By Wayne Allensworth Westerns were once upon a time the most popular American film genre. And the great John Ford directed some of the best ones. Our greatest star in the Western film firmament was John Wayne, who was associated as a friend and collaborator with Ford for much of his career. Their names are inseparable in American film history. Movie buffs know the Ford-Wayne films that did so...
By Wayne Allensworth My wife and I were watching It’s a Wonderful Life for the umpteenth time the other night, and something stood out that I hadn’t thought of before. Early in the movie, when old man Potter, the story’s Scrooge character played by Lionel Barrymore, complains that the Building & Loan in which he holds shares has loaned the princely sum of $5,000 to Ernie Bishop, a cab driver...
By Wayne Allensworth LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be...
By Wayne Allensworth When the sky opens the rain can come down in curtains of dense water, obscuring your view. The wind picks up and the tree limbs begin their dance. It’s November. I was taking my morning walk, hoping that the dark clouds that were gathering would hold onto the drops of water within them for just a few more minutes. I walked and felt the cool wind pick up. And I noticed that...
By Wayne Allensworth And at times you introduce me from within into a wholly unaccustomed state of feeling…were it made perfect in me, [it] would not be of this world…But [I] fall back again and I am swallowed up in the usual run of things. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions At mid-morning, the autumn sun was clearing the sky. White rays emanating from a new October sun, a pale, liquid...
By Wayne Allensworth Bill and Shirley Allensworth Houston, Texas 1953 I recall the time and circumstances in which I knew once and for all I couldn’t go home again. It was 1992. We were back in Houston for Christmas. My wife and I took walks in the morning and passed still remaining landmarks that had taken on the air of museum exhibits. Or ruins. The post office. The old grocery store, now a...
By Wayne Allensworth Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. John 12:27 On the day my father collapsed in my house, which led to a painful and long dreaded decision on my part, I talked to our pastor, and then to a cardiologist. Daddy had trouble breathing. The emergency room staff gave him something that stabilized...
By Wayne Allensworth Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference The Road Not Taken — Robert Frost It’s been a year and half since I retired. Friends warned that I would be bored or lack any direction or sense of purpose and that, in turn, might lead to bad consequences. It didn’t. I find plenty of purpose and direction in my...
By Wayne Allensworth I recently finished reading J.D. Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. The takeaways from that reading include: Vance’s rejection of fatalistic hopelessness. Hopelessness is pervasive among Vance’s people, and many have fallen into drug addiction, which has spurred on the collapse of the family. Encouraged by grandparents who expended so much of their lives and energy raising...
By Wayne Allensworth In the summertime of my boyhood memories, time moved slower and each day was a discovery. The shadows were gobbled up quickly in the hazy, humid mornings. In those days, houses were around us, but at a bit of distance. In many cases, the yards were big and lots of what you might call “natural areas” were within the view from our front porch, where we hand-cranked...
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