Journal 10: Holding On Response-Sydney Alspach

Reading Holding On has really helped my active reading skills. When we read A Long Way Gone I enjoyed reading the book however I didn't active read as much as I should have. While I read this book I highlight information in the story's that I think is important or is sounds interesting to me. The book has many strengths because it has a lot of information about people and places we either have never heard of or never look that far into detail to learn about. I think the book can also be weak at time's because the author leaves parts of his interviews out when maybe there could be more to a story that we as readers want to know.

The two profiles that I chose to look more in depth to is Father Louis H. Greving, and Geneva Tisdale.  Father Louis H. was a very determined and hard worker just like Father Dobberstein. Father Dobberstein was the first person to start building the Grotto of the Redemption, which he started building in 1912. Father Dobberstein worked on building that grotto day in and day out with the assistance of Father Louis. They would work on the grotto all day long everyday, no matter what season it was. "He worked until two weeks before he died. What did he die of? Just hard work---he suffered a stroke."(pg. 50). I did extra research on this profile because I was very interested to find out about the grotto. http://www.westbendgrotto.com/history/  this link provides even more information about the grotto and has pictures of what it looks like today.

The second profile I chose was Geneva Tisdale. Geneva worked at Woolworth's in Greensboro, she worked in the kitchen for most of her life because at the time only white people were aloud to serve other white people. Geneva was never aloud to sit on the counter and serve them food or just eat food on the counter. She didn't understand why she wasn't aloud to serve them or eat with them but is aloud to make their food. Eventually Woolworth decided to close down the counter tops for a while, and once they reopened the counter top Genva and two other African Americans were going to be the first to be served! Although later we as reader find out that after that Genvea never really got to sit on the counter again. Genvea worked in the same place for 40 years and was paid five fifty the entire time.

These profiles are very similar but at the same time very different. Father Louis and Geneva were both very hard working people. They never gave up no matter of circumstances. Father Louis worked hard to finish that grotto because he knew how important it was to Father Dobberstein, and he enjoyed working on it day in and day out! Geneva was not always happy to go to work. She wasn't treated with respect and I truly believe she didn't earn as much money as she deserved.