Blue Highways, Leaves of Grass and the Parkdale Library

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Blue Highways, Leaves of Grass and the Parkdale Library

I don't know what exactly I expected to find at the library that summer. Rows of gleaming shelves and neatly stacked books, probably. No sound but the humming of fluorescent lights and the thump of rubber stamps. The librarians would be demure types - soft-spoken and intellectual. I thought of the place itself as a sort of solemn temple to the written word. With these images in mind, I was startled by my first glimpse of the employees' workroom. As it turns out, librarians read the People magazines before they go on display, and complain to each other about bratty kids that file through, and they leave sticky bottles of Mountain Dew in the refrigerator. Such are the secret lives of the people who used to strike fear into the hearts of my second-grade classmates.

For me, it was a slightly jarring introduction to the working world. I was starting my first summer job, and, after hours, reading Blue Highways and thinking about journeys. William Least Heat Moon crossed the country over fifteen years ago, devouring Walt Whitman and "gathering the minds of men" (410). I was crossing a small threshold of reality, gathering observations on the behavior of men. He turned his back on the trials of life and I was watching its eccentricities; he was growing cynical and I am still completely green. Yet to me in June 1999, our journeys seemed almost identical. So as Least Heat Moon studied Leaves of Grass, I studied this road diary and tried to follow its winding philosophy.

It was the philosophy that came in handy - especially the parts that Least Heat Moon picked up on his way...

... middle of paper ...

...ye party. Marty made his specialty (Mountain Dew bundt cake). Millie smiled maternally and told the college students to be careful and call their mothers often. On her last day, Molly drove away blaring her horn and flashing her lights in exhilaration. As for me (like Whitman, a mere witness), I was wondering if these people were really who I saw them to be, and if they would be a part of me because of the time we spent together.

An old Jerseyman to William Least Heat Moon, explaining his faith in the force of nature and in mankind: "...then say I believe... because it is absurd" (392). It is, indeed, absurd. And so I too believe.

Works Cited

Heat Moon, William Least. Blue Highways : A Journey into America. Boston: Little, Brown, 1982.

Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Philadelphia, 1900.

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