Things Just Work Out

“Things Just Work Out” is Tom Allison’s heartfelt, humorous, and profoundly human journey through eight decades of change, challenge, and quiet triumph. Told with the warmth of a front-porch conversation and the honesty of a man who’s lived through it all, Tom’s story invites readers into the world that shaped him, a world of Appalachian roots, wartime childhood memories, small-town values, and the unforgettable characters who walked beside him.

From the crowded chaos of his first-grade classroom with 81 students, to the long days spent working at the local theater and his uncle’s drugstore, to the dirt courts and wooden floors where he learned to love basketball, Tom’s memories overflow with color, grit, and laughter. He doesn’t romanticize the past; he simply tells it the way it was. And somehow, in that simplicity, the reader finds something universal.

This is a story about growing up. It’s about family, hard work, unexpected blessings, and the quiet strength that comes from showing up, even when the road is far from easy. It’s about the people who raised him, the lessons they taught without ever saying a word, and the twists of fate that carried him from a small Appalachian town to a life far bigger than he ever imagined.

With a voice that is both tender and self-aware, Tom weaves humor into hardship, hope into disappointment, and wisdom into the everyday moments most of us overlook. His reflections remind us that life rarely goes the way we plan it, but it somehow goes the way it’s supposed to.

“Things Just Work Out”, Tom offers readers more than nostalgia. He provides perspective, connection, and the reminder that no matter where you come from, your story matters, every messy, beautiful, unexpected chapter of it.