A Long Way from Chicago

“You wouldn’t think we’d have to leave Chicago to see a dead body. We were growing up there back in the bad old days of Al Capone and Bugs Moran. Just the winter before, they’d had the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre over on North Clark Street. The city had such an evil reputation that the Thompson submachine gun was better known as a ‘Chicago typewriter.’”

This passage from the beginning of Chapter 1 introduces the world that Joey and Mary Alice know and offers a glimpse into the grim realities of Chicago at the time, grounding the novel with historical details that make the reading experience authentic. Al Capone (whose real name was Alphonse Gabriel Capone) and Bugs Moran (whose real name was George Clarence Moran) were notorious gangsters during the time frame in which the novel is set. Likewise, their names are still notorious enough to allow the very mention of their exploits to establish a sense of the edgy scene that was 1930s Chicago. The inclusion of the Valentine’s Day Massacre and “Chicago typewriter” also establish the violence and unpredictability that dominated Joey and Mary Alice’s city-bound world, and altogether, these details create a stark contrast with the small, quiet town where Grandma lives. This is one of many ways in which Richard Peck uses historical details to establish the many differences of Urban Versus Rural Lifestyles.

“‘Was that Effie again? Never trust an ugly woman. She’s got a grudge against the world,’ said Grandma, who was no oil painting herself.”

Grandma says this to Joey while they talk about the circumstances surrounding Shotgun Cheathham’s death. Joey relays the gossip he heard at the town’s coffee shop, and Grandma is sure that this gossip comes from Effie Wilcox, whom Grandma pretends to dislike even though they are actually friends. Altogether, these lines introduce the contradictory nature of Grandma’s personality, for although she casts aspersions on those who spread baseless gossip, she later makes up her own stories about Shotgun that spawn a fresh wave of town gossip and cause all kinds of trouble. Therefore, it is clear that Grandma only dislikes gossip when other people use it, but she has no problem creating gossip that helps her to achieve her own agenda. Her observation that an ugly woman has a grudge against the world is also a commentary on the societal attitudes of the time frame, as well as a remark about Grandma’s character. First, this idea reflects the idea that those women who do not match mainstream beauty standards will be more likely to act spitefully and blame the world for their lack of success in life. Despite Joey’s observation that Grandma isn’t an oil painting herself, Grandma doesn’t seem to have a grudge against the world, suggesting either that her statement is untrue or that she doesn’t consider herself to be ugly.

“The story of Shotgun Cheatham’s last night above ground kept The Coffee Pot Cafe fully engaged for the rest of our visit that summer. It was a story that grew in the telling in one of those little towns where there’s always time to ponder all the different kinds of truth.”

These are the final lines of Chapter 1, and they offer perspective on small-town life in accordance with the theme of Urban Versus Rural Lifestyles. Joey believes that he is one of the only people who saw the tomcat enter Shotgun’s coffin, so he is one of the only people who know that Grandma was talking to and shooting at the cat, rather than at a version of Shotgun returned from the grave. Thus, the gossip in town occurs among people who don’t know the truth of what happened, which lets each person come to their own version of the true events. This attitude contrasts sharply with the norms of city life, for it shows how quickly one person’s business becomes everyone’s business in such a small town.

“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. 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. One night she’d have a nightmare about old Shotgun Cheatham sitting up in his coffin, and on the night after that she’d dream that Grandma’s big old tomcat was jumping at her. Or so she said.”

These lines from the beginning of Chapter 2 are one of the first places in which Mary Alice behaves like her grandmother. The final line suggests that Joey doesn’t believe Mary Alice is telling the truth about her nightmares, which matches his skepticism of how Grandma makes up details to embellish a story and give it believability. If Mary Alice is similarly embellishing her stories, it is clear that she has learned this behavior directly from her grandmother and is attempting to see if it will work just as well on her parents. The fact it doesn’t work shows that she still has a lot to learn about getting the results she wants.

“I had a letter from Nellie,

And what do you think it said?

Nellie had a baby,

And its hair was red.

Now how many hairs were on that head?

One, two, three . . .”

Here, Mary Alice plays jump rope outside Grandma’s house. These lines are an example of the type of counting games that children often played when they jumped rope, and Mary Alice’s use of the rhyme also reflects how popular such games were at the time, as well as how much free time Mary Alice has at Grandma’s house. The rhythmic nature of the lines naturally falls in synchronization with the swinging of the jump rope, and Mary Alice swings, jumps, and lands in time with speaking the lines. The counting is a way to keep track of how many times she has jumped over the rope, something that was used both to measure skill and to compete with friends. In the next paragraph, Grandma stops Mary Alice after she counts to 180, suggesting that Mary Alice is skilled enough with the jump rope and also showing how the game can become tiresome to those who aren’t playing.

“But as Mary Alice was reaching for her jump rope to take outside, Grandma turned up and said, ‘Not tonight. [...] We could tell ghost stories,’ she said.

‘Not tonight,’ Mary Alice said in a small voice.”

This exchange between Mary Alice and Grandma comes while the family waits for the Cowgill boys to break into the house. In the first part of the quotation, Grandma has settled into her chair to wait for the impending burglary and wants to make the house appear empty so as to encourage the Cowgill boys to enter. She stops Mary Alice from taking out her jump rope because the movement and noise would destroy the illusion, and she similarly discourages both Mary Alice and Joey from engaging in any activities that would give their presence away, such as turning on lights. In the latter portion of the quotation, the group has been sitting in the dark, which has spooked Mary Alice and Joey. Yet despite this fear, Mary Alice’s final line, which echoes Grandma’s in its assertiveness, provides more evidence that she is coming to echo Grandma’s behavior and mannerisms, if a bit hesitantly.

“Hate the sin, but love the sinner,

Though let him feel the rod;

Lift me like a little child

That I may dwell with—”

These lines come when Joey goes to church to retrieve Mr. and Mrs. Cowgill. This hymn is being sung as Joey enters the building, and it is used to represent the prominent role that religion played in small-town America in the 1930s. As a result of the Great Depression, churches saw a small increase in churchgoers during this time, if not as much as the clergy predicted. By and large, most churches were primarily attended by middle-aged women and sometimes their husbands, as seen by both Mr. and Mrs. Cowgill being at the service. The younger generations (people under 30) typically did not attend church, which explains why Mr. and Mrs. Cowgill did not note their sons’ absence in the congregation; it is likely that the boys would not normally attend. Given Grandma’s thoroughness in laying plans and schemes, the narrative implies that she fully expects that Mr. and Mrs. Cowgill will be at church and that the Cowgill boys will not.

“You could see hard times from the window of the Wabash Blue Bird. The freight trains on the siding were loaded down with men trying to get from one part of the country to another, looking for work and something to eat. Mary Alice and I watched them as they stood in the open doors of the freight cars. They were walking along the right-of-way too, with nothing in their hands.”

This quote describes a moment during the summer of 1931, a few years after the Great Depression has begun. By this point, hard times have come to stay, and Joey’s description here shows how those hard times have an impact both on cities and towns. The men on the train are in transit and looking for work wherever they can find it. Joey notes that the men are empty-handed, meaning either that they have sold off all their belongings in a last-ditch attempt to earn enough to stay where they are or that they lost everything when their home was seized because they could no longer afford the payments.

“Grandma stifled a rare smile. I suspected she had no high opinion of the bravery of the male sex, and I hadn’t done anything to change her mind. Why wasn’t it Mary Alice who’d done the fainting? It bothered me off and on for years.”

This passage comes shortly after Joey faints at the sight of a snake. When he wakes, Mary Alice goes on and on about how amazing the snake was and how Grandma took care of it, and Joey tells her to stop talking. Grandma’s amused reaction means she knows that the myths of men being the stronger, braver gender are just that—myths. Grandma’s ability to take care of the snake and of many other situations throughout the book suggests that she has been taking care of things that scare men for decades and that she’s learned that most men are not half as brave as they pretend to be. Joey’s embarrassed reaction to his earlier fear shows the conditioning he has grown up with. He believes that, as a male, he’s supposed to be brave while his grandmother and sister shrink back from the danger he is meant to confront. The fact that this incident bothers him for years to come shows how engrained this type of thinking can be and indicates the power that society can hold over personal perceptions.

“‘O. B. Dickerson, the sheriff,’ she said, ‘and them drunk skunks with him is the entire business community of the town.’

Mary Alice gasped. The drawers on some of the business community were riding mighty low. ‘They’re not acting right,’ she said, very prim.

‘Men in a bunch never do,’ Grandma said.”

Here, Grandma, Mary Alice, and Joey are approaching the Rod and Gun Club, where the sheriff and businessmen are drunk and partying in their underwear. This is the first time Mary Alice and Joey encounter adults behaving so poorly, making it a turning point at which both children begin to realize that the world doesn’t play by the rules they’ve always believed it does. However, in a stark contrast to the siblings’ shock, Grandma is unsurprised by how the men are behaving, suggesting that she has seen such behavior before. Mary Alice’s prim reaction coupled with Grandma’s observation that “men in a bunch never act right” speak to the societal pressure put on both genders, as well as to how society influences collective perceptions of right and wrong. Mary Alice has been raised to believe that men of importance always act with dignity, so her immediate reaction here is to note that these men’s actions do not match their social status. The sheriff and businessmen, as prominent figures, are under constant pressure to act in an upstanding way, something Grandma uses against them at the end of the chapter when she threatens to make their lack of decorum widely known.

“‘Pay? She didn’t pay me a plug nickel. But she fed me.’

I thought about that.

‘And now you feed her,’ I said, but Grandma didn’t reply.”

Here, Grandma, Mary Alice, and Joey have brought catfish to the older woman’s house and put together a meal. This exchange is an eye-opening moment for Joey and another contribution to the differences of Urban Versus Rural Lifestyles. In the city, people work a job for a set salary so that they can use that money to purchase what they need. When Grandma tells Joey she used to work for the woman, Joey assumes she got paid in hard currency, an assumption that Grandma soon shatters. Her statement changes everything that Joey knows about the nature of work recompense. Instead of money, Grandma received food for the labor she contributed, and while this didn’t give her the freedom to buy whatever she wanted, it kept her fed and alive, which is arguably more important. This moment shows how the town’s close-knit lifestyle brings people together and even makes them feel indebted to each other. Grandma doesn’t have to feed the woman, but after everything the woman once did for her, she cannot in good conscience refuse to give help now when she has the means. Since this form of repayment is a new concept for Joey, it is clearly not a key feature of city life.

“‘I don’t think Grandma’s a very good influence on us,’ Mary Alice said. It had taken her a while to come to that conclusion, and I had to agree. It reconciled us some to our trips to visit her. Mary Alice was ten now. I believe this was the first year she didn’t bring her jump rope with her. And she no longer pitched a fit because she couldn’t take her best friends, Beverly and Audrey, to meet Grandma. ‘They wouldn’t understand,’ Mary Alice said.”

This quotation is situated about halfway through the novel, and it shows the in-progress growth that Joey and Mary Alice are experiencing as they continue their Coming of Age and learn important new lessons during their visits with their grandmother. Mary Alice’s observation that their grandmother is a bad influence is both accurate and inaccurate. Grandma’s behavior and lifestyle are different from anything they experience in Chicago, but this difference does not necessarily make Grandma a bad influence. Instead, she simply represents a different way to live, even if aspects of her lifestyle do not easily translate to life in the city. Also, Mary Alice’s decision not to take her jump rope shows that she is maturing and finding new interests, and it also shows that she is refraining from bringing aspects of her city life to Grandma’s town. There’s no mention of kids in the town playing jump rope, suggesting that the game is more common in the city. This quote therefore marks the moment when Joey and Mary Alice truly realize that they have two separate identities—one for their regular lives in Chicago and one for the week they spend with Grandma each August.

“‘Oh that’s Rupert Pennypacker,’ Grandma said. ‘You got that turned around in your mind. He won in Sausage and Headcheese. Don’t I look more like a pie baker than him?’”

Grandma says this to the pilot at the county fair after he questions how Grandma could have won in pies when he already gave a free ride to the gentleman who won in the pie category. Rather than stumble over the discrepancy in her lie, Grandma uses what the man thinks to convince him that he made a mistake, which shows Grandma’s ability to turn situations to her advantage. Here, she employs the tactic of showing people what they expect to see. At the time, baking was considered more of a woman’s activity, and Grandma uses this to make the pilot think that a man couldn’t have possibly won the blue ribbon in the pie-baking category. By doing so, Grandma shows a clever way of using stereotypes to her advantage rather than remaining limited by them.

“For one thing, she’d been taking dancing lessons all year and never went anywhere without her tap shoes in a drawstring bag. The greatest movie star in history was sweeping the country at that time, a girl younger than Mary Alice named Shirley Temple. Shirley could sing and act, and she was a tap-dancing demon. Every girl in America was taking tap to be the next Shirley Temple.

Though Mary Alice was getting a little too leggy to be a child star, Mother said taking tap would give her poise. So Mary Alice was apt to stop cold on a sidewalk and run through a tap routine in her regular sandals. I wasn’t going to wait while she did that, so we each acted like the other one wasn’t there.”

This passage demonstrates several key aspects of Joey and Mary Alice’s relationship, as well as the dynamics that often develop between siblings. Peck uses famous child star Shirley Temple to frame his points, which gives both historical context and a definitive icon around which Joey can express his ideas. Joey and Mary Alice are getting older, and while they stayed together when they visited Grandma in their younger years, both now want to have a greater degree of independence and pursue their own interests, so they avoid one another in hopes of achieving this goal. As the children express their different interests, this passage makes clear that during this visit, each sibling’s focus will be on finding out who they are and trying to figure out how they fit in. Thus, the moment represents a manifestation of the theme of Coming of Age. Each child is willing to pretend that the other doesn’t exist, which shows that they are both trying too hard to create separate identities, as often happens in the early teen and preteen years.

“I shrugged. ‘Well, she’s her mother.’

‘She’s her jailer,’ Mary Alice said.”

This exchange between Joey and Mary Alice comes after they watch the serving girl’s mother abuse the girl at work. Mary Alice has already spoken to the girl long enough to understand that the girl’s mother wants to control her life. By contrast, Joey’s shallow response indicates either that he doesn’t care one way or another or that he sees nothing wrong with this situation because mothers are supposed to run their daughters’ lives. Mary Alice sees the mother’s controlling behavior for what it truly is, and this difference of opinion between the siblings demonstrates the contrast between the parenting habits that girls and boys experienced. In the early 1930s, women had just enjoyed a decade of increasing freedoms and gained the right to vote. This shifting cultural trend means that the serving girl is growing up in a world in which women are increasingly able to make their own choices, whereas her mother is the product of a time in which decisions were made for women by their mothers and, later, by their husbands. Thus, the conflict between mother and daughter represents a larger difference in opinion that occurs along generational lines.

“It happened back in 1871. And it all come to pass because of the Great Fire of Chicago. The town of Decatur was sending a special train full of volunteers up to fight that fire Mrs. O’Leary’s cow started.”

This passage of Grandma’s dialogue begins the story she tells Joey about the train brakeman who died and supposedly now haunts the tracks in town. The story foreshadows how Joey uses the legend of the brakeman to help the young couple escape their families at the end of the chapter. In addition, the mention of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow adds to how mere rumors gain enough momentum to become well-known stories. (And as the tale of the brakeman shows, well-known stories—when given enough fuel—can even go on to become local legends.) Although the definitive cause of the 1871 Chicago fire is unknown, one popular myth is that it began when a cow belonging to the O’Leary family accidentally kicked over a lantern, setting the barn ablaze and allowing the combination of strong winds and drought to spread the fire across the city. While the reporter who initially wrote the story later admitted that he made up the tale to sell more papers, this retraction didn’t stop the story from spreading and becoming a tale as wild as that of the phantom brakeman.

“‘Who seen her come in here?’ Grandma said. ‘I didn’t.’

‘Everybody in town,’ Miz Eubanks barked.

Grandma nodded. She knew everybody knew everything, often before it happened.”

This exchange between Grandma and the serving girl’s mother exemplifies the discussion of privacy that plays a part in the theme of Urban Versus Rural Lifestyles. Grandma has no evidence that the woman’s daughter is in her house, and when she asks for proof, “everybody” is the mother’s only response. Joey’s observation of how “everybody” knows things is partly a joke and partly based in the truth of how gossip spreads in the town. The lack of privacy in a small town means that it only takes one person to spread a rumor that grows out of proportion. Soon, “everybody” saw something that only one person may have seen, but this doesn’t matter to the girl’s mother. She wants her daughter back badly enough to ignore the dubious origins of her information and storm Grandma’s house, even trying to sneak in through the window.

“Mary Alice and I had sulked because neither Mother nor Dad would take us to view the riddled corpse. Recalling to ourselves Shotgun Cheatham, we thought we could take it. When we got back to school in September, everybody would say they’d seen the cadaver. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity lost.”

The dead body that Joey describes here belongs to John Dillinger, a notorious bank robber from the 1920s and 1930s. After being caught and shot several times by law enforcement, the corpse was laid out for people to see, since Dillinger had been such a figure of public scandal and entertainment. Despite their experience with dead bodies in the past, Joey and Mary Alice’s parents refuse to bring them to see the body, which makes the children feel like they are missing out on something that “everybody” else will have done. Unlike previous points of contrast, this passage shows the ways in which city life and town life aren’t so different after all. Much like the “everybody” who saw the serving girl hide at Grandma’s, “everybody” at Joey and Mary Alice’s schools will have seen the dead body, and both of these statements are equally exaggerated.

“‘Mrs. Dowdel, that’s not business,’ the banker said. ‘That’s blackmail.’

‘What’s the difference?’ Grandma said.”

Here, Grandma has just convinced the banker to give her friend back her house without debt in exchange for her idea about rethinking the square footage to avoid trouble with the historical society. Initially, the banker is against this idea because his business will take a hit, and Grandma’s response to his accusation of blackmail suggests that she is familiar with actual business practices that mirror her current tactics. The exchange also demonstrates the narrow line between good and bad business practices. Grandma is offering a transaction—the paid-off house in exchange for an idea that will save the banker a headache in paperwork and cost. The only difference between this transaction and one of pure cash is that the banker doesn’t like the terms.

“After we made it across the plank bridge over Salt Creek, Ray reached down and turned the radio to WGN. Out of static came the sweet strains of cocktail hour music from the Empire Room of the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. It was a modern miracle. Here we were skimming along a country road out past Cowgills’ Dairy Farm, and we were hearing music being played in the Chicago Loop.”

This passage shows more history of the time, as well as how things that now are commonplace were once amazing and new. The idea of transmitting sound via radio waves had been in practice since the late 1800s, but it wasn’t until the 1930s that radios became a common consumer item. Having a radio in the home was relatively new, and having one in a car was even newer. Joey’s amazement here reflects how the development of technology for the masses changes life on a grand scale. Prior to this, Grandma’s town had to wait days or even weeks to hear news or anything else from Chicago. With the growing popularity of the radio, not only news but entertainment could also be sent quickly over long distances.

“‘Well, I guess you’ll want to look in on the show,’ she remarked.

But I was fifteen now, and wise to her. I stifled a yawn. ‘Doesn’t matter to me.’

‘We don’t have to stay to the end.’ She was on her feet now, making short work of the dishes.”

While Mary Alice has grown to be more like her grandmother over the course of the book, Joey has grown to understand how Grandma thinks and operates, and the result of that new understanding is demonstrated in this passage. When Grandma wants to do something, she pretends she has little interest in it and downplays its importance, and when other people show enthusiasm for the same thing, it dulls her own desire. Both she and Joey actually do want to go to the talent show, but they show it by pretending they don’t care and acting tired. Grandma’s final line truly means that she wants to stay for the entire show, and this unspoken desire is reflected by her hurrying to clean up so they can go. This line also matches her response to Mary Alice’s standing ovation. Here, the line is her way of saying that she is looking forward to seeing who wins. At that point, she is positive that Mary Alice will take first prize, and she means they don’t have to stay until the end because there’s now no need to do so.

“Next in the order of procession were five tractor-drawn hayframes jammed with members of the Piatt County Democratic Party. They were followed by Mr. L. J. Weidenbach in a decorated Hupmobile carrying all four Republicans.”

This description comes from the Centennial Celebration parade and is a political joke. The county where the town is located leans heavily Democratic. The election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932, which occurred a few years before the time frame in which this chapter is set, brought an end to several decades of mostly Republican presidents. This image reflects the political leanings of the time and also demonstrates how power dynamics tend to change more often during times of uncertainty. Following the worst years of the Great Depression, people wanted a change, and the Democratic party suddenly gained popularity again. This pattern also reflects the increasingly liberal lifestyles and beliefs that began to take root in America from the 1930s onward.

“She was another Grandma, one we’d never seen before. Her costume was an enormous and complicated old-fashioned gown made out of cut-velvet and fringe. Its bustle overhung the rear of the hayframe, and the front of it scooped breathtakingly low on her bosom. She’d topped herself with Idella Eubanks’s sunbonnet. Loose in her hand hung Grandpa Dowdel’s twelve-gauge Winchester. After all, it was an antique.”

Throughout the book, Joey and Mary Alice have seen many different aspects of their grandmother’s personality. Here, they literally see her in costume, representing a part of her life they’ve never considered. Though Grandma isn’t old enough to have lived 100 years ago (the time the Centennial Celebration is honoring), she has memories that extend back much farther than Joey and Mary Alice, and she remembers when clothing and customs similar to those from 100 years ago were in fashion. Here, Joey and Mary Alice see a Grandma from the past. The dress is elegant, and its low neckline suggests she wore something in the same style a long time ago when she was much younger. The gun she holds is both a symbol of the past and a link to the grandmother that Joey and Mary Alice know. Grandma is known for keeping a gun at the ready, and even acting like someone she used to be can’t take away the person she is now.