How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
...so I had to go down to live with Grandma Dowdel, till we could get on our feet as a family again. It meant I'd have to leave my school. I'd have to enroll in the hick-town school where Grandma lived. Me, a city girl, in a town that didn't even have a picture show. (P.9)
Mary Alice is definitely not stoked to be staying with her Grandma Dowdel. After all, she's a cosmopolitan teenage girl who considers Chicago her real home. Going to live someplace out in the boonies is not her idea of a good time.
Quote #2
Grandma lived at the other end of the town in the last house. She was sitting out in the swing on her back porch, though as a rule she kept busier than that. It almost looked like she was waiting for us.
I came dragging into the side yard with Mildred's horse behind me. And Mildred. I guess I was glad to see Grandma there on the porch. (1.90-91)
Even though Mary Alice isn't thrilled to be living at her grandmother's house for the next year, she still takes some comfort from arriving there at the end of a tough day. Grandma's house provides a safe haven—where she knows she'll have back-up.
Quote #3
"I rubbed butter on all four of her paws. That's what you do with a cat in a new place. By the time they've licked off all that butter, they're right at home. Works every time." (1.137)
Grandma Dowdel has a foolproof method for ensuring that a cat feels right at home when it moves to a new place. Rubbing butter on Bootsie's paws may seem like a silly thing to do, but Mary Alice can't argue with the results. Makes us wonder what the human equivalent of "buttered paws" is…