foxtails a stole made of several fox tails linked together.
Big Mamma a southern term for "grandmother."
iceman . . . icebox People kept perishable items in a wooden icebox that contained large chunks of ice purchased from an iceman.
dropsy refers to the modern-day medical term "edema," which is the accumulation of water in the body's tissues or in the body cavity, giving the body a sagging look.
The closed place in the water spread before them. Morrison uses this phrase repeatedly to refer to death; the phrase recalls Chicken Little's drowning in the river: "The water darkened and closed quickly over the place where Chicken Little sank."
hunkies a disparaging term for a person, especially a laborer from east-central Europe. Here, it includes all white immigrants.
copperhead a poisonous North American snake with a reddish-brown body and darker crossbands on its body.
Gabriel Heatter a radio newscaster.
