How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I was born eleven years ago, during one of the meanest hurricanes in history. That night as people slept, they say, the rivers rose like a mutiny and pushed ashore, shouldering houses off foundations, lifting the dead from graves, gulping down lives like fresh-shucked oysters. (3.9)
Mo doesn't have some boring old birth story like other kids. No, her story of how she came to join her family is pretty crazy and includes a hurricane, floating down the creek on a raft, and being found by the Colonel after he crashed his car.
Quote #2
The Colonel came to town the same stormy night I did, crashing headfirst into a pine at the edge of town. Some people say he lost his memory in the wreck. Others say he lost it before he got in the car, or he wouldn't have been out in a hurricane. Either way, he climbed out of that car free of every memory he'd ever owned. (3.68)
Mo doesn't have any memories of her life before Tupelo Landing because she was just a newborn when she floated down the creek and into the Colonel's arms. But the Colonel was a grown man. He lost all of his memories because of the car crash… and hasn't regained them since.
Quote #3
"That's me prior to blossoming," she said. "I was just about your age." I turned the page. "And these are my parents sitting in the shade of our oak tree. There's no telling how many Sunday afternoons we spent there. This was before we had air-conditioning—a hundred degrees, a hundred and three…" (11.13)
Miss Lana is the only person in the family who remembers her life before coming to Tupelo Landing, but she doesn't talk about it all that much because she doesn't want to make things uncomfortable for Mo and the Colonel.