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BHS graduate works on new PBS series
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| By: Kim Windmiller |
April 29, 2002 |
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The work of a Lincoln County native will gain national attention this week with the premier of an educational television show.
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| Linda Sellers Peavy, a 1961 Brookhaven High School graduate, is one of two historians who worked on Frontier House, a Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) project. The six-hour show will run in three segments from 8-10 p.m., Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Frontier House shows the transformation of three families who put their modern-day lives on hold for five months of 19th century living in an 1883 Montana Territory setting. "It was fascinating to see how they responded," said Peavy. "We learned a lot about how people react under adversity." Frontier House highlights the trials and tribulations of 21st century families who show the world whether they "had the strength and sense of purpose to make a go of it on foothill claims in the Rockies." Peavy and companion author Ursula Smith worked on a book by the same name to give a behind-the-scenes look at the PBS show. Noted historians with a number of books to their credit, Peavy and Smith also served as advisors for the television show, which was filmed from May-October 2001. Much research was required in order to make the project authentic to the period of time they created in a remote Montana valley, said Peavy. "One of our most difficult tasks throughout this project was determining how to translate the 2001 dollar and various other assets of today into comparable 1883 terms," said Peavy. The historians used an index devised by a political scientist to calculate what each of the three families would have had when starting out on a homestead in 1883. Each family was given 160 acres to develop and maintain for their five months of "roughing it." The three families, coming from Los Angeles, Nashville and Boston, had to build houses, grow crops and raise livestock on their land without the conveniences of modern-day technology. "Just to have coffee in the morning, they had to get up an hour early because they had to boil the water, roast the beans, then grind them and make the coffee," said Peavy. The families labored from dawn to dusk building their one-room log cabins, milking cows and preparing meals over a fire. They went from being accustomed to drive-through meals, high-speed Internet access and cable television to learning to cook without electrical appliances, making rooftops with sod and entertaining each other with only stories. "No trucks, cars or anything modern went into that valley for five months," said Peavy. The families were only armed with the knowledge they gained during a two-week boot camp on how to survive. They also were allowed to read two books by Peavy and Smith about life in that time period. A small country store set up 10 miles away over two mountain passes allowed the families a chance to buy things they could not produce on their farms. They were permitted to make the day-long trip every five weeks. "This is very realistic as far as this is what you really had to do when first got to the frontier," said Peavy. Even though Peavy has written numerous books since she taught at Central High School in Jackson from 1964-1966, she believes the Frontier House experience was her favorite because it gave her an opportunity to bring to life the history she has studied for over three decades. Peavy, who was born in Hattiesburg and lived in Brookhaven until she was 18 years old, now resides in Vermont. She still has many relatives in the area, including aunt and uncle Evelyn and Lester Davis, whom she visited recently.
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©The Daily Leader 2009
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