The glass castle: a memoir by Jeannette Walls

Author:Jeannette Walls
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Autobiography, Social Science, Problem families, Childhood Memoir, Editors, Literary, Biography & Autobiography, Jeannette, Family Relationships, Children of alcoholics - United States, Children of alcoholics, Poor, Publishers, Journalists, Homeless persons - Family relationships - New York (State) - New York, Walls, Poverty, West Virginia, Family Development, Adult Children of Substance Abusers, United States, Family & Relationships, Problem families - United States, Alcohol Abuse, Self-Help, Poverty & Homelessness, Problem families - West Virginia - Welch, Homeless persons, Dysfunctional families, Poor - West Virginia - Welch, General, Nonfiction - General, Case studies, Entertainment & Performing Arts - Television Personalities, Welch, Biography, Children of alcoholics - West Virginia - Welch
ISBN: 9780743247535
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2005-03-01T08:00:00+00:00

IN LATE WINTER, Mom and Dad decided to drive the Oldsmobile back to Phoenix. They said they were going to fetch our bikes and all the other stuff we'd had to leave behind, pick up copies of our school records, and see if they could rescue Mom's fruitwood archery set from the irrigation ditch alongside the road to the Grand Canyon. We kids were to remain in Welch. Since Lori was the oldest, Mom and Dad said she was in charge. Of course, we were all answerable to Erma.

They left one morning during a thaw. I could tell by the high color in Mom's cheeks that she was excited about the prospect of an adventure. Dad was also clearly itching to get out of Welch. He had not found a job, and we were dependent on Erma for everything. Lori had suggested that Dad go to work in the mines, but he said the mines were controlled by the unions, and the unions were controlled by the mob, and the mob had blackballed him for investigating corruption in the electricians' union back in Phoenix. Another reason for him to return to Phoenix was to gather his research on corruption, because the only way he could get a job in the mines was by helping reform the United Mine Workers of America.

I wished we were all going together. I wanted to be back in Phoenix, sitting under the orange trees behind our adobe house, riding my bike to the library, eating free bananas in a school where the teachers thought I was smart. I wanted to feel the desert sun on my face and breathe in the dry desert air and climb the steep rock mountains while Dad led us on one of the long hikes that he called geological survey expeditions.

I asked if we could all go, but Dad said he and Mom were making a quick trip, strictly business, and we kids would only get in the way. Besides, he couldn't go taking us out of school in the middle of the year. I pointed out that it had never bothered him before. Welch wasn't like those other places we had lived, he said. There were rules that had to be followed, and people didn't take it kindly when you flouted them.

"Do you think they'll come back?" Brian asked as Mom and Dad drove off.

"Of course," I said, though I had been wondering the same thing. These days we seemed more of an inconvenience than we used to be. Lori was already a teenager, and in a couple of years, Brian and I would be, too. They couldn't toss us into the back of a U-Haul or put us in cardboard boxes at night.

Brian and I started running after the Oldsmobile. Mom turned once and waved, and Dad stuck his hand out the window. We followed them all the way down Court Street, where they picked up speed and then turned the corner. I had to believe they'd come back, I told myself.

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