WMTPG, Vol 7: Brady Dennis on a lonely toll booth operator (short narrative)

Fantastic, beyond measure.

 

Sweet vignette.

Wonder how many people who read the story made it a point, in the immediate weeks afterward, to drive through his station to say hi or pass along well-wishes, etc.

 

Every story I'm posting here is 1 percent story. That's the point. The themes or styles (or tricks or gimmicks) can then be applied more broadly to other work. It seems weird to have to explain this.

 

It's brilliant. A love story that is poignant, but leaves you wanting more.

If it was a Hollywood film, they would have greenlighted a sequel.

 

I mean subject. You have to talk to 100 people to find a subject like that.

 

It's weird how the best journalists (David Grann, Michael Lewis, Katherine Boo, Eli Saslow, Anne Hull, Wright Thompson, Scott Price, etc.) always seem to luck into finding those people with great stories to tell, isn't it? Why do you think that might be? They have a gift from God, perhaps, for finding that one in a 100 people? Or could it be they're better at knowing where to look, and then knowing how to ask questions, that help turn those 1 in 100 odds into, say, 1 in 5?

 

I think they are better at finding the features, yes. I also think they are better at realizing it is a feature once they are talking to the person.

I think they are always looking for features, 24/7.

Larry Bird, Magic, Wayne Gretzky, Brett Favre, Derek Jeter and others play or played with vision that few athletes have. They see things 2-3 steps ahead of other players. I think we can all agree these athletes saw plays develop before they were developed. Plays that the other players on the floor did not see happening until they happened.

Why can't writers have this same type of vision? Why can't certain writers be much better at seeing the story than others?

Almost everything is like an onion - it has layers. You peel back one layer to reveal another layer. They peel another layer to reveal another layer. Some people only see the outer layer, and they will only ever will see the outer layer. Some people see the second or third layer and that is as far as they get. But some people see layers to things that only a few do. I think these writers have the ability to peel off the everyday and mundane and keep digging.

How many journalists do you think drove through the toll booth? I'll bet folding money he was not the only one. But he found that story, or that man.

Jones found, or someone found for him, the story about the zoo animals loose at night and the police trying to hunt them down. IIRC, only one other writer was on that story. Of the thousands of writers in America, only two had the vision to go after that fascinating feature.

We see it in education all the time, but on a different scale.



Some students never reach above knowledge and comprehension on certain subject matter. Some people can reach to evaluation and synthesis in reading but never move above comprehension in math. It's just the way their brains are wired.

Why can't certain writers only reach the lower levels in the finding of stories, but the great writers think on the highest levels? This is true in questioning as well. Some writers might be able to find the story, but are not worth a shit in questioning. Some people are great at both.

Howard Stern is an example of a gifted interviewer. There is plenty of audio out there of him getting people to say things that other people would have never thought to ask.

So if a person can be gifted at interviewing and writing, why can't they be gifted at finding stories as well?

The people you listed are gifted at all three, and that's why they are the best of the best.

 

Some people are better at finding a story.

But, when you start from the premise that everyone has a story to tell, you discover that the job is eliciting the story out of subjects that others might just drive by in the night.

There is love, heartbreak, and tragedy in everyone's life.

Part of what Dennis did so well here was to introduce us to his subject, and get us invested, is so few words.

 

I think you're missing a couple of points here. He didn't give up everything just to make her dying wish come true. Going to Florida was something that they had always wanted to do, together. At the end, they just hurried up and did so, so that they could accomplish that, again, together.

What they gave up/spent everything for was the attempt to keep her from dying from breast cancer before they could enjoy the retirement for which they'd waited and saved.

That's why he was $100,000 in debt after her death, and needed to work. After he'd already retired and was in his late 60s.

Hence, he took the toll booth job. It had nothing to do with the fact that he used to be a white-collar worker. That was when he wasn't in debt and wasn't (now) 71 years old.

As for the writing of this: Wow. That reads like a car breezing through Lloyd's toll booth. It almost seems like a lead, more than a story; and yet, it manages to stand on its own, too.

And 93Devil, you know the answer to your own question. It can be easily found by the simple question that I'd bet anybody on here could and would ask.

"So, why do you do this?"

Not even a hard question to think of, or to ask, although I definitely agree that some journalists are better than others at recognizing stories, or finding stories where there might seem to be none.

Just look at the little gem that spilled out upon Lloyd Blair's answer.

 

Other folks wrote about Zanesville. Only a few dozen had the time, money and opportunity to spend months and thousands of words on it, and two jumped at it. And after all that, the wrong guy got more critical acclaim, since Jones' story was better.

At any rate, the TBT series is a perfect thing for newspapers to do, and I've seen it replicated elsewhere. The guy's story is not 1 in 100.

 

Every person's life could be interesting enough for 300 compelling words. It's a matter of curation. This was very well executed. The repetition moved the story along nicely.

 

I see where you're coming from, but I think a lot of the $100,000 in debt came from the move. It certainly did not help.

I just love the entire imagery of it all... Him sitting alone, thinking about his wife. Possibly rushing their move to Florida so she could get to Florida.

It's just perfect.

I also like how the brevity of the story allows you to fill in blanks on your own about this man's life.