No Ironbound roughnecks were going to get the better of him or come anywhere near his kids.
-- Narration (chapter 1)

Importance: Without hesitation, Cantor stands up to the ten men threatening to trespass onto the playground and willfully spread polio. Cantor’s courage and sense of duty are integral in establishing and demonstrating his sense of scruples and responsibility that define him at the beginning of the novel.

Polio is a disease that we have to live with every summer. It’s a serious disease that’s been around all my life.
-- Bucky Cantor (chapter 1)

Importance: Cantor says this to the Chancellor Avenue School students under his supervision for the summer. His statements not only serve to demonstrate his fidelity to calmness and rationality, but they also serve to inform a modern-day reader as to the former commonplace nature of the horrible polio virus.

[Cantor was] at the mercy of his grief, with no idea what to do...
-- Narration (chapter 1)