What Could Have Been...

A good movie but the final scenes frustrate me, because if that dunce banker had just put aside his hatred for one minute, Mrs. Spalding could have had a very viable business that would have helped not only her and her children but the entire community.

As he told her there were many farms in foreclosure, and no doubt with the farm acreage comes the equipment as well, and if he had just risen above his hatred he could have given her free use of an idle tractor that was left to rust (I know what that's like - in 1991 we found an old 1930's iron-wheel tractor left in the weeds to rust), that Moze could have used to plow the additional acreage, in other words, it could have made their single crop farm into one with a summer and winter harvest, and to help them along, he (the banker) could have helped her file for incorporation as an agri-business (with the financial benefits that come with that), named after her late husband (for example, Royce Spalding Agri-Growers of Waxahachie, Inc.), but, instead he chose to get his friends together late one night to beat the toast out of Moze for helping a widow get a fair price for her harvest, which caused him to flee for his life, and left Mrs. Spalding with an already harvested cotton field - but without any other opportunity for additional income...

I once worked for a man (now in his 90's) who was born in Waxahachie, Texas (where the film was made - my former co-worker's family has lived in Texas since Santa Ana), and while the film was not about Waxahachie itself, as most know it was filmed there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waxahachie,_Texas

ironically we both worked in the tornado (weather) business when the film opened, and as my co-worker told me, small-town Texas life at that time was very similar to what was shown in the film (unfortunately in every way), but it just gets under my skin that if only that dunce banker had risen above what he was taught over many years, Mrs. Spalding and Company could have been given the chance to do so much more - and it would have helped the town as well, with a sprouting agri-business that managed to start up and do well in hard times...

If I haven't learned anything else in my own life, it's the fact that sometimes we just have to rise above what we are used to, as the Army says, "To be all that you can be"...

Glades2