Just by reading the first column, I noticed that religion was somewhat of a factor in this story. The town in Ohio was mainly an Amish town.
When Gary Smith began to introduce Willie, he said, "Willie had been raised Amish- but he'd walked out on the religion at the age of 24- no, he'd peeled out, in an eight-cylinder roar, when he just couldn't bear it anymore."
I know that this isn't the point of the story, but I had to comment on this sentence. This is such a beautifully descriptive sentence. One in which we learn so much about Willie and something that is very personal about him- his religion. When Smith said that he had "peeled out of the religion"-This sets up the image of Willie as a man very against the Amish religion. I noticed that by Gary Smith saying this about Willie, he is wanting us to know this is a really important thing to know about Willie.