The Final Tide

by Norma Cole

The year is 1948. Geneva Haw, fourteen, is a fun-loving colt of a girl whose galloping gait, mischievous spirit and love for a secret game of marbles with her boy cousings constantly frustrates her mother's attempts at molding Geneva into a young lady. Geneva lives with her mother and father, neighbors and kin in Kentucky's Cumberland River Valley, where Haws have lived "since Daniel Boone showed them the way." But Geneva's father and uncle know they will be working the soil there for the last time in the spring of 1948. The regular flooding of the Cumberland, which before has always left them "new treasures for the earth," will soon, with the completion of the Wolf Creek Dam, give way to a tide that eventally rises "almost to the top of the mountains," covering forever the homeplaces and gardens, roads and paths, church an burying ground they have known. Geneva has heard that a "final tide" is coming with the completion of the dam at Wolf Creek, where folks say "gov-ment men filled a place between two mountains full of concrete an' dirt," but that's something she has trouble imagining. She sees the shadow of the final tide on her father's spirit, but understands little of the loss he already feels at the thought of leaving the land that is his legacy. Geneva wistfully longs to go to high school like the city kids, to wear the brown and white saddle shoes she's seen in the catalog, to get her hair cut and "curled up with a permanent" like her cousing Alice plans to do when her family moves to town. Her Granny Haw, however, is determined to keep a promise to her departed husband to be buried beside him, and insists that she will neither permit his remains to be moved nor leave her beloved homeplace and her mysterious "treasures in blue jars." Only after the grave movers leave the churchyard and burying ground in chaos does Geneva begin to realize the extent of the changes to come and the losses her family faces-and to fully understand that she must help her Granny bow to the inevitable final tide and find a new home and happiness elsewhere.96

154 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1990

About the author

Norma Cole is a poet, painter, and translator. Her most recent books of poetry include Fate News, Actualities, Where Shadows Will, and Win These Posters and Other Unrelated Prizes Inside. Her translations from French include Danielle Collobert’s It Then, the anthology Crosscut Universe: Writing on Writing from France, and Jean Daive’s White Decimal. Cole lives and works in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Wayne Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is 1948, and fourteen year old Geneva Augusta Haw lives on a farm in the Cumberland River Valley bottom of southern Kentucky with her father Dade and mother Mattie. She will be going into the eighth grade at the small Hawford school and wants to go on to high school in the town after that, but her father isn’t sure that she will be able to do so. Down the road lives her Uncle Bart, Aunt Ina, and favorite cousin and best friend Alice, along with younger cousins Kendall, James, Betty Lou, Tad, and baby Sissy. And beyond them lives her Granny, Mrs. Augusta Kendall Hall, known as Gussie, who sometimes appears to be slightly senile. Every spring, the rains cause a flooding of the river bottom which is called “the tide” and brings rich nutrients to the soil.

However, this year there will be a “final tide” as the Wolf Creek Dam will be completed and turn the entire valley into a lake. Geneva, her father, her uncle, and their families know that they will have to move. However, Granny Haw refuses to consider moving from her home with its “treasures in blue jars” because she is determined to keep a promise to her departed husband to be buried beside him, so she insists that she will not permit his remains to be moved from the nearby cemetery nor leave herself. She just knows that the Lord will call her to heaven before the time comes to move and is thus simply waiting to die. What will happen to Granny? Will Geneva be able to go on to high school and how? And what are those “treasures in blue jars”? As to language, there are some common euphemisms (drat, durn) and the term “Lordy” is used. Once Geneva utters the “d” word, but quickly changes it to “drat,” and once Uncle Bart says the “h” word. And references to school dances occur.

Other than this, The Final Tide is an enjoyable young adult story about how a family deals with change and handles the problems which this change brings that would be good for middle grade and young high school students. The conversations follow the speech patterns of rural Kentucky but are rendered in a way that is easier to read than some books using colloquial dialect. Many people will appreciate the close, inter-generational family relationships which are portrayed. Also, religion has obviously played an important part in their lives. Author Norma Cole was born and reared in South Dakota, and spent many years in Michigan where she raised her family and taught school, but eventually moved to Monticello, KY, where she enjoys writing for children. Her novel about the Haws is based on extensive research and stories which she heard from her neighbors. It has been turned into a play entitled And the Tide Shall Cover the Earth.

[LB · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Final Tide explores the life of the Haw family from the point of view of 14-year-old Geneva. Geneva's mother wants her to act more like a lady and stop playing marbles. Geneva's father wants her to quit school after she graduates eighth grade and help more on the family farm.

These problems are overshadowed by the completion of the Wolf Creek Dam, which will bring electricity to many but will also uproot a community. Now Geneva's family will have to move as their home will be covered with water with the coming of the final tide. She had dealt with tides before in her life, but this final tide is causing trouble.

Granny Haws says she is not leaving her home or her husband (who is buried in the church cemetery). Granny is a very stubborn lady who is ready to take her shotgun with buckshot to anybody who tries to move her.

You will have to read if you want to discover what happens.

I enjoyed revisiting this book. Norma Cole's characters are well written and reminded me of several people I know. Mrs. Cole wrote this book after much research and the end result is well worth a read.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was just ok. I expected (maybe erroneously) more of the story of the process of moving the families from the area.

[Dale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Geneva is a 14-yr. old whose family is being uprooted from family farm due to development of Wolf Creek Dam. The most interesting thing (for me) was the process of ‘moving out’ entire families, including family graves. Thank heavens for the feisty, slightly deranged, grandmother and cousin Alice. Author is based out of Monticello, KY. Doubt this book would be published now-a-days. Lots of use of slang I wasn’t familiar with. Easy enough to read. Spouse found this at the Friends of the Library Book Sale. Read May‘13/#28.

[Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb young adult novel, set in Kentucky; the government is about to build a dam and flood the holler and our hero's old Granny refuses to move.