Straight from the Porch

Inspired by the Texas Mountains

My GIANT Pilgrimage Part I

By Vivian April 16, 2016 General 1 Comment

At summer’s end six decades ago an enormous cast and crew rolled into tiny Marfa, Texas to film Giant. Still the life-defining moment in Marfa’s history, the movie is eclipsed by today’s world view of Marfa with its hipster Austin visitors and wealthy Houston patrons. Unaware in 1955 of Hollywood’s invasion of West Texas, I lived 200 miles east of Marfa. My mother was a teacher and my father worked for the utility company—a not uncommon family trope for the times. Impulsive and frivolous were not how I’d describe my mother. Fun, yes, but I never imagined Movie Tone and…

GIANT Pilgrimage Part II

By Vivian April 15, 2016 Elizabeth Taylor, General, Marfa 11 Comments

Mother possessed a sure-fire tip on how to see Miss Taylor. The plan was to pull our car in front of her rented frame house at sunset, the exact moment before dark when we could see inside the house, but she couldn’t see out. Timing was crucial because shades would be pulled and curtains drawn at dark. Sundown is short on the high plains of Marfa so we were quick. We parked across the street, and Mother got out of the car while we five children and two mothers crouched in the floorboards. I thought she was going to go…

Mystery and Science

By Vivian May 1, 2015 General 2 Comments

I believe there are McDonald Observatory people and Marfa Lights people. My sons’ favorite sports radio show from Dallas took their broadcast on the road to Alpine and Marfa a few years ago. “They agreed with our opinions about pretty much everything,” one son texted me. Marfa’s nice, but not much to see there especially on a Monday, and Alpine was buzzing with life and commerce. These citified radio personalities didn’t make it to McDonald Observatory, but they did try to observe the Marfa Lights. They often referred to the Observatory, but they were talking about the viewing site for…

Unchaperoned Reader

By Vivian March 17, 2015 Big Lake Texas, General 7 Comments

Are libraries on their way out? When I attended a memorial service months ago, I started wondering and thinking about my nerdy relationship with libraries and their caregivers. The memorial service was for Mrs. Havenhill who was the librarian at my high school. Yes, I guess my favorite classroom ‘teacher’ was the librarian. Reagan County High School’s library was then located at the end of a long linoleum-floored hall. When classes quietened after the bell, you could hear Mrs. Havenhill rhythmically walk the hall in her spiky high heels. Reagan County was a 200 student, four-grade high school in the…

Why the Bookshelf?

By Vivian July 28, 2013 General 2 Comments

Why did I include a bookshelf on this blog? Before I learned to simply sit and watch the world go by, I never stepped onto the porch without a book. Summer afternoons after what we called dinner, Grandad slept in the hammock while I raced through escapades of Nancy Drew Girl Detective, or Cherry Ames Student Nurse. With mid-teens came gooey Janet Lambert books followed by the overwrought likes of GWTW and Root out of Dry Ground. I spent high school summers with books I wasn’t anxious for my grandparents to see: Catcher in the Rye, The Bell Jar, The Group. …