Summer of the Monkeys Quotes

“Son, that's a pretty hard question to answer. But I do believe that any wish you make can come true if you help the wish. I don't think that the Lord meant for our lives to be so simple and easy that every time we wanted something, all we had to do was wish for it and we'd get it. I don't believe that at all. If that were true, there would be a lot of lazy people in this old world. No one would be working. Everyone would be wishing for what they needed or wanted.
"Papa," I asked, "how can you help a wish?"
"Oh, there are a lot of ways," Papa said. "Hard work, faith, patience, and determination. I think prayer and really believing in your wish can help more than anything else.”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“We’re going to build a big pen out of that chicken wire,” he said. “It’ll have a top on it and a door with a snap latch. We’ll put those coconuts right in the center of the pen and leave the door open. Then we’ll tie the binder twine to the door and run it back through the pen and out into the brush a little way. When those monkeys go into the pen after those coconuts, we’ll pull the binder twine and latch the door. What do you think of that idea?” Before I answered Grandpa, I closed my eyes and drew a picture of the pen in my mind.”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“Gabriel”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“didn’t know why I was holding my breath because I knew that the old saying of how you could hold your breath and nothing would sting you was pure hogwash. I had tried that before and it hadn’t worked at all. Rowdy would have absolutely nothing to do with anything that”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“It’s not good for a boy to want something with all his heart and then be disappointed. Things like that can hurt for a long time.”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“Grandpa,” I asked, “what good’s it going to do us, knowing his name?” “It might do a lot of good,” Grandpa said. “This trainer says that if you could make friends with that monkey he would probably do anything you wanted him to do.” “Make friends with him!” I said. “Grandpa, I don’t”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“You know, an old man like me can teach a young boy like you all the good things in life. But it takes a young boy like you to teach an old man like me to appreciate all the good things in life. I guess that’s what life’s all about.”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“I was still a boy when I left the Ozarks, only sixteen years old. Since that day, I’ve left my footprints in many lands: the frozen wastelands of the Arctic, the bush country of Old Mexico, and the steaming jungles of Yucatán. Throughout my life, I’ve been a lover of the great outdoors. I have built campfires in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and hunted wild turkey in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I have climbed the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, and hunted bull elk in the primitive area of Idaho. I can truthfully say that, regardless of where I have roamed or wandered, I have always looked for the fairy ring. I have never found one, but I’ll keep looking and hoping. If the day ever comes that I walk up to that snow-white circle, I’ll step into the center of it, kneel down, and make one wish, for in my heart I believe in the legend of the rare fairy ring.”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“coaxed,”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“looked over to where I had dropped my net. There it was right where I had dropped it; wide open and not a monkey in it. I couldn’t believe it. How on earth could the little monkeys have gotten out of the net? My first thought was that the yellow ring had gotten tangled in a bush, and while the monkeys were flouncing”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“eardrums”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“A big grinning Ozark moon crawled up out of nowhere and seemed to say, “Hi, neighbor! I’ve been looking for you. It gets kind of lonesome out here. Welcome to the land of the Cherokee!”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“I’ve always figured that a man can do almost anything if he puts his mind to it and doesn’t ever give up.”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“I’ll always remember this as the summer of the monkeys.”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“There are monkeys in the bottoms
In those tall white sycamores.
There are monkeys in the bottoms,
Worth a million or more. “So come along, Old Rowdy,
And let’s get on the trail
Of a hundred dollar monkey.
We’ll catch him by the tail.”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“Arkansas”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“What are all those people doing under the trees?” I asked. “Those are students,” Grandpa said. “They’re probably studying their lessons. They have their classes inside those buildings.” “That wouldn’t be a bad place to go to school,” I said. “Instead of having to stay in the schoolhouse to study, you could just go outside and sit under a tree. I think I’d like that.” “I hope I live to see the day when you go to college here,” Grandpa said. “Do you think you’d like it?”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“Daisy smiled and said, “Jay Berry, you won’t die. You may think you will, but you won’t. In a day or two, you’ll be as good as new, I hope.” “You’re just saying that because you heard Papa say it,” I said. “No, I’m not!” Daisy said. “I’m saying it because I’m a nurse, and nurses are supposed to cheer up their patients.” I knew all too well that once Daisy had gotten into one of her Red Cross nursing spells, it was ridiculous to even think of trying to argue her out of it. So I just groaned, closed my eyes, and sat there while”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“celluloid”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“If there were any wild hogs around, he could scare the daylights out of them with his deep voice.”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“I’d been living around Mama for fourteen years; and a boy can learn a lot about his mama in that length of time.”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“country”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“flouncing”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“opportunity,”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“When I saw my little sister kneeling in the center of that snow-white circle, and that old crutch laying on the ground beside her, I forgot about ponies and .22s. I wanted my little sister to get that old leg of hers fixed up. I wanted that more than anything I had ever wanted in my life. That was going to be my wish. Once”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“anxious”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“if it hadn’t been for your grandma, I would have run that professor clean out of the country.”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys

“the Old Man of the Mountains is very, very old. He’s as old as these hills. His hair is snow white and hangs way down over his shoulders. He wears a long, white robe, and sandals on his feet. Every time I see him, he has a crooked stick in his hand. He can just point that stick at something and it will disappear.”
― Wilson Rawls, Summer of the Monkeys