Family Movie Night & John Wayne

I share something pretty special with my Dad. He has passed his love of movies down to me. I remember growing up, some of my best memories were sitting down and watching movies. Sometimes it would include all of my family, but most of the time, it was just Dad and me. We watched a range of movies, but our favorites were westerns and included this guy:


The DUKE - John Wayne.

To this day, I can't really watch a John Wayne movie and not think of my Dad and the memories of watching these movies with him. John Wayne was always a bit of a hero figure for me. I loved that he was strong, Patriotic, great sense of humor, and just always stood up for what he believed in. I think I always compared him to my Grandpa Sorensen too. They were a lot a like. John Wayne died 18 days before I was born and my Dad and I used to joke that I must have met him in heaven right before I came to earth.

John Wayne's grave shares a quote by him that I find profound and something to remember, "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."


I don't know when my Dad shared a movie with me for the first time. I pretty much think I was raised on it from the start of my life. I think it must be a family thing - I know my Grandpa Sorensen enjoyed movies and worked briefly on some movie sets and my Great-Grandpa Esplin worked on movie sets in Southern Utah. I know my siblings enjoy movies too, but I think that I can say that I am the only one that enjoys the same old movies/westerns like my Dad (though my nephew, Colby enjoys it too).

One of the traditions that Joey and I have implemented in our family is our weekly FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT. Sunday nights, movies, and family time have been ingrained into my children and if its Sunday and bedtime and we haven't watched a movie together, we get all sorts of reprimands from JJ and Beth. It has been ingrained into their little souls and I guess its my way of carrying on the tradition of the movie lovers in my family. I'm blessed to have married another movie lover and its something that we share together.

We have slowly been introducing a few John Wayne movies to the kids through movie night. I have to honestly say that they aren't exactly their favorites yet - but hopefully it will grow on them. Last Sunday, we watched one of Joey's favorite John Wayne movies, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE. I hadn't seen it in awhile and I love James Stewart too, so its just a great movie.




I hope the love of movies keeps growing in our family and that one day, it is something that my children will pass onto their children. I admit that there is lots of bad stuff in movies, but I think there is good stuff in movies too. The trick is to focus on the good stuff that can come out of entertainment and can strengthen family ties and can bring you together.