WestSide Press

04/22/2026

Rather than shooting from the hip in a world oversaturated with podcasts, what if I used this genre to engage listeners in the age-old art of storytelling mixed with commentary, reflections and detail-rich narrative?

What do you think? Please let me know.

Sincerely,
John W. Fountain

What If 'Life' Is As Good As It Gets

04/19/2026

Aunt Mary was sanctified. Her sanctification was lived at church and at home, where she was prone to speak in tongues “as the spirit gave utterance”—as she often testified at my grandparents’ (George and Florence Hagler) True Vine Church of God In Christ on Chicago’s West Side, where our family settled during the Great Migration.

Aunt Mary was a major force at church, often spearheading testimony service, leading us in worship and song with fiery spiritual intoxication, two-stepping across the carpeted floor when her joy overflowed.

Aunt Mary was sweet. But aunt Mary didn’t play. And her love for us and for the Lord never waned.

03/21/2026

Once memoirist to the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, John Fountain traveled with the civil rights leader to the Middle East in 2006 on a mission of peace.

20 years later, amid a widening war, Fountain reflects on Jackson’s lifelong push for peace & justice.

https://open.substack.com/pub/johnwfountain/p/envoy-of-hope-reflections-on-jesse

02/11/2026

I looked for the iconic green mermaid like I once used to look for the golden arches as a sure slice or cup of Americana. I rode my Harley there. Lingered on summer evenings longer after the orange-red sun dipped below the horizon.

I pop a K-cup into my Keurig, winter sunlight spilling through my blinds, the scent of coffee wafting through my home amid the pecking on my computer, and memories of the green maiden I once loved.

02/09/2026

For reading, for supporting, for your prayers: Thank You!
https://www.fountainworks.org/

02/08/2026

01/25/2026

Maybe I couldn’t write. But If I couldn’t, how did I get to the Washington Post? What had I been doing at the Tribune the previous six years? Why did my body of work before I arrived say otherwise?

Maybe I couldn’t write. But If I couldn’t, how did I get to the Washington Post? What had I been doing at the Tribune the previous six years? Why did my body of work before I arrived say otherwise?

01/04/2026

My dearly departed grandmother, herself a saved and sanctified First Lady and a bona fide gifted seamstress, would never have been caught dead in a dress like that.

…Today, I would be the last to argue that modesty in dress or the so-called look of holiness or church appropriateness is the measure of a righteous woman. ...So who are these holy fashion police?

Today, I would be the last to argue that modesty in dress or the so-called look of holiness or church appropriateness is the measure of a righteous woman. ...So who are these holy fashion police?

12/03/2025

“I am better off leaving the memories where they are.”

At least this is the lie I tell myself. That it is better to let memories lie in storage, like old clothes, somewhere in a basement bin, safely tucked away. Like clothes too special to discard but no longer practical to keep in your daily closet.

'As Thanksgiving has come and gone, I don’t “feel” grateful. I just feel numb.'

11/26/2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/johnwfountain/p/whats-in-a-cake-caramel-coconut-time

11/26/2025

But nothing—nothing—compares to German chocolate cake made the way my Aunt Mary, my mother’s eldest sister, made it when I was a kid. Not from a box but from scratch—her heart and hands baking our family’s cakes for years and filling our lives with goodness.

No knock against Betty Crocker. But some ingredients can’t be boxed.

I came to accept that I might never encounter a peach cobbler as perfect as Grandmother’s or a German chocolate cake as glorious as Aunt Mary’s. But perhaps I did not account for the virtues of time.