1. Maturity
1.1. When you have hard times in your life you grow up.
1.1.1. "fourteen-going-on-fifteen as I recall that devastating moment when I was suddenly more woman than child, years ago in Miss Lottie’s yard." Page #1
1.2. When you are young your emotions are crazy.
1.2.1. "strange nostalgia comes with it and remains long after the picture has faded. I feel again the chaotic emotions of adolescence" Page #1
2. Compassion
2.1. We all can change, for better of for worse.
2.1.1. "Suddenly I was ashamed, and I did not like being ashamed. The child in me sulked and said it was all in fun, but the woman in me flinched at the thought of the malicious attack that I had led." Page # 3
2.2. It is hard for you to hear people that you love to cry.
2.2.1. "I had never heard a man cry before. I did not know men ever cried. I covered my ears with my hands but could not cut off the sound of my father’s harsh, painful, despairing sobs." Page # 4
3. Childish
3.1. Children do things that are bad or mean.
3.1.1. "annoying Miss Lottie was always fun. I was still child enough to scamper along with the group" Page 2
3.2. The author believes that children do things out off rage or for 'fun'.
3.2.1. "Suddenly zing—an expertly aimed stone cut the head off one of the blossoms. “Who out there?” Miss Lottie’s backside came down and her head came up as her sharp eyes searched the bushes. “You better git!” " Page #3
4. Change
4.1. The world changes a lot in a short amount of time.
4.1.1. " Having no radios, few newspapers, and no magazines, we were somewhat unaware of the world outside our community. Nowadays we would be called culturally deprived" Page # 1
4.2. After one phase of life ends another starts.
4.2.1. And I remember, that year, a strange restlessness of body and of spirit, a feeling that something old and familiar was ending, and something unknown and therefore terrifying was beginning." Page # 1
5. Growth
5.1. Children will change and they will grow up.
5.1.1. "When we were tiny children, we thought Miss Lottie was a witch and we made up tales that we half believed ourselves about her exploits. We were far too sophisticated now, of course, to believe the witch nonsense." Page 2
5.2. Growing up comes in one big moment where you are a child or an adult.
5.2.1. "that was the moment when childhood faded and womanhood began. That violent, crazy act was the last act of childhood. For as I gazed at the immobile face with the sad, weary eyes, I gazed upon a kind of reality which is hidden to childhood" Page #5
6. Empathy
6.1. When people go through hard times you need to have people that know how you feel.
6.1.1. "I could hear my mother’s voice, deep and rich, humming softly as she used to hum to a frightened child. The world had lost its boundary lines. My mother, who was small and soft, was now the strength of the family; my father, who was the rock on which the family had been built, was sobbing like the tiniest child." Page # 4
6.2. The author believes that People have hard times in life and you should get to know them so you can help them in their hard times.
6.2.1. "She (Miss Lottie) had been born in squalor and lived in it all her life. Now at the end of that life she had nothing except a falling down hut, a wrecked body, and John Burke, the mindless son of her passion." Page #5