Chapter 8 Summary

Palmer wishes that Family Fest would end on Friday instead of Saturday so that there would not be enough time to hold the Pigeon Shoot. Each year, during the first week of August, this festival begins on Monday and concludes on Saturday. Palmer cannot recall seeing any pigeons in town with the exception of this fateful week and learns later that the birds are purchased for the shooting contest to raise money for maintenance and upkeep of the park.

Palmer's first recollection of a pigeon shoot is when he was four years old and his mother told him that the wringers were just doing their jobs to put the pigeons out of their misery. Even at a young age, Palmer could not reason why there was not a better way to relieve misery and struggled with the source of pigeon misery in the...