Forrest Gump was born with an IQ of 7 and little chance of success in the world, except he had a loving, caring, encouraging mother who never stopped believing in him and helping Forrest find his way.

And what a way it was.

We meet Forrest Gump in 1981 on a bench in Savannah, Georgia, with a box of chocolates in his lap waiting for the bus to take him to Jenny, the love of his life. He offers a chocolate to one stranger after another as he proceeds to tell them each some of the memorable moments in his life.

About 1954, Forrest, in his childhood knee braces, teaches Elvis Presley how to swing his hips and become famous. Older and having run through his own braces, Forrest receives a scholarship to be a running back on the University of Alabama football team. He literally runs out of the stadium to become an All-American shaking hands with President John F. Kennedy in 1963 in the White House. After graduating, Forrest is drafted to Vietnam where he saves lives in a firefight and ends up in 1967 back at the White House to receive the Medal of Honor from President Johnson. Recovered from his war wound, Forrest becomes a world-famous ping-pong player and is invited back to the White House in 1972 to be recognized for ping-pong diplomacy by President Nixon who upgrades Forrest’s overnight lodgings to the Watergate Hotel where Forrest observes and reports the Watergate break-in that costs Nixon the Presidency. Back home, Forrest buys a shrimp boat in 1974, founds Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, and invests in “some kind of fruit company” called Apple becoming financially secure for life. Distraught over his on-again-off-again relationship with Jenny, Forrest in 1978 escapes to become a world-famous long-distance runner with a devoted following and his picture in the news. Jenny sees a picture and invites Forrest to visit her in Savannah.

Now we’re back to 1981, where we first encountered Forrest Gump at that bus stop, the chocolates are almost gone when Forrest learns Jenny’s place is just down the street. He jumps up and runs to arrive at her apartment and the surprise. The rest of the film is no less surprising in the small way it ends on another bench waiting for another bus.

That’s Forrest Gump and it’s just part of what you’ll see, hear and wonder about his life on film. This is a show that tracks, through the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, one the most famous persons who never lived in some of the most famous events that actually did occur.

Tom Hanks won the Oscar for Best Actor and the show the statuette for Best Picture of 1994.

Admittedly, there is an element of incredulity here — perhaps more than one, perhaps many more.

Still, before we judge let’s see how our ethnofamilymovieography audience reacted to Forrest and his portrayed life, if I might summarize their peruses as follows:

Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump sits at a bus stop and tells the story of his life with flashbacks while offering his listeners to share in a box of chocolates and telling them: “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”; a curiously sweet movie, it is too good to be completely true and too unbelievable to be fully believable — many of the great events of the later 20th Century are attributed to the running abilities of Forrest who with an IQ of 7 is the unlikely recipient of praise, recognition, adulation and even Presidential award and amazement; at the end, the goodness, virtue and love of the characters and their story prevail over the unreality of the unbelievables and we, the watchers, become believers because this is just too much fun; overall, the ethnofamilymovieography audience could not resist the charm and awarded the film a 9.27 average rating, placing “Forrest Gump” at #9 of the first 67 Best Pictures; maybe it is true, as one viewer commented, “In some ways, you make life what it is, and in others, it just happens.”

In some ways, you make life what it is, and in others, it just happens.

I think that just about summarizes Forrest Gump’s life.

The only thing missing may be a happy face.

As Jenny said, “Run, Forrest, run!”

He did. Thanks, Jenny.

And thank you,

For you each reading.

Consider watching this show.

It’s always good to stretch the imagination.

Grandpa Jim