Dandelion Wine Memory and the Past Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

"[…] remember every second! Every darn thing there is to remember! So when kids come around when you're real old, you can do for them what the colonel once did for you." (18.8)

The sentiment behind Doug's recording of events in his notebook could be seen as a little obsessive, similar to how people today can be so busy taking pictures of an event for Facebook that they're not really enjoying it fully in the moment. Recording your memories can actually interfere with creating them at times.

Quote #8

They shut their eyes. The memory-play began again. An old straw hat on an iron trunk was suddenly flourished, it seemed, by the man from Gumport Falls. (19.24)

Miss Fern and Miss Roberta are experiencing the downside of memory: rumination. Why is it that we're so often compelled to obsess about the mistakes we've made in our past instead of recalling the good times we've had?

Quote #9

[…] and the motorman murmured on and on, and the children felt it was some other year, with Mr. Tridden looking wonderfully young, his eyes lighted like small bulbs, blue and electric. (20.18)

In recounting his memories for the boys, trolley conductor Mr. Tridden causes them to see him in an entirely different way. When adults become time machines in Dandelion Wine, children see how their memories change and animate them, even if they can't quite believe the adults were ever young.