Journal 11 By Gabbie Schilling

One thing that I observed in this profile was that the man talked as if he wasn't well educated, his grammar wasn't the best. But he seemed to truly enjoy what he was doing. Preston had every kind of oil, gas, cigarettes, and he could tell a story about any town on the Lincoln Highway. Another thing I observed was that Preston seemed to be a very caring and kind man. He once let a man stay with him for a whole week. Something I noticed about his picture was that his station had a lot of signs hung on the outside, and the door was open. I think that the door being open just goes to show that he was an inviting man, who would take in anybody.
Another profile that interested me was the one of Lydia Emery, because she set high goals for herself in life and achieved them through hard work and dedication. I really liked her outlook on making money and working. She says "...because to me, medicine should be a measure of what you're doing, not how much money you're making" (144). I think this is important because it shows that you can find something that you enjoy, and not worry about the money that you're making. It seems that she was very passionate about her job, and was eager to help others when needed.

I think a connection to the real world from this profile would be my hometown. In my village there are two gas stations both are more or less run down. They are a little more up to date than Preston's station, but the way they are run are similar. The owners of one of the gas stations are more hillbilly, but they are some of the nicest people I have talked to. They recently bought the station from the previous owner because he had cancer and was going to shut the station down for good. I think that we can all learn from Preston in that kindness can go a long way, and it can create and be our happiness.

A question that came to my mind during this profile was, why? Why did Preston want to buy a gas station at the age of 13? A topic I looked up was nailing tires on cars, I found that they did this when the tires or wheels were made of wood. This was of course before the production of the rubber tire.