trails she traveled and has been remembered as such for years. What a wonderful, jolly, good woman the Freck community was blessed with. Uncle Tom and Aunt Josie Davis always had lots of flowers. Tom decided one year he would decorate all the graves in the cemetery. He felt so bad that some of the graves were decorated with so many flowers and some with none. He picked a bushel basket full of roses and every grave was remembered. It was stated, "How beautiful the cemetery looked with all those red roses." Wouldn't it be nice to be able to pick a bushel basket of flowers for the living as well as for our loved ones of long ago?

May 11, 2000: Top of Page (Speaking about the "old time working" at the Desoto Cemetery to be held May 13th) ... Once upon a time, many years ago, a cemetery committee was appointed, consisting of "Doc" Dillard, Harrison Smith and Tom Langston, I have been told. The following information was in the Mountain Echo in the 1920s: "Everyone should come on Friday before the third Sunday. Bring all the tolls needed for cleaning of the cemetery (as was the custom for many years) and the women will bring dinner. Be prepared to spend the whole day and if the job is not completed we will come back Saturday and finish the job before Decoration on Sunday. After Decoration, everyone will take dinner to the Desota Springs to eat. We will have singing and if there is a preacher available we will have a sermon after dinner" I hope our job will be as well done as our ancestors did. I'm afraid we ladies can't come up with the food our mothers and grandmothers bought to the working. Lee Davenport said Decoration Day over the whole county was where the boys loved to go. I heard of one Decoration Day, once upon a time, around Tomahawk Schoolhouse, close to where the burying grounds were located. A large crowd was gathered and decorated the graves until it looked like a big garden of flowers. (I wonder if a lot of them might have been paper.) About eleven o'clock the preaching service began at the schoolhouse and when the service was over a gang of tough boys was standing outside, waiting to start trouble, so they accused another young man of lying about something. That didn't set well with this feller and he doubled up his fist and knocked one of the tough boys down - war began. This tough gang was very much opposed by several of the men who were tired of these boys breaking up meetings of church services and such. During the fight one of the gang saw his bunch falling like ten-pins and he got out his knife made a lunge at one of the strongest men on the good side. This man picked up a club and knocked the ruffian out as cold as a cucumber. One feller saw one of the smaller boys, who had been sorta pushed out of the way but still wanted to be in the middle of the fight, draw his knife, but he was grabbed by the neck and held. The man holding the boy was so interested in the fight that he had forgotten about what he was doing until he felt the boy start collapsing. He turned the victim loose and didn't return to the fight. When some of the good guys had let it go on long enough, they yelled at a neighbor to go get his Winchester. He said, "I've settled worse fights than this and I can settle this." The neighbor lost no time in going after the gun. When they heard this and saw that he meant business, the rough boys ran off, never to pick up that fight again. What a Decoration Day to remember. Lee, I know you were not with this bunch, because this happened around 1899. 041b061a72