Allison McKenzie and Norman Page teenagers ride bicycles to a picnic on the Connecticut River. Metalious’s picnic is similar to Carson McCullers’s in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; during which Mick Kelly and Harry Minowitz talk about adult life and relationships. Mick and Harry make love; Allison and Norman talk and eat ham or egg sandwiches and potato chips and drink Coca-Cola. “ Allison and Norman are drawn together as friends.
They stayed in the water until they were chilled, and when they stood on the shore again, water clung to them in little rainbow-colored drops. Allison, who swam without a bathing cap, began to towel her hair, and Norman sat down on the quilt to examine his scraped foot. The sun was welcome now, beating down on their cold skins and warming them. Allison sat down next to Norman.
“Do you want to eat?”O.K. I’ll see if the Coke is cooled off any.”
“It should be. That water is like ice.”
They munched sandwiches and looked, squinty-eyed, across the water where the sun reflected itself as if in a mirror.
“I don’t know why it should,” said Norman, “but it always gives me a funny feeling to look across the river and think that it’s Vermont over there.”
“It’s like riding in a car and crossing a town line,” said Allison. “One minute you’re in Peyton Place and the next you’re somewhere else. I always say it to myself. Now I’m in Peyton Place—and now I’m not. It always makes me feel funny, just the way sitting here and looking at Vermont does.”
“Are there any more egg sandwiches left, or only ham?”
“I brought four of each. You can have one of mine, if you want. I’d just as soon have ham.”
“I should have brought some potato chips.”
“They’re always so greasy in the summertime.”
“I know it.”
“Have a pickle.”
“Do you want to swim again?”
“Not until the sun begins to feel hot.“Are you going to get married when you’re old?” asked Norman.
“No. I’m going to have affairs instead.”
“What shall we do with all this waxed paper? We can’t just leave it here.”
“Put it back in the hamper. I’ll throw it away when we get back.”
See Grace Metalious. Peyton Place. New York, 1956