I forgot to add why Skippy winning an award is important, at least to me, other than for the reasons given in comments scattered throughout this thread.
Skippy came from a dirt-poor, hard-scrabble background--his tale rings eminently credible and honest, although I don't buy this thing about being "poor" because one had a black-and-white television; back in that era, although color television was available,
most American homes still had black-and-white television.
But all else rings true; his description of watching his grandmother wringing necks of chickens and unfeathering them is a classic.
However, despite the
economic status of his family, it appears that his grandfather, his grandmother, his mother, and his sister were what my parents always called "people of quality." Poor, but honest, hardworking, and compassionate. Despite their circumstances, these were people of good breeding.
Skippy himself, despite all these advantages, ended up a primitive.
I'd like to write about where Skippy went wrong.
