Walking Journal #17

The final place I will visit in my exploration of Allison’s Reno is the Little Nugget Casino. In Northline, Allison explores a variety of places in Downtown Reno. One of the places she visits is the Little Nugget. The Little Nugget becomes a place where Allison and her friend Penny can go and talk about their problems. “‘My ex-husband, he lives in Florida now. Works for a hotel down there. He follows the money, moves every couple years. I don’t mind talking about him, but it always makes me want to eat. You ever been to the Nugget?’ ‘The big casino?’ ‘No, not that one. The one on Virginia, just down the street. The Little Nugget. They have a diner in the back that has the greatest burgers, it’s cheap, too. The home of the Awful Awful burger’… It was warm inside the Nugget casino. It was half full of old men playing slots and sitting at the bar. The two women ordered drinks then walked to the back, into the small, nearly empty lunch counter, and sat” (Vlautin 120).

Allison’s trips to the Little Nugget often consist of food and talk of the past with Penny. My trip to the Little Nugget was similar to Allison’s excursions. I went to the Little Nugget with friends and we talked while we enjoyed our meals (The burgers really are great, as Penny describes). The people that Allison describes in the casino are just people playing the slot machines, but to me the majority of people in the restaurant seem to be tourists, mixed in with a few regulars. There don’t seem to be any people that fit the Allison or Penny character, but who knows, maybe if I went late at night the scene would shift from one of tourism to one of locals who share Allison or Penny’s stories.

The Little Nugget is just a place that Allison visits, but I think that it as a deeper significance for her. This is the place that Allison visits with a friend, and having friends for Allison is important. While Penny has let her own life get a bit out of hands, Penny is a great friend to Allison, first giving her a second job, then encouraging her to do something with herself, like getting her GED and going to college, and listening to her troubles about guys and simply being supportive. I think it helps Allison to begin to take control of her life through having a friend who’s encouraging. The Little Nugget doesn’t have the same significance for me, but I can almost imagine two friends like Penny and Allison coming here late at night and discussing problems while watching the people gamble.

Northline’s story might have been a stretch of the imagination for me to grasp completely, but visiting the places that Allison visited brings the novel closer to home. The plot may seem outlandish and horrible at times, but the detail and sheer amount of places that are still here in my Reno make Allison’s story seem more real. 

Walking Journal #16

Another place that Allison frequents in Downtown Reno is the Cal Neva. Allison spends most of her nights working as a waitress at the Cal Neva, and it becomes an important spot for her because she meets friends here, including Dan. “The Cal Neva Top Deck restaurant re-hired her and when they did, she asked to be put on graveyard shirt. She was scared to sleep at night in the apartment alone, and the restaurant even at the late hours was half full and the tips decent. The drunks were there, but a security guard and manager walked the floor and together they made sure the customers stayed in line. At the end of the first month, she had regulars, and the regulars became the first friends she had in town” (Vlautin 90). I see the Cal Neva as Allison’s comfort zone: working reminds her of the home she’s been driven out of, and keeps her safe at night when she’s most afraid. The Cal Neva for Allison compares to my dorm for me. While Allison finds comfort in the Cal Neva, I’m comforted and reminded of home by my dorm room.

Allison’s trips to the Cal Neva consist of her working. She goes to the restaurant late at night and works until early morning. She sees the late night scene of things at the restaurant. Also, Allison meets a plethora of people at the Cal Neva, most of who are troubled in some way. “There was a frail old woman who dressed in western outfits. Her teeth were either missing or rotten. She was a drunk. Every night at two a.m. she came in, sat in the girl’s section, and ordered the late night Calorie Saver Special: a single hamburger patty, cottage cheese, a half peach in light syrup, and wheat toast. She never ate the hamburger, just had it put in a to-go bag. ‘Saving it for later?’ asked the girl one night. ‘I have a dog named Cottonball. It’s his only supper.’ ‘What about you?’ ‘Me?’ ‘Is this your only supper?’ ‘It is,’ the old woman whispered… the girl began giving her an extra hamburger patty each time she came in” (Vlautin 90). Allison also meets Dan at the restaurant, “he sat alone, and each morning he wore the same thing: black work shoes and a dark blue uniform with a patch on the left breast that read ‘Dan’” (Vlautin 93). I think that Allison is able to relate to these troubled characters in her section of the restaurant: she sees in them what she often feels.

My trip to the Cal Neva was less dramatic than Allison’s time here. The casino itself isn’t very impressive in my opinion, just another casino in Downtown Reno. The surroundings, however, are easy to relate to Allison’s surroundings. The streets of Downtown Reno are less friendly than what I’m used to at the University. Maybe some of the people at the Cal Neva share a similar story as Allison or one of her friends, but it’s hard to tell.

While the Cal Neva is a place of safety and friends for Allison, it seems to me like just another downtown casino. The Cal Neva of Northline is easy to relate to the Cal Neva of my Reno, although the Cal Neva of Northline holds much more significance to Allison than the Cal Neva of my Reno holds for me. 

Walking Journal #15

In Northline, Allison takes a walk by the river to calm her mind. In Allison’s life, she is constantly plagued by misfortune and bad luck, often exacerbated by the bad choices that she makes. The hard life that she has made for herself leads her to a stressful life in Reno. I can relate to this aspect of Allison’s life: while I’m much more fortunate in my life choices and luck, being a college student has its overwhelming times. Often, these overwhelming times require a simple walk to clear the stress from life. While I find most of Northline somewhat un-relatable, this is one aspect of Northline that I can easily relate to: I chose to follow in Allison’s footsteps and walk by the river to clear my mind.

Allison has a hard life; there’s no disputing that. However, she still keeps the simple pleasures that many of us can relate to. The simple walk to the river is enough to clear her mind and put her back on track for her life. “After her shift she changed in the employee bathroom and walked down to the river and drank a cup of coffee. She had found a pack of Pall Malls on the table that morning, and picked it up and put it in her apron. She took a cigarette from the pack and lit it up. The sun was coming up over the mountains and beginning to lay down upon the city. Every morning for the last three weeks she’d left work and taken a walk. She knew she couldn’t spend much time alone in her apartment” (Vlautin 96). Allison uses her walks by the river to distract herself from her life: instead of holing up in her apartment and letting herself become caught up in the misfortunes of her life, she finds solace in her walks by the river. She also makes a habit of walking by the river: "That night she made her shift at the Cal Neva. When it was over she decided to take a walk by the river. The morning was cold and she left the casino and went down Second Street as the sun began to come up over the mountains" (Vlautin 144). Allison's habit of walking by the river adds to the peaceful escape from her day to day life. 

My walk to the river had a similar effect: the stress of college is dissipated in the break from the city. While the stresses in my life revolve more around tests and grades, the walk by the river had a similar effect for me that it did for Allison. My walk down the river started in the same place that Allison’s journey began, while Allison starts her journey after a work shift, I begin my walk after my equivalent: class. Allison’s walk through the river is vaguely described: Vlautin describes a sunrise and the river, eluding to a peaceful time that Allison can clear her head. My walk to the river is during a slightly more busy time of day, but the effect is the same. While most of my time is spent in city scenery, seeing the river has a calming effect. Regardless of the rows of shops and people nearby, a walk through what little piece of nature we have is nice change. I don't see many people that look like they could be modern day Allisons, instead, the people seem to be carefree tourists for the most part. 

While much of this novel is difficult to relate to, there are facets of the novel that are quite relatable. The ability to clear one’s mind through a simple walk down the river is a detail of Vlautin’s Reno that is easy enough to see in my Reno.  Vlautin’s Reno encapsulates some images that I can relate to: Vlautin captures Reno’s unique mix of city and nature: by having Allison take a river walk to clear her mind Vlautin captures this aspect of Reno and provides a scene that readers who don’t relate to Allison’s unfortunate life can relate to. 

Walking Journal #14

For these next few walking journals, I will explore the Reno of Willy Vlautin’s Northline. In Northline, the main character explores a variety of locations that are still present in the Reno that I call home today. The Reno that the main character, Allison, explores is a much darker Reno than I have become accustomed to. In Allison’s Reno, shady characters lurk in the darkness and on the shadowy streets that Allison calls home.

In the story, Allison finds a companion in Dan, a shy, tortured character who seems to share the pain that Allison often feels. Dan remembers a story about a dark occurrence that happened on the very university campus that I call home. “‘What did happen to you?’ she asked. ‘Well,’ he said after a time, ‘I was walking home through the college grounds up at UNR. It was nighttime. I was walking home from a party my cousin had. I had longer hair then, maybe it was almost as long as yours. But, otherwise, I was dressed normal. Jeans and a flannel coat, I don’t know. It was late, maybe three in the morning, and there was no one around, and then four guys came up. I didn’t know them. I had never seen them before, they were drunk. It seemed like they came out of thin air. They started saying things to me. They called me queer. They kept yelling that at me, and then they surrounded me. I hadn’t said a word and then I just started running, I didn’t know what else to do. There was something going on I didn’t understand. The guys were young. I don’t know if they were in a fraternity or what. I didn’t know what was going to happen. They chased after me. One of them tripped me and I fell, and then they just started kicking me. One of the guys bent down and started hitting me in the face. Then another one did and then another. They had to rebuild my cheekbone. They broke my arm and hand. They broke two ribs, and punctured one of my lungs. I got a concussion and my other hand was completely ruined. One of them stomped on it with his boot a few times. And then they ran off. I don’t know why they did it. I laid there and I was sure I was going to die. I just laid there on the sidewalk. There was nothing I could do’” (Vlautin 164).

This seems outlandish to me: while the University campus that Dan experiences is full of terror and shady characters, the University of my neighborhood is the only place I consistently feel safe. The University is the center of my neighborhood. Not only do I live here, but I find comfort in my dorm room and the various places I’ve explored here on campus. In addition to the campus itself seeming to burst with comfort, the people on campus are always friendly. Regardless of the situation, everyone on campus has been open and friendly, whether I needed directions to my next class or just holding the door open. There’s literally no one on campus that has been not been happy to start a conversation or simply be polite. It’s hard for me to imagine the dark reality of Dan’s recollection.

For this journal, I walked through the campus with my roommate; not quite at three in the morning as Dan describes, but later at night. We chose a path that’s familiar to us: from our dorm, past Lincoln Hall, and to the Joe. While the atmosphere may be more “creepy” at night, the overall feeling of comfort doesn’t fully disappear. Walking past the volleyball courts behind White Pine, it’s almost possible to imagine a scene in which darker characters of the night could harm an innocent walker, but even though the atmosphere is darker, the event is still seemingly outlandish. We don’t run into many people, but those few that we do walk past just hurry along on their own business. There are no terrible characters of the night as Dan describes. Maybe Vlautin describes a time in which violence was more prevalent, or perhaps my roommate and I were fortunate enough to simply not run into people like the dark characters from Northline. Whatever the case, it’s hard to imagine a scene like the one that plays out on the University campus of Northline, when the campus that I’ve become accustomed to is a safe zone, not a dark and dangerous place.

While Willy Vlautin’s Northline is based in real locations of Reno, I find it hard to compare the University of my reality to the University described in Dan’s recollection of darkness and harm. The University that I call home is simply too comfortable for me to imagine a scene such as the one in Northline.