Sweet Nostalgia

Many of my readers already know that I grew up in the farmlands of Ohio. There wasn’t much to do there. The entertainment gaps were often filled by visits from my grandparents. As a little girl, I would often sit with my grandparents as they told me stories of their youth. All of their stories seemed to start "When I was a kid..." and, although they never actually said it, seemed to end with "... 5 miles through 3 feet of snow to school. And we didn’t even have shoes!" Like most kids, I had the assurance that I knew and had seen everything. So I tuned out their tales, at least until I was old enough to realize that I was wrong. It didn’t take long. By the time I was 13 or 14, I was jaded enough with the modern world to finally be interested. Now I consider their stories as a testament of days gone by... of a time that was simpler than the one that we live in now.

Ah... sweet nostalgia!

Recently, I started wondering how my daughter is ever going to hear stories like that. We live miles from her grandparents, and even when we lived in the same state, neither seemed willing or able to tell stories the way that my grandparents did. How is she going to know what the times of her grandparents’ childhood were like?

Author Richard Peck obviously asked himself that question. In answer, he wrote A Long Way from Chicago as a remarkable fictional tribute to rural life during the early 30s.

The narrator of A Long Way from Chicago is Joey (or Joe, as he preferred to be called when he grew older) Dowdel. Each chapter of the book is a story. Through the stories, Joey describes his yearly visits to his Grandma Dowdel, who lived in a small community in central Illinois. Like most kids, Joey and his sister Mary Alice, believe that spending time at Grandma Dowdel’s is a waste of time. Being from the big city of Chicago, they are sure that they have nothing to gain by being in the country. However, through the years, Grandma Dowdel teaches them about humility, mercy, friendship, and integrity.

A Long Way From Chicago starts out in 1929 with the story "Shotgun Cheatham's Last Night Above Ground". This story, which first appeared in a 1997 anthology called Twelve Shots: Stories about Guns, is about how Grandma Dowdel chooses to handle the death of a poor man named Shotgun Cheatham. While most people in Grandma’s community just want him to have a pauper’s funeral, Grandma decides that he needs to have a proper burial. A gun is, in fact, used in the story. Like many of Grandma Dowdel’s actions, it is inappropriate but sure to bring laughs. The tale sets the tone for the remaining stories, which show Joey and Mary Alice come to welcome the yearly trips to Grandma Dowdel’s. Each visit is an event, with something new being learned on each one.

Not that Grandma Dowdel is really the best role model or teacher. She is larger than life, and her behavior is outlandish and comical. She lies, cheats, bosses people around, and even shoots her granddaddy’s rifle if that is what is required to get attention. In many respects, she is very similar to Lucy Maud Montgomery’s character of Rachel Lynde in Anne of Green Gables. The difference is that Grandma Dowdel isn’t controlled by the conventions of society. However crazy Grandma Dowdel might appear, she is a shrewd and softhearted individual. She takes food to shut-ins and protects the poor and downtrodden like Shotgun Cheatham. She uses her wiles to get what she wants when she wants it. Grandma’s actions might not always be honorable, but they are effective and understandable.

At times, Grandma Dowdel’s deeds can lead to interesting moral questions for the children and for the reader. For instance, in one story entitled "A One-Woman Crime Wave", Grandma Dowdel trespasses on a hunting preserve and uses a trap to catch fish. Both trespassing and the use of traps is illegal. However, Grandma cooks the fish and serves them to the drifters who, during the Depression, are lucky to ever see a good meal. Which is the greater evil: breaking the law or ignoring the poor?

The characters are very indicative of those that are found in a small country town. The banker’s wife, Mrs. Weidenbach, parades around the town and acts as if she owns it and everyone in it. The Cowgill boys are the town troublemakers, though their parents are such zealous churchgoing people that they cannot imagine their children doing wrong. Mrs. Effie Wilcox is Grandma Dowdel’s "worst enemy", yet Grandma cannot imagine not having Effie in her small town. As I read A Long Way from Chicago, I couldn’t help but think of my hometown, which had at least one person who filled every role.

Richard Peck shows his art as a storyteller by weaving these characters into a series of stories set against a realistic Depression era landscape. Small county fairs and hometown parades play a big part in a couple of the stories. I couldn’t help but laugh at the descriptions of some of the settings and ideas of the townspeople, because they were all too familiar to my own small town experience.

A Long Way from Chicago is a real winner, and it’s not just my opinion. Critics have recognized the book for its accurate depiction of American life. In 1999, it was the sole Newbery Honor Book, and it was a National Book Award Finalist in 1998. (Louis Sachar’s Holes won both the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award in those years.) This year, Peck won the Newbery Medal for A Year down Yonder, his sequel to A Long Way from Chicago.

The book is recommended for children aged 12 and up, though the reading level is a little lower than that. One problem that children might have is that they might not understand some of the terms that are used. I asked my daughter what a "privy" was the other day, and she had no clue! Still, it’s still an enjoyable read for an older child who is open to asking questions.

I highly recommend A Long Way from Chicago, especially to those who enjoy the works of Mark Twain or Lucy Maud Montgomery. The characters are amusing, and Grandma Dowdel especially is unforgettable. Those who lived in a country town will find the book especially appealing. For some, it might even be reminiscent of listening to their grandparents’ stories.