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Food for the Soul

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Dolly Parton—we have all thought of her and what she gave to the world as we unfolded the story of her life and death over the last week. She was amazing because her talent allowed her to show us what can be done when we choose to give rather than take. We learned about her incredible ability as a businesswoman, including her success in the food industry. I remember the first time, just a few years ago, that I saw her cake mixes, brownie mixes, and cornbread mixes. Huge success—like everything else she did. We all loved her, and, let’s be honest, we all love food. Thinking about Dolly and food draws me back to a time when food was nothing like it is today. It was Sunday at Highland Church in Denton, and there was dinner on the ground. Picture long tables covered with every kind of dish you could imagine. Nothing was frozen or picked up at HEB on the way to church. Everything was made with loving hands and brought to be shared with others. Some of those dishes I have never seen aga...
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There Was Something in the Air

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  This weekend is a hot one for those of us who follow football. Go, Texans, in your playoff game. And then there’s the BIG college matchup between Miami and Indiana. Who would ever have predicted those two would be the last ones standing? And who would have thought the best quarterback in college today is named Fernando? “There was something in the air that night. The stars were bright. Fernando.” You can’t say his name without singing the ABBA song. Maybe someone once told him he should change his name to Fred, but he’s proud of the heritage it carries. Not only is he talented, but last year he took calculus, supports his mother who has MS, and—oh yes—is handsome. Sounds like a movie plot.  Sports were part of my Wilson experience. The first year I taught there, the football team was one of the best I have ever seen. They waltzed through district play and were said to be destined for state. Then came the first playoff game in Snyder. Before anyone could fully realize wh...
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Location: Cibolo, TX, USA
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Pomp and Various Circumstances

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  This time of year we see graduation ceremonies all over the world from the smallest to the largest. I doubt if Viktor Wembanyama, darling of the Spurs and professional basketball, ever really walked across a stage and got a diploma. At 14 he was attending a sports academy, and everyone was talking about how he would set new records. Sure, he finished the French requirements, but I can't imagine that he worried over his senior theme and if he had enough resources for it. LeBron James did graduate from a small Catholic high school where some coaches and interested adults saw what was happening to his life and took control after he had missed something like 80 plus days of the fourth grade but was already showing great athletic ability. His mom didn't have enough money or adequate housing, so others saw to it that he did graduate by providing for him.     Wilson graduations never got old to me as senior sponsor because each class had been with me a long time(too long ...
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Location: Texas, USA
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Falling for a Phoney

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Victor Wombanyama is the darling of San Antonio. How can a teenager be over 7 ft tall, move like a wind on the basketball court, and say he wants to learn under Pop? In the latest HEB commercial he even let others on the team take the spotlight, and he just gave his beautiful smile and said a few words. He seems to be the real deal. Others can be just the opposite. One morning when I was at Wilson an attractive young man came into the office to enroll. He brought a piece of paper with his classes and great grades. He and his dad were coming from Colorado, he said, and wanted to be in a small school just outside a larger town so he could be involved in everything. My heart began to sing. I could pair him in informative speaking with Randy, and they would go straight to state. And I could put him in the one act play cast which was already good, and there would be another state winner. The math teacher saw visions of winning number sense contests.The football coach could be seen dancing i...
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Let the Show Go On!

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        The start of school brings a flood of memories when you have lived as long as I have. And I think of some of the famous young people today who never experienced simple things in school like going to the auditorium. Victor Wembanyama, for instance, the new darling of San Antonio and the basketball world, was a year ahead of his age and lived in a dorm to finish when he was 15. His major was earth and life science, and I'm sure he never felt the excitement build to know an assembly was coming. His French school did not have one.     My elementary school(now a parking lot) didn't have a library, a nurse's station, and or any special entrance, but wow did we have a big/old auditorium. There was a fall operetta for grades 1-3 and a spring operetta for grades 4-6, and the productions were attention-getters every time. When you went into the auditorium with its creaky wood floors and big stage,  it was a unique time, and we all thought there...
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Paying Attention Pays Off

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When the AT&T Slam Dunk contest was about to begin this year, all the tv experts said it was going to be boring and not worth a look. There were no-namers who were participating, and there was nothing to be learned from watching them. But when Mac McClung took his first dunk and leaped over two friends before circling the net, everyone there and at home stopped their conversations. With each dunk they took pictures and paid attention as closely as they could because it was wonderful to see what was happening before their eyes. They were seeing the contest in a different light and would be able to discuss it in the future. When I began teaching at Wilson, I installed the Womack Outline System from day one. Every student got the basics of how to outline a page, a chapter, anything that had parts, and they soon began to be able to crank them out in no time at all. That is, except for sweet Randy Smith who labored long and hard to come up with his outlines. He suffered the dreaded re-d...
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Rolling With Changes in 2023

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The first week of 2023 has had more important news and changes than our brains can handle: the death of Barbara Walters and the Pope Emeritus, the arrest of the Idaho killer. But by far the event that caught the attention of everyone everywhere was the accident on the football field when Damar Hamlin almost died after a tackle. The game which started like any other stopped, and his condition  was on breaking news for days until we could breathe a sigh that it looked like he was recovering. An important game was not nearly as important as this young man, so when it was cancelled, we didn't fuss or fume but agreed that the game couldn't go on. Changes can come when we least expect them. Our neighbors when I was growing up were Wimpy and Edna, the sweetest couple you could ever meet. He owned a hamburger place and was known by everyone in town.They were childless in a time when IVF and other chances were non-existent.  After some years they decided to try and adopt, and we all pu...
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