How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The whole heat-hazed place looked as old as the rocks it nestled among. It didn't seem likely to me that anybody had ever been young here. (1.42)
It seems like every generation thinks it invented youth. Howard himself would be well over 100 now, so maybe he needs to get off his high horse.
Quote #2
I see the little old lady on the porch with her hands in her apron. Grandma Tilly: a tiny face wrinkled like a walnut, and wisps of hair drawn back in a knot. Behind her apron she's slender as a girl, and there's something young about her. (1.44)
In the next chapter, we see Tilly through her own eyes. Is there anything that connects Howard's description of her with her description of herself? How do we know this is the same person?
Quote #3
Behind her in a rocker is her husband, older than she is, ancient. Waxy with age, trapped by the years and his chair, but alive behind his eyes. He has a shock of fine white hair and a curling, somehow military mustache. He wears a once-ivory alpaca suit in this stifling afternoon, and a high collar under his chins. He's too old to stand, but his loose-boned, veiny hand comes out to Dad, and his eyes are wet. (1.45)
By our calculations, Dr. Hutchings can't be more than around 80, which just goes to show how much faster people aged back in the day. Also, are we the only ones who think of the Colonel's Kentucky Fried Chicken when we read this description?
Quote #4
There are big square bedrooms above, smelling of old times, and the old. (1.46)
What do old times smell like, exactly? Know, we don't know. Just offering that question up as food for thought.
Quote #5
I hadn't thought of such a thing. I didn't know grown people changed, or were changed. I thought being grown was safer than that. (7.47)
Tilly's referring here to her own older people. It must be weird to have the tables turned and have a young person thinking the same thing about her.
Quote #6
Delphine, whose fan moved in time with the music now, chanted:
Let's dance the Calinda,
Dance the Calinda close together,
Let's dance the Calinda
To make the old ladies mad. (8.49)
There is, or at least there used to be, a stereotype that old ladies don't like young people to have fun, especially the kind of fun that involves physical, ahem, interaction. What would Tilly and Delphine think of that in their old age?
Quote #7
The only light came from the last embers on the hearth. A figure stood there by the kitchen table. In the first moment it was a haunt with long, tangled gray hair hiding its face. Hearing me, the ghost turned, and I saw who it was. (9.17)
Overnight, Mama turns into an old lady, a ghost even. In fact, it doesn't even take her the whole night. What causes this physical transformation?
Quote #8
The sight of it sent the blood hurrying through my veins. I'd been sent to bring my brother home, and here he was. So that was the very last time when I was truly young, young in my heart. That breathless moment in the rattling backboard, almost safely home. (14.40)
Here, Tilly speaks of old age by contrasting it with youth, by saying what it is not. She's not talking about physical aging but rather about spiritual and emotional aging. Earlier, Howard says there's something young about an old woman, and here, Tilly says there's something old about a young woman. Age—it's more than just a number.
Quote #9
The only one of us who napped was old Dr. Hutchings. He sat in his porch rocker, transparent with age, courteous even in drooping sleep. (15.6)
Dr. Hutchings doesn't have a huge role in the 1861 story, and by 1916, his character has nothing to do but sleep.
Quote #10
Neither age nor the weather slowed Grandma Tilly. She was a whirlwind from early morning on, cooking and baking for extra mouths. (15.8)
We'd latch on to Grandma Tilly, too. Delphine is at death's door, and Dr. Hutchings doesn't seem far behind; for his part, Noah never says anything. Tilly's the only one who could keep us entertained for a week in the middle of nowhere.