J.D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger passed away this week and there is a lot of speculation about what is in his closet. I found the following in the Yahoo News on the Internet and I quote "There is a marvelous peace in not publishing," J.D. Salinger told The New York Times in 1974. "Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure." Let us check not only his closet but his Trouser pockets and his Wallet also. Let us discover what he never wanted us to see and steal it in the process.
I do not really know what his reasons were for moving to Cornish, N.H. and refusing to be published. It could be the people he was dealing with could not write a single line themselves but insisted on telling him how to write. Maybe they wanted too much information on his personal life. I guess we will never know.
I have never read Catcher in the Rye and doubt I ever will. Oh yes I have it in my collection of books here in the house. The problem is I was once sixteen and had my own problems. I had parents that were too busy and had too many problems of there own to worry much about me. We were poor, but I was clothed and fed and not abused, at least in the physical sense. If my English teacher would have assigned me a book report using Catcher in the Rye I would not have had the money to buy the book.
She would not have understood and failed me. My teacher was caught up in her importance as a teacher and her role in our community. I doubt very much if she could call me by name in the Hall as we walked by each other. I refused to get up in front of the class and do a report on The Call of the Wild. I am sure the teacher had an f on my record before calling on the next student. She never asked for an explanation as to why I would not do the report.
I did not like to talk in front of people because my teeth were rotten and I had a low self-esteem. I had no interest in The Call of the Wild and could not even relate the story to you then or now. Mind you I love to read and always have, I just wanted to read what interest me not others.
I also like to write, and I do not share all my thoughts with the world. I hope after I am gone people are not rummaging through my closets. Until next time.

Norm