Gloversville & Richard Russo

High and Dry, a personal narrative by Richard Russo, is centered around his life growing up in the small town of Gloversville. In this essay Richard describes a variety of experiences in which he experienced which make up a part of him today. 

Gloversville, a small industrial american town, was once the glove making “capital”. During the early 1900’s, Gloversville produced some of the finest gloves in the world. However after World War II times began to change and the glove factory, which was at the center of Gloversville's economy, began to suffer. Cheep overseas labor and the introduction of efficient machinery caused jobs within glove factories to disappear. On top of this, a decline in the popularity of the glove as fashion styles modernized occurred, greatly reducing overall demand for gloves. Immediately following factories within Gloversville began to close, bringing the town of Gloversville and its businesses down with them. Before the decline Gloversville was an up-beat and hip place. During the early fifties streets within Gloversville where described as being heavily congested with cars and shoppers. Once the depression hit Gloversville became a ghost town. In his essay Richard describes Gloversville streets as being so empty that “you could have strafed Main Street with automatic weapon fire without endangering a soul” (High and Dry, pg. 209).

In this essay Richard Russo discusses a wide variety of childhood experiences in which we can all relate to. Experiences such as making gloves with his grandfather as a young boy, where his grandfather tried to teach him how to be a “true craftsman”. Russo talks about spending quality time with his grandfather in these lessons which is a point where many of us can relate to such as myself. As a child I remember spending numerous amounts of time with my grandpa in which I learned various skills which he believed would enable me to be successful one day. Other experiences which are discussed include going downtown to run errands with his mom and stopping at a soda shop, playing basketball outside in the heart of winter with his cousins, walking to and from elementary school with his grandparents, and moving away to college; all which are experiences that most of us can relate to.

Through out his childhood and earlier years Richard Russo shows a considerable amount of embarrassment towards his hometown. Richard talks about events such as vacationing with wealthy people in Martha's Vineyard where he tries to “up-play” the place where he is from and “fleeing” from his town and going to college in a distant place. He also heavily discusses his overall “embarrassment” of his downtrodden town in which people “sat shirtless on their sloping porches in warm weather, scratching their bellies and leaning forward when a car they didn’t recognize rounded the corner, wondering out loud who that person was” (High and Dry, pg. 217).

It wasn’t until his later years when Richard began to identify Gloversville as a part of himself. At the end of the narrative Richard receives a book from an author who as also from Gloversville and yet had hope for the town. As Richard read the book he begins to realize that he too agrees with many of the points the author makes. At this moment Richard begins to realizes that even though he escaped from the town, he has went through the same experiences as everyone else who lives and Gloversville. Richard finally realizes that Gloversville is a major part of every experiences which makes up a part of him.