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Joetta Watson (Joey)
Grandma Sands is Wilona’s mother and Kenny’s grandmother. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where Wilona grew up. Because she’s extremely strict and old-fashioned, the children fear her. For years, Daniel and Wilona have threatened to send Byron to live with her if he doesn’t behave, but both Byron and Kenny always assumed this was an empty threat—until, that is, Daniel and Wilona announce that the family will be traveling to Birmingham to drop Byron off at Grandma Sands’s house. When the family arrives, Kenny is astounded to see how small and elderly she looks—he has never seen her before, but he always assumed she was large and scary, since everyone always talks about how strict she is. Byron, however, immediately treats her with respect, and though he tells Kenny that he behaves this way because he doesn’t want to be responsible for accidentally killing Grandma Sands, Kenny senses that he’s lying: in truth, he just doesn’t want to upset her. Grandma Sands has a boyfriend named Mr. Robert, who lives with her.
Grandma Sands Quotes in The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963
The The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 quotes below are all either spoken by Grandma Sands or refer to Grandma Sands. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 11 Quotes
After Grandma Sands gave us directions Byron looked at me sideways and said, “What you starin’ at, square?”
I just shook my head.
“What you expect?” By asked. “You seen her. That bird’s as old as dirt. She’s so old I bet she used to step over dinosaur turds. I ain’t gonna have her death on my hands.”
I knew that was a lie.
It seemed like all of the fight was out of Byron and we’d only been in Birmingham for a couple of minutes.
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Chapter 12 Quotes
I picked up my spoon and kept eating. This was great! I’d never seen Momma act like a little kid who just got yelled at but there she was, picking at a piece of paper towel and looking kind of embarrassed.
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Chapter 13 Quotes
Who could understand Byron? Here was a chance for another Fantastic Adventure and he was going in the wrong direction. Something was wrong with him. If he was in Flint and you told him not to do something he’d go right out and do it, but now he was acting real dull and square. Maybe it was the heat, maybe just like it had sucked all the energy out of me it had sucked all the meanness and fun out of Byron.
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Chapter 15 Quotes
Grandma Sands called a couple of times and told them that the police thought two white men drove by in a car and threw it in during services, or that they’d already hidden it in the church with a clock set to go off during Sunday school. However it got in the church it had killed four little girls, blinded a couple more and sent a bunch of other people to the hospital. I couldn’t stop wondering if those two little girls I saw on the lawn were okay.
From my secret hiding place in the living room I could listen to Momma and Dad and it seemed like they spent most of the time trying to figure out how they could explain to us what happened. Some of the time they were mad, some of the time they were calm and some of the time they just sat on the couch and cried.
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Grandma Sands Character Timeline in The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963
The timeline below shows where the character Grandma Sands appears in The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 7
...an adult conversation. When the children return, Daniel and Wilona are on the phone with Grandma Sands —Wilona’s mother in Alabama. The kids think that’s the end of the entire ordeal until...
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Chapter 8
After speaking to Grandma Sands on the phone, Daniel and Wilona start acting differently. Wilona spends time making budgetary calculations...
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...will be driving down to Birmingham, Alabama, where Byron will live for the summer with Grandma Sands . If he behaves, he can come back to Flint for the school year. If...
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...get such behavior out of his system before he’s under the care of the strict Grandma Sands .
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Chapter 9
Grandma Sands claims that everything is safe and peaceful in her neighborhood, but Daniel and Wilona think...
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Chapter 10
...say that Byron better get used to this kind of outhouse, since it’s exactly what Grandma Sands has!
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Chapter 11
When they finally arrive at Grandma Sands ’s house in Birmingham, Kenny is surprised that the surrounding area doesn’t look so different...
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When Byron greets Grandma Sands , she makes a joke about his buzzcut and then says they’re going to get...
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As Grandma Sands talks to the Watsons, she mentions someone named Mr. Robert, who seems to live with...
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Chapter 12
Kenny goes inside and finds his mother, Grandma Sands , and Joey in the kitchen. Wilona asks her mother questions about old neighbors and...
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Chapter 13
Kenny, Byron, and Joey decide to go swimming. As they leave, Grandma Sands warns them not to go to Collier’s Landing, where a little boy got caught in...
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Chapter 14
...of the American flag: red, white, and blue. Kenny walks all the way back to Grandma Sands ’s house, passing people with looks of dismay on their faces.
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