43 pages • 1 hour read
The Honey Bus
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Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Fake Grandpa”
In the winter of 1975, Granny buys Sally a new car to replace the family’s Volvo, which barely survived the trip from Rhode Island. Although the car does not inspire Sally to get a job, as Granny hoped, it does give her a new sense of freedom, and she begins to leave her bedroom more often.
After initially refusing to let the kids in the car, Meredith’s mother suddenly announces that she is taking Meredith and Matthew into Carmel to visit the man she calls their real grandfather. Meredith is shocked to learn that Grandpa is not Sally’s father, and she grows angry at her mother for denying and discarding their relationship. As the family drives through a neighborhood much wealthier than their own, Meredith becomes increasingly uncomfortable.
Sally’s father lives in a large, sterile house that reminds Meredith of an art gallery. When he answers the door, he stares at Sally without speaking, then ushers her inside without greeting the children. Meredith feels as if she has disappointed her real grandfather without even speaking, and Matthew remains completely still and silent. The visit is awkward for everyone, and Meredith can sense her mother becoming disengaged as time passes. Before the group leaves, Sally’s father gives Meredith a small jewelry box, which Meredith treasures, despite the fact that she has no jewelry.
On the drive home, Sally grows increasingly angry at her father, shouting to herself that he should have offered to give them money. Meredith and Matthew sit silently in the back seat, pretending to be Jell-O. At home, Grandpa reassures Meredith that he can be her real grandfather if she wants him to be. While watching Grandpa tend to his hives, Meredith observes worker bees instinctively protecting eggs from rain with their wings, despite the fact that they are not the eggs’ parents. She interprets this behavior as the bees giving her permission to choose her own family.
Chapter 8 Summary: “First Harvest”
In the spring of 1975, Meredith keeps a close eye on the thermometer nailed to her grandparents’ fence. She knows that when the weather gets warm enough, Grandpa will begin the process of collecting and processing honey from his hives: the warm weather makes the honey runnier and easier to collect. Now six years old, Meredith is confident that she has grown and learned enough to help Grandpa in the honey bus.
Before landing in Grandpa’s backyard, the honey bus was used to transport US Army personnel from nearby Fort Ord to other bases along the Californian coast. Grandpa originally intended for the bus to be a portable honey house, enabling him to collect and process honey in remote locations without removing the hives. However, the old bus struggled on the narrow, winding roads of Big Sur, and Grandpa eventually parked it in his own back yard.
Inside the bus, Grandpa introduces Meredith to the basics of honey collection. Grandpa removes one of ten wooden frames inside the hive to inspect the honey. If the frame is full, he uses a steam-heated blade called a hot knife to carefully remove the thin layer of wax sealing the honey inside the comb. Finally, he places the unsealed frame into a spinner, which spins the frames so that the honey spills out and into an open vat. The honey is then channeled and filtered into holding tanks to be jarred and sold. Throughout the process, Grandpa is patient with Meredith, giving her time to practice each step before moving on.
While they work, Grandpa asks Meredith how her mother is doing. When Meredith seems unsure, Grandpa tells her that Sally loves her but has a hard way of showing it, and she has always been this way. Meredith is unsure what he means. She loses herself in the process of processing honey and is filled with pride when Grandpa presents her with a freshly processed jar.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Unaccompanied Minor”
Shortly after turning seven, Meredith receives a letter from her father David asking her to visit him and his new wife D’Ann in Rhode Island. Meredith is ecstatic to learn that her father hasn’t forgotten her, as she feared. Although Sally initially refuses to let her go, she finally agrees, pestering Meredith with a list of things to bring back to California, like records and jewelry. Meredith is confused by the desperation in her mother’s requests but promises to bring back the items on the list.
Meredith flies across the country as an accompanied minor. When the plane lands, a flight attendant walks Meredith into the terminal and asks her to identify her father. Meredith does not recognize anyone and begins to panic, thinking that her father changed his mind. When he finally finds her, he looks completely different than she remembered, with a long beard and hippie-influenced clothing. Meredith is relieved to learn that he didn’t recognize her either. On the drive home from the airport, Meredith learns that her father sent her many letters and often tried to call her. She grows angry with her mother and grandmother for keeping this from her.
Meredith spends an incredible week with David and D’Ann, and she allows herself to pretend that they are her full-time family and that she is an only child. At the end of the week, David tells Meredith that she doesn’t have to go back to California and asks if she wants to stay with him. Although Meredith wants to stay, she can’t imagine leaving her brother and mother, and she tells her father no. She sees the idea as “sinful” and “deceitful.”
After Meredith returns to California, Sally spends the two-hour car ride home questioning her about David and D’Ann. Meredith refuses to answer and resents her mother for taking away the joy of her trip. When they arrive in Carmel Valley, Grandpa asks questions about the trip and truly listens. Meredith is relieved that she decided to return to California.
Chapters 7-9 Analysis
In this section of The Honey Bus, more details emerge about Meredith’s parents, Sally and David. As Meredith spends more time with her parents, the traditional parental roles are reversed: Meredith is frequently forced to act like an adult in response to her parents’ childish behaviors. In Chapter 7, for example, visiting her father causes Sally to lash out emotionally, frightening the children. Meredith responds level-headedly, explaining that she “wanted to comfort” her mother and “hurry home so she could get back in bed where it was safe” (146). Observing her mother’s relationship with her birth father made Meredith “more sympathetic” toward Sally, and she ends the day by promising herself “not to get so angry with [Sally] for staying in bed” (146). Meredith’s reaction to her mother’s outbursts suggests Meredith is forced to act as the adult in their relationship. While the memoir highlights the difference between child Meredith and adult memoirist May, it hence also portrays The Lasting Effects of Trauma by highlighting how child Meredith develops these reflective and adult characteristics early.
Meredith experiences a similar reversal of parental roles while visiting her father in Rhode Island in Chapter 9. Initially, the trip is a healing experience for Meredith, who pretends that she “was an only child with two happy parents who doted on me” (180). During her time with David and D’Ann, Meredith leans into her new role as the spoiled daughter. Her dedication to acting like their daughter suggests that Meredith misses feeling like a child, a role her mother’s behavior prohibits her from taking. At the end of the trip, however, David also begins to act in ways that make Meredith uncomfortable, telling her that she doesn’t have to return to her family in California as planned but can stay with him. Meredith views staying with him as a profound break of trust with her family. Meredith explains to her father that she “couldn’t leave Matthew behind” and that she worried about what “Mom would do if [she] didn’t come home” (186-87). David expresses no concerns about how Meredith’s absence would affect the rest of the family. The fact that seven-year-old Meredith thinks about how her actions affect others while her adult father does not suggests, once again, that parental roles have been reversed. Throughout The Honey Bus, young Meredith is forced to make mature decisions while the adults around her act on impulse and emotion.
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