I grew up on a farm. The two boys in this story I would have called "town kids", as opposed to "city kids", or myself as a "farm kid". At the age of the boys in this story, I knew some town kids, but almost no city kids. I remember wondering how the city kids spent their summer. How did they even know it was summer? The opening of this book brought the same questions to my mind. Do any writers write the same sort of childhood nostalgia pieces for true city life?
So there were parts of the reminiscing I could relate to, but some other parts did not match up so well:
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[...] the mystery of man seizing from the land and the land seizing back, year after year, that drew Douglas, knowing the towns never really won
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My father was of the same generation as Bradbury, but Australian. Here the lesson, as remembered by my father and passed down to me, was that the towns (man) had won - the land was forever changed. We'd go out onto the plains and Dad would tell us of the trees and wildlife that once flourished but were now lost. He'd tell us of the farms that had tried but failed, and the result now clearly stated by the vast emptiness of the land.
And another difference:
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Douglas walked backward, watching the tennis shoes in the midnight window left behind.
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I only remember being attached to clothes that were well worn in (Mum would have said worn out). This fascination for new shoes felt quite alien. And actually spending my own money on clothing? Never happened. Is this perhaps a peek into a city life that I never saw, and how kids spent their time?