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The 1950's
 Dreamboat - A Fifties Story, Part 2

Dreamboat - A Fifties Story, Part 2
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 4 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   3.07

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    amongst, checkout, coupe, dollface, dreamboat, hot-rodders, like-after, pooper, slack, waitress, work-plowing, practically, dreams, especially, rarely, passenger
     content words:    Dell Daniels, Cloud Nine

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Dreamboat - A Fifties Story, Part 2
By Toni Lee Robinson 		  
1     Dell reached over and swung open the passenger door of his car. Patsy smiled brightly. "Thanks!" she said, hopping into the coupe. She looked back at Joyce still standing on the sidewalk. "You coming?" she asked.
 
2     Joyce shook her head. "My parents wouldn't like me riding with someone they don't know," she said.
 
3     Patsy rolled her eyes. She turned to Dell. "I guess she's going to be a party pooper." Dell shrugged. He shifted gears, and they roared off down the street.
 
4     Patsy's parents had made it clear that she was to use the two hours after school to do her homework at the library. Every day, her father picked her up there on his way home from work. Then, it was Patsy's job to make supper and care for her younger brother. She also had farm chores to do.
 
5     Patsy's father did the farm work—plowing, planting, and the like—after working at his regular job all day. Her mother worked nights in town as a waitress at the new diner. Patsy was expected to take up the slack. She had to do all the tasks that Mom didn't have time for.
 
6     "I saw my folks lose everything they had in the Thirties. That's not going to happen to us," Dad said, grimly determined. "If we all work hard, we can pay everything off. We won't owe anybody anything, and they can't take it away from us."
 
7     In their family, Patsy thought angrily, work was life. God forbid that you would ever have time to relax. Sometimes she wanted to scream. But work and home were the farthest things from her mind just now. Cruising with Dell was exhilarating. Patsy felt adventurous and a little wild.
 
8     Just before it was time to meet Dad, Dell had pulled up around the corner from the library doors. That way, if Dad had arrived a little early, he wouldn't see her getting out of the black coupe. Patsy hopped out of the car. She felt as if she was floating several feet off the ground.

Paragraphs 9 to 21:
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