Thanksgiving

Jeanette and her new husband John invite her family over to their farmhouse. This is the first time they have all be together since Rex's death. John and Jeanette pickup Rose Mary and Lori and the train station and return to the house where Brian and his eight year old daughter waited. They reminisce on memories concerning Rex and make a toast to him. They also discuss that Maureen might be visiting soon from California because she had moved there after she was released from the metal institution. I enjoyed this book very much because of the spontaneous comical and tragic events. It was very interesting and allowed me to view things in a way I may never have thought of before.

New York City

Lori and Jeanette move into a fairly nice apartment together and both have jobs and pay rent. Eventually they ask Brian and Maureen to move to the city also because life in Welch had been steadily declining now for a while. Lori, Brian, and Jeanette all find steady jobs and care for themselves while Maureen mooches off of boyfriends. Rex and Rose Mary eventually move to the city also and become squatters because they refuse to get real jobs. Maureen ends up in a mental institution after stabbing Rose Mary and being arrested. Soon after Rex dies of a heart attack and Jeanette takes time to reflect on herself and decides to divorce her husband Eric and move forward.

Welch

Again the family moved, this time to Welch West Virginia. The most notable difference is the challenges that the winter season brings the family. In result of their poor living conditions they have heat problems, water problems, and electricity problems. They meet their grandma, whom they are to call Erma, their grandpa and their uncle Stanley. Erma is downright mean to the children and sexually harasses Brian along with slapping Lori. The children all go to school in Welch and Jeanette begins working on the school newspaper in seventh grade. She continues to do this until she graduates. Home life begins to become so rough all the children want to find ways to escape. Lori decides to move to New York City as soon as she graduates and Jeanette moves down with her after she finishes her junior year. Welch was probably the worst place of all and the children spent the majority of their years growing up there.

Age ten

Rex asks Jeanette what she wants for her birthday and she replies by asking him to stop drinking and stay sober. He tries his best to stay sober and faces delirium from withdrawal. Although then he went missing for a few days. When he returned home he caused a commotion and began breaking things and cursing at the children. Eventually he starts yelling with Rose Mary and they begin wrestling with knives then laugh it off after. This shows you the mind set of these "parents".

Jeanette age eight

At only eight years old Jeanette experiences rape. Her "friend" Billy Deel rapes her and the next day decides to stalk her. Billy stands outside the house calling Jeanette’s name. When Lori tells him to go away he says he told Jeanette she would be sorry and began firing his BB gun. Lori then runs upstairs to grab Rex's pistol and shoot in Bills direction to scare him off. The next day they once again moved. They move into Grandma Smith's old house and Rex lands an electrician job. At this point everything was going good and the children even had bicycles. Rose Mary encourages the children to not conform to society and be unique. Also Rex brings the children to the zoo and brings his children in the cage with a live cheetah and begins petting it. He puts both himself and his children in serious peril by doing so and it doesn’t seem to faze him. Soon after Rex lost his job and the family began falling apart once again. Food was scarce and because of the lack of income Rose Mary had taught the children how to shoplift.

Decline of Rex and Rose Mary's New Job

At this point Rex has lost his job and he has begun disappearing a lot also. The children begin to fend for themselves even it meant stealing. The children even resort to eating butter because they are so hungry. When Rex gets home one night he and Rose Mary begin arguing over the money issue and the argument escalates to painting being thrown out the window. Somehow Rose Mary ends up dangling from the second floor and Rex tries to pull her in. Rose Mary accuses him of trying to her kill her and he says that she jumped. The children are not affected by the fight because to them it’s normal by now. Rose Mary finds a teaching job and is said to be a bad teacher for not being able to control her classroom. When the principal threatens to fire her, Lori and Jeanette begin helping her grade papers and create lesson plans. The children believed that because their mom had a job they would have food and be able to buy new clothes. Although not to their suprise Rex had been escorting Mary Rose to the bank to cash her check and then using the money for himself.

Elementary School

Rex received a job as an electrician at a barite mine. He spends time with the children and teaches them how to play all kinds of games. The children are enrolled in elementary school and Jeanette begins staying after countless days for her teacher Miss Page. She stays after to do homework that Rex had taught her how to do incorrectly. The children have few restrictions and are only warned to use their common sense at all times and be home before the street lights are on. Jeanette begins collecting rocks and making necklaces for her mother. Jeanette and Brian take trips to the dump and are both fascinated with the wide spectrum of items they find. They even wander through the toxic and hazard area of the dump. The children are never given money so they collect and return cans and bottles. They then usually spend their earnings on penny candy at a local drugstore. One day on their way home from the drugstore there was a woman sitting on the porch of what their mother liked to call a "cat house". Brian talked to the women and as she stroked his hair. He declares that she was sort of nice.