Rules of the Road

Murray is middle-aged, balding, and occasionally suffers from diverticulitis. He is also kind, patient, and an excellent shoe salesman. Murray has been selling shoes for 23 years and is now the manager of the Gladstone’s shoe store in Chicago. He is Jenna’s boss and taught her everything she knows about shoes. He is a “good, patient boss” (6), who believes every shoe has a story; “You know how it’s made, you know how to sell it” (6), is one of his mottos. Murray’s kindness is proven early on when he tries to cover for Jenna at work by incorrectly telling her drunk father that “[s]he’s gone for the day” (8). Murray treats Jenna with respect and believes in her despite her youth. He is an influential adult in Jenna’s life who helps to build up her self-confidence, which is taking a beating at high school. Murray travels to Texas for Harry Bender’s funeral, which shows the love and respect he has for Harry, whom he calls “the great Mahatma,” and for Mrs. Gladstone. It is also Murray, in his gentle way, who persuades Jenna to get up and speak at the funeral, “You’ve got something to say, kid, you should say it” (161). Murray embodies the kindness and understanding that underlies the compassion that flows throughout the book.

Jim Boller is Jenna’s alcohol-addicted father. The reader’s first introduction to Jenna’s father is his unexpected visit to Jenna’s store, where he arrives drunk and dressed in “dirty jeans and an old golf shirt and grubby sneakers” (9). The last time Jenna saw him was two years and seven months before this visit. Jim and Jenna’s mother (Carol) are divorced and do not have a friendly relationship. He tells Jenna he’s currently living with Sueann Turnbolt, whom she assumes is “another girlfriend probably” (12), which implies that Jim has an unstable, impulsive personality. His failed plans, lost jobs, inability to be a present father, and his stubborn refusal to accept help for his alcoholism turned Carol’s support for him into resentment and bitterness several years ago.

Jenna’s mother threw him out of the house, but he shows up periodically and expects Jenna to drop what she is doing to spend time with him. He is a sad, self-destructive, and deeply flawed character, but he is not without charm and humor before he succumbed to alcoholism. Jenna reminisces about the early days when he would take her with him on trips to study salespeople to perfect his trade as a salesman. Jenna and her father would have fun practicing sales pitches to each other and “before the booze got hold of him, he was a real father” (65). Before he became addicted to alcohol, Jenna’s father spent a lot of time on the road selling all manner of things. His passion for cars highlighted his ability to care for something if he wanted to, and he “took better care of those cars than he did his family” (108) according to Jenna. His biggest flaw is his inability to accept that he has an alcohol addiction.

Jenna spells it out for him after he is arrested for drunk driving by telling him, “You need help, Dad! You're an alcoholic. There's help everywhere for what you've got. But you've got to want to get it” (199). However, he remains in denial and replies, “‘I know […] how to handle my liquor’” (199). This is in stark contrast to Harry Bender, who is portrayed as heroically beating an alcohol addiction and learning and growing from his mistakes. The pedestal Jenna puts Harry on makes her father seem all the more damaged and selfish and not worthy of the amount of anxiety and time Jenna had been putting into him.

Carol is an emergency-room nurse who works the night shift to make extra money. She is a single mother and the sole breadwinner for herself and her two daughters, Jenna and Faith. Her ex-husband Jim is behind on child support payments and is mostly out of their lives, only returning occasionally to cause chaos. Because of her long work hours Carol does not see her daughters as much as she would like. She leaves humorous notes around the house, most of them telling the girls to clean up, but they are always signed “YLM,” which stands for “Your Loving Mother” (19). Jenna describes her mother as a “Type A” personality with an independent streak (20). The divorce and the long hours are hard on Carol, and she is sometimes overcome with guilt about not being the perfect mother. Carol is very protective of her daughters, which is exemplified by the extreme driving lessons she gives Jenna in preparation for her trip to Texas. Carol runs through every possible scenario with Jenna, including “pretending to have a heart attack” (40) in the car, so Jenna will be thoroughly prepared. Carol is a supportive, loving mother, who manages to juggle work and family despite being stretched to her limit by her intrusive alcohol-addicted ex-husband.

Grandma, Jenna’s grandmother, used to be a highly skilled tailor and owned her own shop. She has been widowed three times and had fully embraced life by believing “there was more good in the world than there was bad” (164) until Alzheimer’s disease robbed her of her memories and personality. She eventually had to move into Shady Oaks Nursing Home. There she is visited every week by Jenna, who Grandma relies on to prompt her failing memory and who brings her favorite flowers, daisies, to cheer her up. Grandma shares a room with Gladys, a chatty and friendly lady who is still very functional and a good companion for Grandma. Before Grandma’s Alzheimer’s progressed she told Jenna, “Jenna Louise Boller, I'm counting on you. As this thing gets worse, you're going to have to help me remember” (24), and Jenna does her best. Grandma has moments of lucidity, and the heartbreak that Alzheimer’s disease causes is powerfully portrayed in Grandma’s character.

Grandma, who is Jenna’s “best friend,” lives vibrantly in Jenna’s thoughts and is Jenna’s constant source of strength and hope. Grandma supported and encouraged Jenna as she was growing up and filled in the gaps left by her alcohol-addicted father and overworked mother. Jenna’s ability to see the good in a bad situation comes from her grandmother, and she often thinks of her grandmother’s words when confronted with a difficult situation. “Grandma always said there is nothing more commanding than a tall woman who uses her height. Grandma was six feet even and wore 3 inch heels to make the point” (71). Jenna reminds herself of this when she is feeling self-conscious about her height. Even through her struggles with her failing memory, the love and joy that Grandma brought to everyone who knew her still resounds throughout Jenna’s narrative. 

Mrs. Gladstone, the daughter of a Baptist minister, is the feisty 73-year-old CEO of Gladstone’s Shoe Stores, a company she and her late husband built from nothing. Despite her age and painful hip, she resents her son trying to oust her from her own company. She tells Jenna, “I have more business ability at seventy three than I had at sixty three” (58). Mrs. Gladstone is a central character in the book, and although she is tough on the outside, she is a kind-hearted, compassionate lady, who stands up for seniors’ rights and for integrity. Jenna sees how much the original store managers love Mrs. Gladstone as they thank her for everything she has taught them and pledge their support for her.

Mrs. Gladstone loves her only son Elden, but she struggles to accept that he doesn’t have her best interests or those of the company he has grown up with at heart. As she expresses her feelings to Jenna in a rare moment of openness, Mrs. Gladstone states, “‘I keep hoping he'll see the light.’ She shook her old head. ‘I keep telling myself this isn't happening’” (68). The emotional turmoil Mrs. Gladstone goes through watching her son try to destroy her drains her energy and will to fight. She is saved by the power of faith and friendship in the forms of Alice and Harry Bender, both of whom step up to support her in her time of need.

Elden is Mrs. Gladstone’s only son and the main antagonist. He is six inches shorter than Jenna and wears tasseled Italian loafers and “floppy” suits. He is trying to take over his mother’s company, remove her from any decision making, and put profits above quality. Jenna despises Elden because of the way he treats his mother and the company she loves. She tells Mrs. Gladstone, “I know what it’s like to be tossed aside by an important person, Mrs. Gladstone” (167), referring both to Elden and to her father. Jenna cannot forgive Elden for the way he treats his mother. According to Jenna, everyone else despises Elden too. “I wondered what it was like to never have anyone happy to see you” (122), Jenna muses when the gardener’s smile drops upon seeing Elden. Murray doesn’t accept the “garbage” merchandise Elden tried to get him to sell; Alice backs Jenna up when confronted by Elden; Harry Bender, who sees the good in everyone, tries to find a way to overturn Elden; and even Ken Woldman, who is about to merge companies with Elden, sides with Mrs. Gladstone over quality control. The way Jenna refers to Elden paints a colorful picture of how she sees him: “Elden was pond scum” (5), “Shoe Rodent” (103), “rat boy” (181), “a bum” (58), “an all-time stinking shoe louse” (67), and “soleless” (184). A more forgiving perspective is that Elden is trying to save his mother’s company, but the reality seems to be that he is just money hungry.

Alice is a very old, gray-haired friend of Mrs. Gladstone who is introduced into the narrative as a supportive, encouraging character. She is an attractive “[r]etired shoe model” (101), who wears “a white suit and a crisp yellow blouse and Spectator pumps” (101). Alice is Mrs. Gladstone’s foil. She enters the narrative with her no-nonsense approach and dry sense of humor and reignites Mrs. Gladstone’s reserves of strength just as they are starting to fade. The two elderly ladies are very close, and together they make a formidable team. Alice fires Mrs. Gladstone up about taking control of her health, saving the company, and about regaining respect for seniors in America. Together they get excited about bringing “seniors out of retirement to whip everyone into shape” (116). Alice’s character is there to remind Mrs. Gladstone about all the wisdom and experience she has accumulated and that now is the time to put it to good use. In addition, Alice, in her matter-of-fact way, takes Jenna under her wing and initiates the physical transformation that Jenna undergoes during the trip. “Alice […] looked me up and down like I needed fumigating, and held up a small pair of scissors. ‘It's time honey,’ she said. ‘You need bangs’” (138). Alice fills a maternal role for Jenna during the trip, and the strength of their bond is shown when Jenna says goodbye to her before she and Mrs. Gladstone leave Dallas. After a long hug Alice tells Jenna, “We’ll see each other again, honey. I'm not through changing your life yet” (185).

Harry Bender, a Texan described by Mrs. Gladstone as “one of a kind” (78), is the same height as Jenna, wears cowboy boots, open neck shirts, a large Stetson hat, and enjoys a good Texas barbeque. Even though “he had the kind of face you could picture lying in the sewer someplace after getting beat up” (127), he is kind, honest and a loyal friend to Mrs. Gladstone. He is “a legend” in the shoe industry, so much so that he earned the nickname “Mahatma Bender,” the “Great Sole”, which is a play on Gandhi the Great Soul. He is the extremely successful manager of the huge Dallas Gladstone’s Shoe store. He is also recovering from an alcohol addiction and turned his life around 23 years ago after a priest gave him a pair of shoes when he was drunk, out of work, and only owned a pair of bedroom slippers. Harry is a dedicated member of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and is devoted to helping others because he “had some fine men help [him] years ago. Just trying to return the favor” (131). Jenna admires Harry’s ability to turn his difficult past into something positive and wishes her father could do the same. Harry is deeply religious and often refers to God when he says things like, “‘Get this fine gentleman checked out so he can go back to celebrating the good life God gave him” (128). He has a profound effect on Jenna during the short time they know each other. He opens her eyes to a new way of thinking about her father’s disease and assures her that she’ll “find a way to climb out of the biggest pit life throws your way” (132) if she sets her mind to it. Harry is a caring person, who finds “small moments” to make a positive difference to everyone he meets, no matter how briefly. After his death, the extent of his kindness and impact on people’s lives is shown by the large number of mourners at his funeral, all with stories of how he has touched their lives. When Jenna reports her father for drunk driving, it is Harry and his untimely death at the hands of a drunk driver that motivates her to take that life-changing step.