Bittersweet Resort: A Memoir of Our Ozark Odyssey

by Thelma Rea

Bittersweet Resort is a warm, funny memoir about the eleven years Dick and Thelma Rea survived the Ozarks. In 1971 they bought nine run-down cottages on Table Rock Lake and rented them out for $11 to $17 a day. Meet their memorable neighbors, including the man who kept his dead mother in a Kenmore freezer for 56 days, trying to resurrect her. Follow the escapades of their guests: many are hilarious, some bittersweet, and a few tragic. Experience the awakening of a backward mountain country, brought to life by an amazing chain of five lakes straddling Missouri and Arkansas, built by the Corps of Engineers. Visit Branson before it became a country music phenomenon. This is a story of transformation. The Rea children adapt to a school built by the WPA in 1936-a one-hour bus ride from their remote home. Dick progresses from New York City executive to carpenter/plumber/man-of-all-trades. Thelma steers the neglected resort into a popular destination. Take this journey with them. Travel back to a simpler time. You'll wish you had been a guest at Bittersweet Resort.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1530710596
• ISBN13: 9781530710591
• Release Date: March 2016
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.7" x 6.0"