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Characters in the Skeeter Kitefly Books

(presented more-or-less in the order of their appearance)

  The Wunderlichs 
 


The Ups and Downs of Skeeter Kitefly

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
 

Skeeter Kitefly's Sugardaddy Confessor

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

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Skeeter Kitefly's
Titular Assets

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COMPACTIFICATION
behind the scenes


RoBynne O'Ring's
GRUNTS OF
PASSION

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TO BE HONEST


FINE LINEAGE


13 BLACK CATS
UNDER A LADDER


BOLSTER,
NOT MOLEST HER


MARAT À LA MODE


BAGELANNA


OLD LITTER

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About the Author

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Characters

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Etc.ography

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Last Updated

February 05, 2010
 


Grandma Frieda

Grandmother of Skeeter's Gramma Addie and
Great-Aunt Emmy: a no-nonsense, maxim-
coining hausfrau matriarch.

 


...She was turning to go when Skeeter asked, “What was the second thing?”  “Hum?”  “The other home truth your Grandma said to know.”  “Oh—ha!  ‘You can always catch a husband, but with men so lazy you’d best get an education first.’  Remember that, hawney, and study hard...”

TWO POINTS


Gustav (Gus)

Frieda's carpenter husband, who built the
House With All The Porches on four acres
alongside a railroad spur near Tawe Street
in Marble Orchard.
 


...Sixty showery Aprils later, and the trees were taller.  Some superannuated, like the twin oaks out back.  Other planted by Gustav Wunderlich, whose abruptly-pointed chin had been passed down unto the fourth generation and sharpened even Skeeter’s roundish jaw...

BUYING THE FARM


George

Gus and Frieda's eldest, dead at age ten.
 


...That big shade tree on the front lawn: planted in memory of firstborn George, who’d died of typhoid...

BUYING THE FARM


Aunt Livy

Spent her life caring for others, assisting
her mother (and later her niece) with the
housekeeping and childraising.  Her little
bedroom by the linen closet would become
Skeeter's.

 


...I inherited them all—bed, quilt, pillowfluff—from Gramma Otto’s Aunt Livy.  Who would be my great-great- (or maybe it’s great-great-great-) aunt, if you’re still trying to follow this.  Everything in that room, practically, had been hers.  And as I was reminded umpty times, “Aunt Livy kept it in apple-pie order every day of her life, even when she was over eighty...”

THE ENVY OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD


Aunt Claudia

Bookkeeper at the Market Square dry goods
shop; a brusque take-charge type, frowning
on lightheartedness.  In middle age, married
a lackluster fireman.


...Look at Aunt Claudia!  Abrasive teetotal temperament.  Chivvying that dull tool Uncle Ned into an early grave; then went more than a little batty herself.  Took to visiting Rosewood Cemetery every day, joining all the funerals and acting as permanent star mourner.  Umm umm umm...

BUYING THE FARM


Louis (Lou)

Emmy and Addie's father: imposing, obstinate,
gruff.  Ran the Wunderlich Bros. grocery when
his baseball hopes were dashed; chafed away
the rest of his life out of sheer frustration.


“...More than anything else, my Dad wanted to be a pro baseball player.  And he was good, too, good enough to play in the county league.  But all that came to an end when he tried to steal third sliding and tore up his whole left side—hip, leg, foot.  Broke his foot something awful.  They wanted to fetch a doctor, but Dad wouldn’t have it—said just to take him home, he’d ‘sleep it off...’  He was that mule-stubborn...”

TWO POINTS


Margaret (Maggie)

Emmy and Addie's mother: had a calming
effect on Lou, but died of heart failure at
only twenty-seven.
 


...I had to leave Whippy behind when I moved to Demortuis ‘cause she was a country cat and didn’t care for city life.  Gramma renamed her “Margaret,” which incidentally was her mother’s name (Gramma’s, that is; Whippy’s mother was named “Puff”...)

LIKE A COUPLE OF HORSES



CHARACTERS:

Page One
Page Two
Page Three
Page Four
Page Five
Page Six
The Wunderlichs


 


 


"The original" Emily

Gus and Frieda's youngest daughter, who died
of tuberculosis at the age of twelve.
 


...Those Hungerfords.  They convinced me that a little girl who “looked just like me” had coughed herself to death in Gramma’s bedroom closet, years ago, and that her ghost would swoop out around midnight and smell like rotten eggs and so on.  I tried to catch her doing it a bunch of times, but never managed once...

LIKE A COUPLE OF HORSES
 


Uncle Willie

Lou's partner in the Wunderlich Bros. grocery,
and founder of the Family Quartet.  Enjoyed a
long happy carefree life; was considered
"frivolous" by his mother and sister Claudia.
 


...They say he was a real charmer.  Taught himself to play the piano and mandolin and saxophone, and wore boutonnieres in the Lutheran church on Sundays that weren’t Easter, and belonged to every social club in town and escorted lots of eligible widows around, but never married any of them so got chalked up as a “fickle lazybones”...

LIKE A COUPLE OF HORSES
 


Uncle Stanley

Youngest of seven: spoiled by Frieda and
Livy, hated by Lou.  Practiced dentistry in
Demortuis, and being "the most boring person
in the state of Nilnisi"—


“...Well, they did take Dad home—couldn’t get him up the stairs, so they put him on the horsehair sofa in the parlor, and there he lay groaning.  Uncle Stanley came down to complain about the noise, took one look at Dad’s foot and fainted away.  Dad never let him forget it, of course...”

TWO POINTS
 


Aunt Minnie

—unless that was his wife Minnie.
 


“...Minnie!  Was she a mouse?”  “No, she was a pill.  A Real Pill.  And they put on airs.  Would phone you up of a Sunday afternoon and hold forth till heck wouldn’t have it...”

TWO POINTS
 


The Wunderlich Family Quartet

Performed at many weddings, funerals, and
county fairs: Willie the pianist and tenor, Livy
the soprano, Claudia the contralto, and Lou
the bass-baritone.
 

 

...They also had a professional family quartet back in the olden days, and would sing things like “Go Tell Aunt Rhody Her Old Grey Goose Is Cooked” at funerals all over Booth County...

LIKE A COUPLE OF HORSES


Uncle Murgatroyd

Added to the family tree by Skeeter Kitefly.
 


“...Like Uncle Murgatroyd?” I say, and ad-lib this neat-o story about a mythical uncle who had hanged himself on the treehouse rope after getting jilted by a cruel figure skater named Heidi. 
Boy, did I lay it on—even had the Creep half-believing it, till I went “Heavens to Murgatroyd” in a Snagglepuss voice...

THE ENVY OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD
 


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