My GIANT Pilgrimage Part I

My GIANT Pilgrimage Part I

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…

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GIANT Pilgrimage Part II

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…

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Veterans Day: Voice of a Silenced Soldier

Veterans Day: Voice of a Silenced Soldier

Millions of soldiers fight valiantly for their country, and millions die doing so.  I pray for those who were the victims of so-called friendly fire. It’s not better or worse than any other war death, but it is its own special hell. The letter below, surrounded by paper poppies, is a letter my grandmother copied about her 20-year-old son’s death in World War II. Carefully crafted by the captain, the words do not mention how my uncle died. That was left to me to find out. The facts were never shared with my family, thus their mantra until the day they…

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Weddings

June weddings? Not in my family. But in January, our youngest son married in a splendid church wedding. His beautiful bride’s generous family included us every step of the way, and we are delightfully family-ized around the happy couple.  (Adjectives on steroids just go with a wedding. Have you ever seen Katharine Hepburn gush at the end of The Philadelphia Story?) Question: What makes a wedding perfect? Answer: A few decades. My parents, Clarence and Dalma Morrow had a midnight wedding, May 19, 1940 with just two attendants, and the preacher and pianist.  All this happened by candlelight at the…

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