The Little Store

Welty uses a visual layout and time structure as she describes the area around the side walk that leads to the little store. She walks down the sidewalk she reflects back in time to people and events that have transpired on previous trips on the sidewalk. She also reflects on events people who lived by the sidewalk had but were not related to a trip to the store like the story of Lindsey.

She continues the visual and mixes in time as it progresses and also reflects to previous events. The location of the store is given and with the description she tells of her intimate knowledge of the path she takes to walk to the store. She uses a metaphor with how well she knows the path and states “I know even the sidewalk to it as well as I know my own skin” (155). She goes through a litany of games and activities she enjoyed on this sidewalk as well as her bothers and friends. Her descriptions express a positive and happy time playing and reflect the joy she has when she journeys to the store.

Welty’s effect of presenting the visual of being happy playing games and other activities bring about a since of joy and good feeling before we enter the store with her. When she enters the store she begins to describe the smells as “… almost tangible smells-licorice recently sucked in a child’s cheek…and perhaps the smell of still-untrapped mice” (156-157). I understand the smell of licorice but the rest of the descriptions have me trying to understand the smells. Is the licorice sweet and mixed with other aromas? I also know the smell of caged mice so I use that knowledge to help understand.

Welty reflects back to the time spent playing on her block and the visits to the store with the use of a metaphor with part of her analysis. She eloquently wrote “I believed the Little Store to be a center of the outside world, and hence of happiness-as I believed what I found in the Cracker Jack box to be a genuine prize, which was as simply as I believed in the Golden Fleece” (158). I believe she stated how she felt both of the store and her childhood and compared them to finding the big prize. She uses a simile in describing how well she knows the path to the store by the saying “I knew even the sidewalk to it as well as I know my own skin” (155). A good analogy showing she made frequent trips to the store.

She ended the story on a sad commentary about tragedy at the Little Store and even with tragedy life teaches both good and bad. Some people looked for just the good while others found the bad.

Air Force Brat

Were I am from is a hard question to answer. My father was in the United States Air Force, so my answer to the question has been I am an Air Force brat. My reason for such a clouded answer is due to my father being assigned to a new location every three years. I have lived in seven states and one country as a child which makes it difficult to choose one location as the place I am from.

When I answer the question of ‘where are you from’ people look at me funny so I must go into a list of places I have been. I was born in Illinois, where I lived for six months. I moved to Missouri for three years then on to Montana for another three years. I then went to Texas for a year while Dad went somewhere he could not bring the family.

When Dad returned we moved to the second best place I lived which was Alaska. As an adult I do not appreciate snow very much but as a child I thought it was the greatest thing to play in. I remember building an igloo and hiding in it to escape the snowball fights. I also enjoyed sledding down the big hill in the back of complex. Three and a half years later I moved to Ohio which was not as exciting as Alaska.

After three years in Ohio I moved to the place I enjoyed to most, which was England. I enjoyed listening to the English people talk because their accent was so different then mine. It also seemed that everything was old and antique. I started high school in England which school was over an hour drive from where we lived. Due to the distance I had the opportunity to live away from my family during the week which was a great experience. Three year went by quick and I was moving to another place.

The place I do call home is Fort Worth Texas because this was the last assignment dad was given before he retired. He still lives there which makes it easier to call Texas home. Texas has made an indelible mark on me as did all the other places I have lived. I do enjoy Texas barbeque much more then southern barbeque, but I make due with what is available. I had also picked up a laid back style so I do not worry about problems just wanting to think the issue through before reacting. I have learned to take care of the important issues and the rest of life will flow.

The two other important places which have left indelible marks on me have been Alaska and England. Alaska has shown me how to play in the snow and to just let go and enjoy the moment. Nature has so much to offer and if I do not go out to nature, nature will not come to me. England has helped me to be interested in my American heritage and history. The English people have so much history and they show them so proudly to the visitors. London had so many places to see that I could not see them all in a day. Because of England I have taken the opportunity to learn about the history of America by visiting historical places like Gettysburg and Philadelphia. These places show the heritage of the American people but I wanted to go visit these places to feel the history not just read about them.

I am glad I had the opportunity to live in several places and do not feel like I missed out on being in one place as I grew up. I may not recall what one location did for me over another, but I feel privileged to have lived in such diverse places and each place has left its mark on me.

Seeing up the Mountain

The first week of English 1102 I was assigned to read Seeing by Annie Dillard. From the reading assignment I was asked to venture out to a place to see the uncommon and to write about the seeing. I also needed to consider the addition of using eight quotes from Annie Dillard’s work in my writing.

It seems only the die hard hikers come out on a rainy day to trek up Kennesaw Mountain. The weekends are normally packed with people looking to venture into nature but the parking area still had plenty of places for me to park my car. My thoughts were focused on what I needed to look for or see as I ventured on a hike up a mountain.

The path started out about 10 feet wide and narrowed to about 4 feet and at times just enough room for one person to transverse. “Still, a great deal of light falls on everything.”
As we walked I commented on the strategically placed trees that were ether in the middle of the trail or just on the side as I climbed a rocky area. The trees help with keeping me stable and I think of the quote “We miss a great deal because we perceive only things on our own scale.” Because I only looked to the tree and path and not what was around me.

As I came around a bend of the trail I looked down to the bottom of the mountain and the white contrast of a large estate in the gray and green of the surrounding area was strikingly vivid. Annie Dillard’s quote “...sense impressions of one-celled animals are not edited for the brain: "This is philosophically interesting in a rather mournful way, since it means that only the simplest animals perceive the universe as it is." This helped me consider that we as people try to change our little bit of the universe and not just see the universe as it is. I also considered that a summer hike would not have allowed that observation because the trees would have their leaves fully extended and hiding the white estate. The detail of seeing what was not there at that time had me consider the quote "If I can't see these minutiae, I still try to keep my eyes open.” If I could not see the white estate I would still keep looking for other details.

As I arrived to the top of the first mountain there was a cannon pointed out towards the valley below. I consider the quote "I reel in confusion; I don't understand what I see." I did not expect to see a relic from the civil war here nor in such good condition. I believe that the park service maintains the cannons to keep them from deteriorating and to help preserve history. Sue, a member of my hiking group mentioned that the cannons were dragged here in one night by men not horses.

At the top of the mountain I looked southeast towards Atlanta and could only make out minor details, because the low cloud cover or what could have been fog obscured most of the Atlanta skyline. On the return hike to the top of the mountain the clouds had lifted and I could see downtown Atlanta or at least the tall buildings which make up the Atlanta skyline. I consider the quote "It's all a matter of keeping my eyes open" to see there are three distinct high rise areas in the skyline of Atlanta. Maybe one day I can spend time pondering the reasons for the three areas but my main focus is on seeing not trying to surmise an understanding.
Nature is opportunistic. The quote "I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until that moment I was lifted and struck." seemed to fit the next seeing. An observation I had was seeing a small tree growing from a small crack in a large rock. I found it peculiar that I have a tree in my house and it barely survives due to my lack of caring for it where the tree in the crack of the rock seems to do flourish.

I looked at two trees which had fallen down and the base was hollow except for the outer third. A tree lives while its middle becomes hollow? I know not all trees are like this because I have a nice dinning room table and it does not seem to be missing part of the center of the tree. From my table I consider the last quote "I see what I expect" because the table is whole as it should be. The hollow tree is like people that go about their lives and on the outside they look happy but inside they are empty.