Life Is So Good: Chapters 13–18

by George Dawson, Richard Glaubman
George Dawson, who lived from 1898 to 2001 and learned to read at the age of 98, reflects on the life lessons he learned over the course of the 20th century.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–12, Chapters 13–18, Chapters 19–24
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. prohibition
    when the sale of alcoholic beverages was banned in the U.S.
    Prohibition? That's another thing. I hardly ever drank anything myself, but I bet most people drank more during those “dry” times than they ever did, before or since.
  2. hardscrabble
    involving struggle, difficulties, or poverty
    Outside of a few lakes, there was only hardscrabble ground and the soil wasn’t so deep for growing crops.
  3. eavesdrop
    listen without the speaker's knowledge
    When I stepped in the aisle, I was blocked from other people standing in front of where my seat was. I didn’t mean to be eavesdropping or nothing, but I couldn’t move ahead any farther toward my seat and it was getting to be too late to step back off the train.
  4. aimless
    drifting without direction
    I wanted my trip to sound like a worthwhile journey, but suddenly my travels felt aimless.
  5. dredge
    remove with or as with a power shovel
    It was the Mississippi, the same river that I had worked on down south of Memphis. It had been dredged out and it was a busy harbor.
  6. larder
    a small storeroom for storing foods or wines
    The foreman said, “This barge is moving out on Monday. Today being Friday, if you can spend the weekend on the barge just to keep an eye on things, I’ll pay you each four bits plus you can eat from the larder of the wheelhouse.”
  7. jambalaya
    spicy Creole dish of rice, meat, and vegetables
    Over a big plate of jambalaya, Larry told me that the best thing about Gloria’s house was we were so close to Bourbon Street.
  8. spruce
    dress and groom with particular care
    Being in New Orleans had made me spruce up my dressing a bit.
  9. overcome
    get on top of; deal with successfully
    The wind and the motion of the train want to pull you down and under the wheels. It takes everything you got to overcome all that and heave yourself into the car.
  10. fedora
    a hat made of felt with a creased crown
    In New Orleans, I could of used a nice hat like they made in that shop, but it didn’t make sense for riding the rails. But I looked through the window and watched the man make those fedoras.
  11. standoffish
    lacking cordiality; unfriendly
    The people weren’t mean up there, but some had a kind of standoffish nature.
  12. peak
    the highest point of something
    With a full moon, the shadows of all those mountain peaks was something to see.
  13. snag
    catch or cause to catch on something sharp that is sticking out
    All of them had the sleeves cut off above the elbow so that they wouldn’t have any buttons around that might snag and pull an arm into some choke chain, where it would be crushed by a log.
  14. humble
    cause to feel shame
    I was feeling pretty good about the way I could handle myself on snow, but I was humbled real quick.
  15. ruckus
    the act of making a noisy disturbance
    He didn’t even buck or cause a ruckus when they put a saddle on him for the first time. I actually thought his quiet ways meant that it would be a piece of cake to ride him.
  16. buck
    jump vertically, with legs stiff and back arched
    When I got on, he didn’t take to bucking, which was something I was ready for. Still, he didn’t want me riding him.
  17. corral
    a pen for cattle
    He ran back out into the corral and did a few circles.
  18. glare
    look at with a fixed or angry gaze
    Out in the living room, Richard was sitting on the floor and glaring at the movie machine.
  19. reel
    a roll of photographic film holding a series of frames
    Too bad we don’t have those news reels anymore. Matter of fact, that’s how a lot of folks got their news back then, especially people that couldn’t read the newspapers.
  20. capital
    wealth in the form of money or property
    Their huge capital losses were really about losing money they never had.
  21. depression
    a long-term economic state with unemployment and low prices
    I was there in the thirties, all right, but I didn’t know too much about a depression. Times was tough, but that’s just how it was.
  22. astride
    with one leg on each side
    By then, I was astride the top rail and I jumped down.
  23. plead
    appeal or request earnestly
    Clenching my teeth, I promised myself I wouldn’t plead with nobody, but I would take what I had coming.
  24. apprehend
    take into police custody
    Bonnie and Clyde were apprehended and killed in a shootout in West Dallas in 1938.
  25. formal
    in accord with established conventions and requirements
    “A lot of people haven’t done as well. And you were successful with no formal education at all.”
  26. poverty
    the state of having little or no money and possessions
    “But from what I have heard, your family was very poor. You would definitely have been below the poverty level.”
  27. discipline
    punish in order to gain control or enforce obedience
    “My mother did most of the disciplining, and she was the one that always said no.”
  28. pasteurize
    heat food in order to kill harmful microorganisms
    I always set the gauges right so they could pasteurize the milk.
  29. pallet
    a portable platform for storing or moving goods
    I was up on top of three pallets cutting the hemp rope of the sacks of sugar.
  30. regulation
    an authoritative rule
    I was sixty-five and they told me that government regulations said that I was too old to work any longer.
Created on Mon Sep 19 18:20:09 EDT 2016 (updated Tue Jul 05 17:07:41 EDT 2022)

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