The syrup festival. The pride and joy of Vermontville MI. A syrup making, sugar smelling, good little fair kind of event. Every year since Lauren was little, she and her family would make the short hour trip down to her grandparents house which was well equipped with good times and deep-rooted memories. Every year Lauren’s grandpa would dispense some dough into the girls syrup shopping fund with a yearly 20 dollars when they arrived for the well known syrup festival, which would be spent on good food, crafts, fair rides and long lasting memories. As the Murphy’s made their arrival, they were welcomed with the familiar smell of homemade smoked jerky made from the well earned deer that her grandpa would get during hunting season that would always
Annie needed to figure out a way to make money for her and her "precious babes.’’ So, one night Annie decided to test something out by placing “stones in two five-gallon pails” and “carried them three miles to the cotton gin.” after she carried the stones to the cotton gin she would take a little brake take some rocks out and then carried the rocks to the “saw mill five miles farther along the dirt road.” After Annie realized it could work she decided to fill the buckets with “meat pies” to sell to the workers. After Annie’s business started to take of she started to make the customers come to her and buy her meat pies out of a little shack. This way she could work and take care of her babies. After a while that little shack turned into a little marketplace where you could buy “ cheese, meal, syrup, cookies, candy, writing tablets, pickles, canned goods, fresh fruit, soft drinks, coal oil, and leather soles for worn-out shoes.” All in all Annie was a hardworking, compassionate person who started of with just 2 buckets full with meat pies, to a great store where people came and got many of their supplies
As the narrator looked upon the polluted and disruptive town, he or she was reminded of a story about the former family that occupied the house that they were currently inhabiting. The narrator introduces the character Deborah; she was expressed as a hardworking, hunchback women who was married to a hardworking, factory worker named Hugh. One afternoon, a young girl from the around the neighborhood named Janey was sent to their home by Hugh. Deborah analyzed how young and beautiful Janey was; she realized that that was no longer her. This caused Deborah to be a bit jealous. Janey told Deborah how Hugh did not have his lunch with him for today. Concerned, Deborah walks for miles in the pouring rain just to make sure that her husband has his
Many of the black families in Spokane County shopped at the Wallace Store that was owned by the whites. Papa and Mama, Cassie’s parents, we're trying to get the blacks to shop in a store in a nearby town called Vicksburg, because the Wallaces caused a lot of trouble for the blacks. When Mr. Avery and Mr. Lanier, two sharecroppers on Mr. Granger’s land, come to talk to Papa to discuss shopping at Vicksburg, they tell Papa that the Wallaces were threatening them and that Mr. Granger started to take sixty percent of their earnings instead of fifty percent. Because of this, Lanier and Avery give up on trying to shop at Vicksburg. When Stacey hears this, he gets mad and starts to argue about how it is unfair that Avery and Lanier are backing out of the plan. Papa tells Stacey that they are lucky to have all of their land and that other black families wish that they could have so much. Cassie then asks Papa if they are giving up too. Papa points to a fig tree and tells Cassie that all of the other trees around it, like the oak and walnut, will get bigger and overshadow the little fig. Papa tells Cassie that the fig tree has “roots that run deep” (Taylor 206) and that it belongs in the yard just like the other trees. To answer her question, Papa tells Cassie that “[the fig tree] keeps on growing and doing what it gotta do. It don't give up. It give up, it'll die (Taylor 206). Just like the fig tree, the Logan family has roots in the south because the Logans were in Spokane County before the Civil War. Even though they are black, the Logans have every right to be in the south and own land, and because Papa’s father rightfully bought the land from a northerner after Reconstruction, they don't have to give it up to anyone, black or white. Just as Papa says, the fig tree, or in this case the Logan family, cannot give up. They have to keep fighting for freedom and equality because if they don't, they won't ever be
The past few weeks had been hot, dry, and rainless. A drought. Rain had not fallen for three months. Though, despite the drought, the O’Leary family had been having an exceptional October. The O’Leary family consisted of Mrs. O’Leary, her husband and 5 children. Mr. O’Leary worked as a laborer, as Mrs. O’Leary kept with the cows and the children. The family was on welfare, but were livng pretty fair lives, and Mrs. O’Leary was selling fresh milk on the side. A small way to make some more money for her family.
When Novalee turns seventeen she finds out she is pregnant by her boyfriend, Willy Jack. Willy Jack was a jerk of a boyfriend. Novalee and Willy Jack were traveling to California for work for Willy Jack when Novalee had to stop to use the restroom and to buy a pair of sandals because hers fell through the floor of the old car. After Novalee leaves Walmart she is shocked to see that Willy Jack had left her with only $7.77 from the change at Walmart. Novalee had nowhere else to go and was forced to live in Walmart. Novalee meets a lot of people while staying in Walmart for example, she runs into Sister Husband who mistakes her for someone
The Bundren family has recently suffered the loss of their most beloved mother, Addie. When Addie was young and fresh out of labor with her second of five children, she made her husband promise that when she died he would burry her in Jefferson, the town where Addie’s family lived. Generally Jefferson was a one or two day trip, but when a rain spell floods the river and destroys both bridges and washes out the direct road to Jefferson, Anse, Addie’s husband has to ford the river and take a much longer route to get to Jefferson. While crossing the river, a large log flowing downstream starts a chain reaction that results in a badly battered wagon, the death of a team of mules, a broken leg for the oldest of the five children, and a one-day delay in the journey. Many other troubles follow this family and the short trip to bury their mother becomes a nine-day journey with a dead body that is beginning to rot in the back of the wagon.
On November 17, 1942 Evelyn and John VandenBosch gave birth to their first daughter, Yvonne VandenBosch. She was born in Butterworth Hospital located in the growing city of Grand Rapids, Michigan but that was not home for long. Along with her two siblings, Carol and Joan, Yvonne had a mother that could not stay planted for long. By the age of eight Yvonne had lived in Michigan, Oregon, and Texas. The moving took a toll on Yvonne’s view of life. She was always looking for something new or different, similar to the way her mother acted. With an ever-moving mother came a father that was always looking for new ways to make money for the family. On one occasion, her father thought it would be a good idea to buy rabbits and raise them. For some odd
Boone recalls few memories. At the age of 7, she remembers she met her best friend, Jennifer Luna, who lived next to her grandparents’ house. They always had sleepovers on Friday night and played dress up by using Jennifer mother’s makeup and wardrobe. In early December, Mrs. Boone also remembers eating breakfast with her family and looking through the comic sections of the newspaper. She found an ad titled “Toys for Little Cooks,” and asked for a steel kitchen cabinet which only costed eighty-nine cents. Her mother only smiled and said a simple “well that is for Santa to decide if you’ve been a good girl this year.” A few weeks later, Mrs. Boone was playing house with her new steel kitchen cabinet as a mother with her brother playing her
Marie’s grandparent’s had an old farm house, which was one of many homes in which she lived, that she remembers most. The house was huge, she learned to walk, climb stairs, and find hiding places in it. The house had a wide wrap around porch with several wide sets of stairs both in front and in back. She remembers sitting on the steps and playing with one of the cats, with which there was a lot of cats living on the farm...
Jeannette started to lose faith in her parents after they could no longer provide for her, and swore that she would make a better life for herself. “I swore to myself that it (her life) would never be like Mom’s…” (Walls 208) Jeannette has the idea to move to New York to escape her parents, and pursue her dream of being a journalist. She decides that her older sister, Lori, will have to escape with her, because Jeannette would never leave Lori alone with her parents. The next day, Jeannette buys a piggy bank to start an “escape fund”. To make money, Lori would draw and paint posters for kids at school and sell them for a dollar fifty. Jeannette would babysit and do other kids homework. She made a dollar per assignment and and babysat for a dollar an hour.
... attempts to change the way Mama and Maggie perceive tradition by using the quilts as a wall display. Mama refuses to allow it, Dee was offered the quilts when she was in college and didn’t want them at that time. Mama gives the quilts to Maggie as her wedding gift to be used every day as they were intended, knowing how much Maggie appreciates them. I agree with Mama and Maggie for keeping family memories and objects in daily use. It is important to maintain your family history in your everyday life to preserve those special memories.
Regretfully, though readers can see how Mama has had a difficult time in being a single mother and raising two daughters, Dee, the oldest daughter, refuses to acknowledge this. For she instead hold the misconception that heritage is simply material or rather artificial and does not lie in ones heart. However, from Mama’s narrations, readers are aware that this cultural tradition does lie within ones heart, especially those of Mama’s and Maggie’s, and that it is the pure foundation over any external definition.
"Around they come, Queenie still leading the way, and holding a little gray jar in her hand. Slots Three through Seven are unmanned and I could see her wondering between Stokes and me, but Stokesie with his usual luck draws an old party in baggy gray pants who stumbles up with four giant cans of pineapple juice (what do these bums do with all that pineapple juice' I've often asked myself) so the girls come to me. Queenie puts down the jar and I take it into my fingers icy cold. Kingfish Fancy Herring Snacks in Pure Sour Cream: 49¢. Now her hands are empty, not a ring or a bracelet, bare as God made them, and I wonder where the money's coming from. Still with that prim look she lifts a folded dollar bill out of the hollow at the center of her nubbled pink top. The jar went heavy in my hand. Really, I thought that was so cute."
Charlie Bucket is a poor boy whose mother is barely able to make enough money to feed Charlie and his bedridden grandparents. One day Willie Wonka, a famous candy maker, starts a contest in which the five lucky winners would win a lifetime supply of candy and a tour of his secret factory. T...
Mare and her family lived in New York City. Her mother was a single parent who tried all her best to make sure that her children had all that the need. Sometimes Mara’s mother Shana didn’t have money, so they went to bed without food. Mara’s life was not how she wanted it to be. She wanted a big house, a father, and a happy big family. Instead her life was the opposite. Her dad died when she was only seven. When her father died, it ruined the family. Her father was the backbone of th...