Sal's father is noted to love working on the farm so he could be out in real air, around earth, wood, and animals. His refusal to wear work gloves stems from his sense of connection to the natural world by touching things. This could be a need to connect with things around him, to stimulate his sense of touch. A quote that supports this idea is as follows:

It was painful for him to go to work in an office when we moved. He did not like being sealed up inside with nothing real to touch.

His idea of real things to touch were natural elements in a natural environment, such as the farm he worked on. The importance placed on his sense of touch is also demonstrated when Sal mentions the blue Chevy that he had worked on for fifteen years. She describes him as being unable to part with the blue Chevy because of the work he had put into repairing it—he had touched every part of the vehicle. He is a very grounded individual who is very sentimental about the things he comes into contact with.

Sal tells us this story in Chapter 18, titled “The Good Man.” Here she talks a lot about her father. When she and her parents lived on the farm in Bybanks, Kentucky, her father enjoyed doing the work around the place. He was at home there. He felt more connected to the earth whenever he touched it with his own hands, without interference from any kind of material that was supposed to “protect” him from it. As a result, he chose not to wear gloves. Sal also tells us her father missed this kind of work when they moved to Ohio, after her mother left for Idaho. He got an office job in Euclid. Sal wasn’t the only one who had to adjust to a new place and a new way of living after the move north.