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DOING THE TOLEDO by Barbara Bottner

DOING THE TOLEDO

By

Pub Date: March 1st, 1977
Publisher: Four Winds

Aw c'mon"" is the gist of cowboy-hatted Maurice's lines as he coaxes a resistant Genine to ""do the Toledo"" and his brother Murray indulges in space and power fantasies on a souped-up three-wheeler. What engage right off are Bottner's straggly kids posturing on stoop and sidewalk (although the debt to Rosie's Brooklyn block is hard to ignore) and the puffy balloons, wry and colloquial, that reveal their thoughts. (""She'll probably do it in ten minutes,"" observes cynical Murray.) Genine of course enjoys every limelit minute of it and so, when Maurice appears to be marching off in a huff, she ""does the Toledo""--which turns out to be a flying somersault over a makeshift trampoline of pillows and mattresses. Then she agrees to teach the boys how, and we leave the three of them leaping about together. Corky fun--though the debt to Rosie's Brooklyn block is hard to ignore.