Chapter twenty is about “The Trolley”. Douglas is horrified to find out that yet another form of transportation for the summer is about to be gone; the trolley run by Mr. Tridden, which will have its tracks replaced with new ones for a bus. On the last day of operation Mr. Tridden offers the children a free ride, and Douglas, Tom, and a group of children from the neighbourhood climb aboard. During the ride, they comment on how a bus cannot emulate the feel and smell of a trolley, further emphasized by use of gorgeous imagery to describe the sights the boys see while in the trolley. At the end of the line, Mr. Tridden uses an emergency generator to take the streetcar on a track line abandoned for eighteen years that leads to a lake where once the trolley took people to summer festivities. Mr Tridden relates the events of a summer night in 1910 before taking the children home. When the trip concludes, Douglas reflects on how he will always remember the trolley tracks, even after they have been buried in reality. In a humorous reversal, the somber meditation on the vanishing of the trolley is punctuated by a brief snippet of Douglas agreeing to a game of kick the can, abruptly ending the chapter on a lighthearted note.
Dandelion Wine – Chapter Twenty
