Trouble in Strange Places
Growing up in a small town has got to be different from growing up in the city, but I don’t know exactly how. I’ve never lived anywhere else but this small town, and I’m eleven years old. The rest of the family is fine with living in Luverne, Minnesota, but I keep thinking there is a strange wrinkle to living here. My folks just think I’m strange.
Most parents are always on their kids about not leaving the yard, or wandering the neighborhood, or going any place by themselves. But Mom’s rule is we can go almost anywhere if my older sister, Esther, and I stay together. Her other rule is not to go down to the dump.
“There are rats in that dump, and their teeth are longer than your legs.”
Mom says things like that with a straight face, and then turns around and tells her friend on the telephone, “That strange little girl of mine wants to know why
