"The Chase"

          In this story “The Chase” from the book An American Childhood written by Annie Dillard (1987) claims that she could have died happy for nothing has required so much of her since  being chased all over Pittsburgh in the middle of winter with her childhood friend, Mikey Fahey.  In the story she shares with us how, when she was seven years old, a man chased them in silence over picket fences, through thorny hedges, between houses, around garbage cans and across streets because they threw a snowball at his black Buick.  Dillard gives us the opportunity to imagine them running as fast and as hard as possible to get away from the angry man.  She also expresses the joy she got from one of her favorite childhood memories.   

          This story was lighthearted and a pleasant read.  Even though it was only three pages long it gave a lot of information.  Dillard gives a lot of detail as to how she felt when she finally stopped running. You can tell in her from the way she wrote that she really enjoyed this childhood memory.  She makes you think back to your own favorite childhood memory.  Dillard shares her thoughts on how her and Mikey listened perfunctorily to the furious skinny red-headed  man and in their minds the only point was that he had chased them passionately without giving up.  In that moment she was cherishing her own excitement.  You can feel the excitement by the progression of the story; it goes from slow and uneventful to full of excitement within minutes.  She didn't let her story become bogged down with the background information that lead up to that day.  Dillard gives just enough information on how she ended up there that day.

          After reading this story it feels like Dillard is reminiscing on how much fun she had as a child.  As a child she didn’t have many fears and the worst thing that would happen if they got caught for throwing snow was someone would “chew us out”.  (Paragraph 20 sentence 7)  And once they stopped running the only words the man could muster up was “You stupid kids” and a speech given more out of obligation than anything.  Even after they were caught she could only think of how excited she had been and the fun she'd had. 

The Garbage Man

“Nobody ever died of old age” is the book in which the reading “the garbage man” was derived from. The book is described as being “an anecdotal look at the aging and aged” from the author Sharon Curtain. The reading was very short yet packed with many elements of suspense and surprise, as well as vivid details which made the story easy to visualize. The reading is a flashback to the childhood memories of a girl fascinated with an elderly man known as “the garbage man” by the town in which she lived. The man is described as being dressed in “tattered and tainted clothing”, and being crippled in one leg. His nickname was given to him because he scuffled through garbage cans looking for scraps to feed his chickens. The children made up jingles about him and teased him as he wandered through the alleys of the town. The young girl in the story was determined to get a close up look at “the garbage mans” face, for no one had actually seen what he looked like. Her imagination ran wild with elaborate scenarios about the man’s looks, as well as why he lived alone in a big two story house. She began to follow him and play “detective” to feed her hunger for mystery and adventure. Eventually he changed his daily routes and the girl needed to involve the other kids in order to catch a glimpse of his face. Her sister came up with the idea to hide her in a garbage can. When the man came around and opened the can she would have the perfect opportunity to see his face and solve the mystery. The moment of truth finally came. Once he opened the can and reached in, both he and the girl were frightened. The can fell over and they both ran away. She came to realize that the man was not mysterious at all. She was disappointed to find out that he was simply an old man. Not ugly and deformed as she had imagined, just a regular old face. Upon this realization, she sat at the top of a tree house and cried.  

                The story is told from the little girl’s point of view. However, the details surrounding the “garbage man” made him a much more interesting character to me. I remember that mysterious old person in my neighborhood that all the kids (and some adults) made up stories about. He had a long white beard and walked around in a long black judges robe with a black top hat. We would run and scream in terror and delight when he would come around. It was like a game to see who would stay on the sidewalk the longest before running away because he was getting close to us. Just like the reading, I was curious about the real story behind this mystery man. As I got older I found that the man was actually a retired judge. He lost his wife to cancer and had no kids so he kept to himself. He didn’t murder kids and hide the bones in the backyard as we all suspected. He was simply an older person whom had been through some very hard times. The garbage man was the same way. We tend to be afraid of what we don’t know about people. Instead of taking the time to get to know the unknown, we judge and make up stories for our own entertainment. This is especially true when it comes to elderly people. The lesson I learned from reading this passage is to not let the mystery of others identity overshadow the fact that they are real people with feelings just like us. Hopefully this lesson resonates with all whom ever come across this reading.