Find three quotes that accurately represent the family's impoverished life style.

"I didn't have the answers to those questions, but what I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes"( pg 34).

This quote pretty much sums up how her life unravels at a moments notice. Even the hint of family stability isn't enough to ease her fears that evrything will implode.

"She'd been reading books on how to cope with an alcoholic, and they said that drunks didn't remember their rampages, so if you cleaned up after them, they'd think nothing had happened. 'Your father needs to see the mess he's making of our lives,' Mom said. But when Dad got up, he'd act as if all the wreckage didn't exist, and no one discussed it with him. The rest of us had to get used to stepping over broken furniture and shattered glass" (112/113)

This is pretty much how alcoholic dad operated.

"We brought the clothes inside - the socks had hardened into the shape of question marks, and the pants were so stiff you could lean them against the wall - and we banged them against the stove, trying to soften them up. 'At least we don't need to buy starch,' Lori said" (177)

THey had to hang their laundry and, living on the side of a mountain, the freezing temperature froze their clothes.

* my page numbers may be different than yours.