Grandma Dies and Jeannette's Birthday Wish: Pages 91-101, 119-125

JOURNAL: Have your parents selected not to tell you about the passing of a loved one or family pet? If yes, how did you react when you found out? If not, how do you think you would react?

SUMMARY: Jeanette describes her grandmother’s house as big and white with French doors and Persian rugs. She remembers spending time with her grandmother, getting pampered and one day she cut her hair like a “flapper”. Grandma was a teacher in a one room schoolhouse and have very strong opinions about the ways things needed to get done. These rules drove Jeanette’s mother crazy, so she treated her children differently. But Jeannette loved her grandmother.

Her family is on their way to Phoenix where their grandmother lived and Jeannette asks if they are going to her house. He mom tells her that their grandmother is dead. Jeannette became very upset and her mother doesn’t understand why. She doesn’t see how there is any reason why the kids needed to know that she was dead. Her grandmother died of leukemia and Jeannette’s mother said that they shouldn’t grieve because everybody dies at some point. Jeanette’s mother chose to inherit the adobe house in Phoenix’s business district. So they were moving into this house.

The house was practically a mansion with fourteen rooms including the kitchen and bathrooms. They had a huge yard with orange trees. The neighborhood was inhabited by mostly Mexicans and Indians in big houses that were split into apartments. All of the children went to Catholic Schools, but their mother and father didn’t believe in the ways of Catholic schooling. So, they enrolled in a fancy, public school called Emerson. All of them were put into gifted reading groups because of their ability to read. The nurse tested their eye sight and Lori had to get glasses, although Mom disagrees.

They took advantage of all the neighborhood had to offer and bought and sold many items to stay afloat. Mom opened an art studio in the house and Dad joined the electricians union. They even got a telephone. This didn’t last long though, because termites started to eat through the floorboards in the house.


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When Jeannette turns ten, she asks Rex for a very specific present: for him to quit drinking. Lori doesn’t believe that he will do it because he’s tried before and always fails. Jeannette, however, is optimistic. Rex locks himself in the bedroom to go through withdrawals and Jeannette is always by the door when she’s home to make sure he is okay.

It took 2 seasons for him to completely sober up and when he was they decided to move again. Jeannette encouraged him to speed on their drive which led to the car breaking down. Rex decided that they could easily walk back to the house in Phoenix to get the tools to fix the car, but it was over 80 miles. On their way, a woman stopped to pick them up and called them “poor people,” which seriously upset Jeannette. When they finally got home, Rex left and didn’t come home that night.

The Hot Pot and Dad Lost his Job: pages 64-72

In Battle Mountain they had many pets. They couldn’t afford pet food, so the pets would get their scraps or nothing at all. Mom also would not let them kill any files in the house because it ruined the cycle of life. The flies were needed to feed the lizards, and the lizards were needed to feed the cats.

One day they went to the Hot Pot, a natural sulfur spring in the desert, to go swimming. Brian and Lori knew how to swim, but Jeannette did not. So, Dad decided she was going to learn that day. He would take her out into the deep parts of the water and let her go. Jeannette would be flailing around eventually would start to sink, inhale, water, and almost drown. Each time, her father would pull her out and throw her back to the same fate. She then realized that in order to stop being thrown back into the water she would have to get away from her father. Eventually she got away. This was her father’s way of teaching her to swim. Jeannette was really mad at him for teaching her in this way. But how else would she have learned??

Then Dad lost his job, but he said it was because he had a new plan for finding gold. Times became very tough because there was no way to get food and Dad would be gone for weeks at a time. One day he came home with a package of food. The can of corn was stolen and they ate most of the rest of the food. Lori and Jeannette were so hungry one day that they ate margarine mixed with sugar. Mom yelled at them, but Jeannette thinks it was because she had planned on doing the same.

These hard times led to Dad asking if their grandmother could loan them some money, but Mom was too proud to do that. This led to a LONG fight between Mom and Dad. They caused such a scene that their neighbors came out to watch. Soon furniture was thrown out the window and Mom was hanging from the second floor window screaming. Jeannette was embarrassed. They ran inside to help Dad pull her back into the room. Mom accused Dad of trying to kill her and claimed his innocence.

The Joshua Tree and Christmas Gifts: pages 35-42

JOURNAL PROMPT: If you did not have the means to live comfortably, what would you take joy or pride in? How would you celebrate the holidays?

SUMMARY:

The Walls move from California to the Mojave Desert in Arizona. They stop in the middle of the Desert because Mom wants to paint a Joshua Tree. The Joshua tree is ugly and has grown sideways because of the strong winds it has to put up with. Jeannette thinks it is an ugly tree, but her mother says it’s beautiful because, “It’s the Joshua Tree’s struggle that gives it its beauty.”

So, they move into a shack in a town called Midland. Jeannette is afraid of the critters crawling around, so Dad makes up a game of hunting the Demon so that she is no longer afraid. They run around the house and desert in the middle of the night calling out for the Demon to approach them to get killed. Dad found a job at a gypsum mine and Mom is pregnant.

None of the kids believe in Santa Claus because Mom thinks it’s a conspiracy and that all of the toys are “Made in Japan”, not by Santa’s elves. They usually celebrated Christmas a few days later because that is when they could buy presents and wrapping paper at sales, and get a Christmas Tree from someone’s garbage. This year, Dad lost his job at the gypsum mine, so they have no money. Because they could not get presents for the kids, Dad took them outside one at a time and allowed them to choose a star. This star would be their Christmas present. Jeannette chose Venus, even though this is not a star. She likes it because it is really bright and you can see it early in the morning when all of the stars have already disappeared. That night at dinner, Dad told them everything there is to know about Astronomy and the stars.

Introduction to parents and lifestyle: pages 9-16, 19-25

Jeanette is cooking hot dogs in her favorite outfit when it catches on fire. Her father is not home, so her mother asks their neighbor for a ride to the hospital. At the hospital the doctors are worried about her because she is severely burned and needs a skin graft. The nurses are concerned about her home life too. They think she is neglected by her parents. Jeanette enjoys staying at the hospital because everyone takes care of her. One day her family shows up and argues with the doctors because dad does not approve of the hospital. So, he came back another day and took her out of the hospital without permission.

When she got better she became fascinated by fire. She would light things on fire and stamp them out, run her finger through a flame, and lit matches constantly. One day she melted the face of her favorite toy and wished she could do a skin graft on the plastic toy to make it beautiful again.

Their lives consisted of travelling around the desert areas of Arizona and surrounding states living in mining towns. They were always on the run from perceived evils like the FBI, but they were just moving because of bill collectors. Jeanette’s dad never got along with her mother’s mother, who was very wealthy. So, they never lived a life of luxury. Dad taught them how to shoot guns, and throw knives by the time they were four. They also learned how to read and do math very well by age five. Their parents taught them how to thrive on almost nothing in the desert and survive any type of storm. Dad was an extremely intelligent man. He knew almost everything there was to know about math and science, and he was an inventor. He developed the Prospector to find gold. However, he was an alcoholic, but an awesome story teller. He told stories about what he’s done in life and what he will do; like build the Glass Castle. As soon as they found gold, the Glass Castle would be built.