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Booktalking Colorado Full Record:
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Title: |
Rules of the Road |
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Author: |
Bauer, Joan |
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Date Published: |
1998 |
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Genre: |
Real Life |
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Grade Level: |
7 - 12 |
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Booktalker: |
Marilyn Bunker |
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Booktalk:
“I leaped onto the sliding ladder in the back room of Gladstone’s Shoe Store of Chicago, gave it a shove, and glided fast toward the end of the floor to ceiling shelves of shoeboxes. My keen retailer’s eye found the chocolate loafer, size 13, I slid the ladder to the Nikes, grabbed two boxes of easy walkers, beige and white, in size 4 ½ narrow, pushed again to women’s saddles, found the waxhides, size 7, rode the ladder to the door one-handed. Children, do not try this at home. I am a shoe professional.”
I can sell shoes to anyone. I started at Gladstone’s last year, when I was a sophomore, and my life fell apart. I gained almost 20 pounds, dropped to second string on the basketball team cause I couldn’t jump, and got a C- in history, which knocked me off the honor roll. I staggered through the whole year, wondering why God had invented adolescence. Gladstone’s saved me. When I was there, I was somebody. I didn’t feel big, or awkward or lost. I was successful. I helped people. And I loved it.
One night Dad came in and demanded to see me. He was, as usual, messy, drunk, and loud. I hadn’t seen him for two years, and I wasn’t happy to see him now. Last time, he’d spent the whole summer hanging around, drinking, not drinking, making promises and breaking them. It had been awful. I took him outside and poured him into a cab, then went back in to apologize to Mrs. Gladstone for the scene he’d made. Luckily, she didn’t blame me for his problem, and I went back to selling shoes. And although I didn’t realize it at the time, Mrs. Gladstone went back and was watching me.
I couldn’t have been more surprised to hear her voice on the phone later that night, telling me she wanted me to be her driver. “Pick me up at 7 tomorrow morning, and drive me downtown. Then we’ll see.” So that was how I came to be driving 73 year old Madeline Gladstone on a trip to Peoria, Springfield, St. Louis, Kansas City, Little Rock, Shreveport, and Dallas. 1,532 miles. In a Cadillac, a 32 valve, 300 horsepower V8 engine. A sort of white moose that taught me the Rules of the Road
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