A Long Way from Chicago Quotes

From something Dad said, it had dawned on Mary Alice and me that our trip down to Grandma's was meant to be an annual event.Mary Alice pitched a fit. (2.1-2)

Mary Alice pitched a fit. It meant another week of summer vacation away from her friends, Beverly and Audrey. Besides, she said she wasn't over last year's visit yet. (2.2)

I'd have bet money Grandma wouldn't let Mrs. Wilcox in for a quick look, let alone overnight. But of course Grandma was putting on the best show possible to pull wool over the reporter's eyes. (1.63)

Grandma's sleeves were already turned back, or she'd be turning them back now. She pointed at me. "Scoot uptown and bring me a twenty-five-pound sack of sugar. Tell them to stick it on my bill. Aft...

Now Mary Alice was yanking on my shirttail. We knew kids lie all the time, but Grandma was no kid, and she could tell some whoppers. Of course the reporter had been lied to big-time up at the cafe,...

As the years went by, though, Mary Alice and I grew up, and though Grandma never changed, we'd seem to see a different woman every summer. (P.1)

"He was just an old reprobate who lived poor and died broke," Grandma said. "Nobody went near him because he smelled like a polecat. He lived in a chicken coop, and now they'll have to burn it down...

I was Joey then, not Joe: Joey Dowdel, and my sister was Mary Alice. In our first visits we were still kids, so we could hardly see her town because of Grandma. (P.1)

No, we had to travel all the way down to our Grandma Dowdel's before we ever set eyes on a corpse. Dad said Mary Alice and I were getting to the age when we could travel on our own. He said it was...

The Coffee Pot was where people went to loaf, talk tall, and swap gossip. Mary Alice and I were of some interest when we dropped by because we were kin of Mrs. Dowdel's, who never set foot in the p...