Wednesday. Vocabulary Pretest. Talk of facades and irony. Both figure large in The Outsiders. More on that later. Today I have more insight from my friendly class.
We’re reading chapter 4 (the death of Bob, Dally helping with the getaway, jumping the train out of town), and we get to where Dally is telling Pony and Johnny to “hop the 3:15 freight to Windrixville.” We pause and talk about how it’s only been less than 36 hours (book time) since the beginning. They find it hard to believe until we start to do the timeline. Figure that Pony gets out of the movie in the late afternoon, and gets jumped and saved. Pony and Johnny and Dally go to the Nightly Double the next night, and it’s now 3:15am that same night.
Then I make sure they know that a freight is a train. And one girl says, “How cute. Like hobos…”
Hobos maybe. Cute?
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Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used to Do?
When the boys run to find Dally at Buck Merrill’s house, Pony offers a brief description of Buck that ends with, “…he was out of it. He dug Hank Williams. How gross can you get?” (Or words to that effect; I left my copy at school.) Then Dally adds a few choice adjectives after rolling his eyes at Buck’s choice of music. Of course, that’s my cue to break out a little “Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used to Do?” And I have the bobblehead pictured above. So we rock. At least I do. Their opinions tend to be similar to Pony’s and Dally’s.
In reference to the girl’s comment, I love MSers.
I’ve just discovered your Website and it’s been one laugh after another. I teach 7th grade English and we just finished The Outsiders. Now I wish I would have cranked out Hank Williams. The complaints and hysterics would have made my day.
Welcome Kelly. Glad you found some entertainment. And it’s never too late to bust out a bit o’ Hank.