Likely Stories - Spencer's Mountain by Earl Hamner Jr

“Spencer’s Mountain” is the real life story of Earl Hammer, Jr. You may more commonly know his story as the cherished television show, “The Waltons.” As in the show, the Spencer family in the book are rich in core values, but cash poor. The book follows the ever-growing Spencer family, their large extended family, and the small town run by The Company. The novel focuses on Clay-Boy, the eldest son of eleven children, as he forges into adulthood, and the entire family sacrifices what very little they have to send him to college.

For generations, the Spencers had lived on the mountain that bears their name. Hard times for all of America has changed this, and now Clay, the father, supports his family living in the Company town, working in the mill and doing any odd job available. This proud patriarch is determined every one of his children will get an education and graduate from high school, even though he only attended school for a few days. He won’t allow one of his thoroughbreds, as he calls his children, to work in the mill. Clay-Boy is the first to graduate, and he could also be the first from the town to go to college. There is quite a lie cooked up by the local teacher and the Baptist preacher to get Clay-Boy a scholarship to attend the University of Richmond. Clay-Boy might as well be flying to Mars, let alone the Moon, so any help is necessary. Clay, however, is soon forced to make a distressing sacrifice to make his son’s impossible college dreams come true.

Juggling always taking care of his siblings, working on a house on the mountain with his father, and his first romance with a girl who is worldly beyond Clay-Boy’s experience, makes for a busy, funny, and heartwarming time for this young man.

I cannot believe it has taken me all this time to read “Spencer’s Mountain” since I grew up watching “The Waltons.” We never missed an episode. Some of the chapters in the book were lifted straight onto the television screen, but much of the book will be fresh to you.

“Spencer’s Mountain” is both a coming of age story and remembering a time when the value of the love and strength of a family was more important than money in the bank. I know you will delight in this true story.

Goodnight Mary Ellen. Goodnight John-Boy.

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