Summer of My German Soldier

Patty takes the train to Memphis to visit her grandmother, who is worried about her two sisters living in Germany. She takes Patty out to lunch and buys her clothes, and Patty is excited to spend the next Thursday with her. However, her grandmother tells Patty that she and her grandfather are leaving for vacation and she will not be able to spend time with Patty again until August. Patty is disappointed.

Patty marks this day with her grandmother in Memphis as the one exciting day of her summer: The other kids her age have gone to the Baptist Training Camp in the Ozarks, but Patty is left behind. She bikes out to the POW camp a couple times, hoping to see Anton. The other activity that occupies her time is fixing up what she calls her “hideout,” a servants’ room above the garage that is halfway between her house and the railroad tracks. She also likes spending time with Ruth and prays for Ruth’s son, Robert, to come home safe from WWII.

Freddy Dowd, a poor white kid who does not have the money to go the Baptist Training Camp, is also stuck in Jenkinsville for the summer. He and Patty pass the time by throwing stones at the hubcaps of passing cars.