Betty Richards

Ardis Heights Betty Richards

Dr. Swinson and his wife Dandy are living a peaceful life on their farm in Ardis Heights, a small farming community in northeast Texas. Their lives take a sudden and drastic turn when the stock market crash of 1929 is followed by the Great Depression. Four of their grown children and their families are forced to flee to the farm when jobs, homes, and most of their belongings are striped away. The house which was large for the two of them is stuffed to the seams as eight adults and five children seek refuge. Each individual has his and her own story of how they came to be here and their way of dealing with a trying situation. What makes it an almost impossible one is Dandy who plays favorites, is extremely judgemental, doesn't like her in-laws and takes out her frustrations on any and all, except her precious daughter. Papa (Dr. Swinson), who has problems of his own, tries to handle Dandy and keep the peace while jealousies, alcohol, an affair, and the troubled marriages and general unhappiness of his grown children play havoc with his life. Played out against the backdrop of a small Texas town still caught in the prejudices of the Civil War and the United States in deep crisis as thousands of its citizens wander homeless and hungry around the country, the Swinson family learns to live with loss, fear, betrayal and finally acceptance, hope and forgiveness. Their story is an excavation of the human spirit and its ability to survive.