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That's interesting. I wonder if the consistency was there in the stories written over the years, or if she had to tweak them in putting them together. It would be quite a feat to keep that consistency if the stories were written at many different times - as opposed to being written close to each other and then published at different times.
Meanwhile, back with Dandelion Wine: I was interested in Bradbury's use of the idea of machines as being sometimes a good thing, and sometimes not. For example, the last ride on the trolley car before the tracks were to be pulled up and a bus brought in to replace it. Then, the children learned that the tracks were still there for the old route to the lake, where the trolley no longer went. I did like that idea of the trip into the past.
Another example was the lawnmower which the boarder was using, but was planning on making obsolete with the newly invented grass that never needed cutting. (These days people have that of course, but it's plastic.) It would mean the loss of the dandelions and thus the dandelion wine, which couldn't be allowed to happen.
Machinery going wrong was represented by the Happiness Machine and the Tarot Witch fortune-telling machine. There was also the Green Machine, which meant that Fern and Roberta could move around more easily, but had caused an accident, fortunately not serious.
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