Old Joe's Habit of Being Worrisome
Old Joe Grady had a habit of being worrisome to his kinfolks. In fact, that's how he got the nickname old Joe. According to Joe's Uncle Mort, when he was little, Joe used to pester people, always asking how something worked or why you did something the way you did it. Like all kids do, only worse. Finally, Mort said, Joe, you get too many answers to too many questions, and you're going to get old before your time. Well, that didn't slow down little Joe. He was too busy thinking up another question to pay much attention. But after that, every time he started getting on Mort's nerves, Mort would call him Old Joe, just to remind him.
When Joe reached his twenties, it was his parents who fretted over him. Will and Sarah Grady often worried about why their adult son never settled into anything very long. Sarah thought Joe had worms or maybe some ailment doctors didn't know about yet. Will said it was nothing of the sort. It was worse. Joe had gotten so preoccupied with growing up he hadn't noticed he was supposed to be finished.
Even though Old Joe moved around a good deal, from job to job, place to place, he wasn't a man adrift. There was purpose behind his roaming. Or so he claimed. He didn't leave a place because he had gotten tired of it or because he had worn out his welcome, Old Joe would say. He left because he had learned what he had come to learn and needed to move on to continue his education. Each job was sort of like a college course which he completed, then left to begin another. Old Joe Grady's educational aims were not easy to comprehend. Loafing is what most people called it, no matter what he might say.
It wasn't that Old Joe wanted to learn every possible trade. Or to travel every back road of America. He liked challenging his wits in unfamiliar surroundings. And he liked the independence of traveling light. Mostly, though, he was curious about how people came to be who they were. Lots of people, not just the ones he had grown up with. He wanted to know where they came from, why they got on each other's nerves, what they hoped to get out of it all. He liked getting mixed up in what they were doing. He wanted to be there when the problems arose which tested their limits, even when he himself had none of the answers, which was usually the case.
In particular, Old Joe didn't understand why adults could never stand to see anybody rest. Whenever Joe would help out down at the hardware store, his dad always had him moving. Even if the store was empty and he had already swept the floor, his dad would have him sweep it again. When they got home from the store, his dad would sit down to read the paper. Hardly would he get his feet propped up before his mom would say the woodbox needed filling. If Will passed the job on to Joe, his mom would find something else for his dad to do. Old Joe doesn't remember the newspaper ever getting read. His mom didn't get off easy either. When she wasn't cleaning or cooking or hanging out wash, Old Joe's dad had her darning something or looking for something he had lost.
No, the human race was not a race that was easy to understand. Old Joe Grady wanted to explore the most inaccessible tributaries of human nature, you might say, but as a young man he hadn't yet discovered a way to get upstream very far. Steady work, he believed, was a downright hazard to the undertaking.