Journal 10: Holding On response on our class blog from Pernale Blake

My active reading habits throughout Holding On are going fantastic so far. I have been actually trying and putting in a lot of effort into my notes and description. Whcih is already more than I can say about A Long Way GOne or The House on Mango Street. My active reading has really improved in this book, where in A Long Way Gone it was sort of sloppy. I have found out while actively reading that I am extremely talented at noticing thmes thoughout my active reading. Realizng mood, and symbolism have really sprouted in result of active reading. One thing I feel as if I need work onis characterization. Highlighting names of people, places, and things doesnt sound like it would be an impossisble task, but I just cant bring myself to remember to do it. One profiles from pages 48-82 in the book Holding On that I want to talk about is Tommie Bass. Tommie Bass was a folk doctor from Leesburg, Alabama. He was a herb specialist, and devoted his life on figuring out the effects herbs have on things. People often came to him, with hope that one of Tommie's herbs would help them. Despite Timmie's career in being a folk herb docter, he unfortunatly lived in a crappy little shack that had no running water. The reason I loved TImmie Bass's story is because he is not in it for the money, he is actually doing it for the people. He says "Never made a dime out of it, but we sure have seen people get better!" (Isay 67). To Tommie it is not about money, it is about helping others and live longer. Another profile that I want to talk about is Geneva Tisdale. Geneva Tisdale is a Cook, Located at Woodworths Lunch Counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. She was an African american durring segragation so you know for a fact she has tons of stories. She has been working behind the counter for nearly 42 years, she was a cook because at that time a black waitress was never seen. She said, "The blacks were the one preparing the food" (Isay 53). I thought this was sad because only allowing Africans to cook, and whites to serve is a horrible and terrible thing. Equal rights was around the corner, and after reading Geneva's story I relized how eager she was for it to become a reality. These two profiles are both extremely good and important. They are both similar and different in may aspects. One way Tommie Bass and Geneva Tisdale are similar is their work ethics. THey are both really hard workers, and work in their profession for nearly 50 years. They both represented pride within there work, and that is while they were so sucessful. Some ways these two profiles are different in many ways. For example Tommie is a guy, and Geneva is a women. Tommie is white, and Geneva is an African American. Life for Tommie was probably a lot easier and simpler because he is a sucessful young white male, where Geneva probably had some rough little periods of time becuase she was a black women during the segragation period. http://folkstreams.net/film,83