For twelve-year-old Douglas Spalding in Dandelion Wine, dandelion wine represents summer. Three times a year, he and his little brother, Tom, pick all the dandelions in their grandfather's yard for a nickel a bag, because that's what you did back in the day. Grandfather Spalding then makes wine out of the dandelions, bottles it, and stores it in the cellar. In the winter, a sip of wine tastes like the past August, minus the Coppertone aftertaste.
Dandelion wine, then, is a way of storing a season in a bottle, capturing your memories in the form of liquid gold—which is exactly what this book does, too. Except instead of liquid, Bradbury used paper. For more on this book as a time capsule, be sure to check out the "Symbols" section.