The Depression is well known to the Greatest Generation. And this author tells it like it was in Season of Waiting. The story takes place in Oakville, where Sarah and her friends must deal with the changes in their lives as the effects of the Great Depression become their reality. Melanie Maniver's first published book, Song of the Night Bird, is still selling after 30 years and Season of Waiting should be its equal.
Sissie looked longingly at the perfume counter while Jean focused on the make-up. Both girls knew they could not buy anything, but it didn't cost anything to look. Nalton's Department Store was owned by the wealthiest family in Oakville, and Nancy Dalton was amazingly unaware of it, Nancy lived in the biggest house in town. It even had an iron fence around the five-acre front yard, and a movie was to be filmed in her home before too long. Nancy was not pretty and she knew it, but she also knew how to remember that she was in need of friends; and she really tried hard to make buddies like some of the other girls did. Sometimes she even wished she could be more like all the other girls her age and be better liked and have a boyfriend. That was her greatest wish. About the time Jean and Sissie were leaving the store, she saw them and waved. They waved back but walked on. Nancy tried to catch up, but they never looked back. Four years later, Nancy married Sam Tomas, handsome, but poor. It seemed a good match. Nancy and Sissie were to become good friends. Sam was to manage Nalton's Department Store.