Straight from the Porch

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…