Building Relationships

This practice is based on excerpts from Melissa Bank's The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing:

Before dinner, my grandmother read the newspaper, tsking and complaining to no one in particular that the world was going to hell. Everything was wrong; nothing was the way it used to be.

"what do you think was so good about the good old days?" I asked, in exasperation. But I heard how harsh my voice was and didn't like it. I said, "What do you miss, I mean?"

While she thought, I waited to make my point: that everything was much better now than it used to be; I'd cite the civil rights and women's movements.

"The boy who lit the street lamps in the evening," she said, finally. "He carried a stool with him."

I understood then ---it was like missing Nantucket---and I put my hand on top of hers. It occurred to me that everything was more complicated than I thought.

at pp. (29-30)

Click on any of the Question numbers to see jeanne's responses.

1. Question: What stereotype starts this excerpt off?

2. Question: How does the phrase "Everything was wrong; nothing was the way it used to be" indicate the narrator's annoyance?

3. Question: Can you see a difference in the way the narrator rephrases the question from "What do you think was so good about the good old days?" to What do you miss, I mean?"

4. Question: Why is the grandmother's answer so striking?

5. Question: How did this brief exchange bring the narrator closer to her grandmother?

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