Inside toilet (Symbol)
In lines three and four the speaker writes, "you always remember things like living in Woodlawn / with no inside toilet." The "inside toilet" is a symbol for poverty, which the speaker experienced as a child. However, as the speaker emphasizes throughout the poem, this poverty did not mean she had an unhappy childhood.
Hollydale (Symbol)
Hollydale, mentioned in line 15, is a symbol for dreams. The speaker's parents wanted to build a home in the housing development, but they were unable to secure a loan to do so. She recalls seeing "your father’s pain as he sells his stock / and another dream goes." The destruction of this dream stands out to the speaker as a time when she was genuinely upset as a child, but the speaker emphasizes that the root of her sadness was her empathy for her father—a sign of their close relationship.
