Rose: Oh, we used to cook outdoors all the time when we were kids. Remember our camping trips, Lily?
Lily: Oh, I sure do. During the summer, our father would take the whole family on camping trips into the wilderness. Of course, it wasn't really the wilderness. He'd drive in circles for about 20 minutes and then end up in the woods just beyond the barn. It was years before all the kids caught on to Dad's trick.
Rose: What do you mean, just beyond the barn?

Blanche: Oh, I just love barbecues. We used to have the most wonderful ones back home. I can remember sitting out under a big old tree with the Darcy triplets: Hank, Beau and Dove. Eating and talking and laughing. And then along towards the end of the meal, why, the boys always got into a fight over who was going to get to lick the barbecue sauce from my fingertips and kiss away the little droplet of butter that always drizzled down my chin. Oh, has it gotten awful hot out here?

Dorothy: You know, when I was in college, I taught school part-time at one of those schools for the blind. It is really amazing what they can accomplish.
Lily: Oh, I went to one of those schools for a little while. It's just a lot of talking and hand-holding. Never been so bored in my life. I think I'm just the kind of person that likes to get out there and do it.
Rose: Did you know that my sister Lily still holds the record at our high school for the 100-yard dash? She served three terms on the city council, and she was the first woman in St. Olaf's to ever have a pilot's license.
Blanche: Oh, really? Well, we have something in common, Lily. I was the first woman in my hometown ever to have a pilot.
Dorothy: Blanche's bed is next to the X-15 at the Space and Aviation Museum.

Blanche: Honey, it's a terrible thing to do something out of guilt. Believe me, I know. Just about the time that George and I were getting serious, he was shipped off to Korea. Well, I wanted to do my part for the war effort, so I took a job in a factory that made canteens. I figured that one of the canteens that I had riveted would somehow find its way to George, and his lips would drink from the galvanized spout I had so lovingly fashioned, thereby symbolically reuniting us.
Rose: Oh, Blanche, that's a beautiful reason to take that job.
Blanche: Well, that wasn't the only reason. That factory also had a comprehensive dental plan, and I was in desperate need of a bridge and two crowns.
Dorothy: War is hell.
Blanche: So were my teeth. Anyway, while I was working on that assembly line, why, I met a young man named Andrew Beandorf. Oh, it was just a platonic thing. We just went out to the movies and dinner. But when George came home on leave, he was furious. He accused me, unjustly, of infidelity while he was off fighting in some foreign land, some godforsaken land where people didn't even believe in Jesus. And he forbade me ever to see Andrew again. So, of course, I didn't.
Dorothy: So you lost a good friend just because George made you feel guilty about it.
Blanche: That's right. I lost a good friend and a wonderful companion and an excellent lover.
Rose: An excellent lover?
Blanche: Did I say "excellent lover"? Oh, no, I meant excellent riveter.
Dorothy: I can understand how you could confuse the two.
Blanche: Anyway, the point is guilt is a very bad thing. Story over.

Sophia: I was just talking to Lily. I hear you're moving with her back to Chicago.
Rose: That's right.
Sophia: Good idea. Now you can ruin your life and hers. I got dibs on Rose's room.
Rose: Sophia, you just don't understand.
Sophia: Please, Rose. What I forgot, you'll never know. Tell her, Dorothy, how bad off I was when I had my stroke.
Dorothy: You were really sick, Ma. You know, in the beginning, she couldn't walk, she couldn't talk, she couldn't even feed herself.
Sophia: All I could do was sit and feel sorry for myself, which is what I did all the time.
Blanche: But you got better.
Sophia: Yeah, because she stopped coddling me. She screamed, she hollered, day and night. She made me do my therapy. She forced me to rebuild my life because she knew I could. And for that I'll always be grateful.
Dorothy: Oh, thanks, Ma.
Sophia: I only have one question. Now that I'm better, why do you still scream and holler at me?

Dorothy: Oh, Lily, honey, how do you like your steak?
Lily: Oh, medium's fine.
Sophia: Why are we cooking outdoors?
Dorothy: Ma, we're having a barbecue.
Sophia: Do you know what they call cooking meat over an open fire in Sicily?
Dorothy: No. What?
Sophia: Poverty.

Rose: Gee, those steaks smell good.
Sophia: What do you know, Rose? You thought you could go out in the ocean and catch fish sticks.

Rose: Would you be interested in going to an outdoor concert tonight?
Lily: Oh, you couldn't drag me out of this house tonight. St. Elsewhere's on. That's my favorite program. I never miss it.
Blanche: You still watch television?
Lily: Well, I don't really watch it. I just pretend it's radio.
Sophia: We don't exactly watch it, either. With our crummy TV, we get two channels at once. For a while there, I thought Benson was having an affair with Miss Ellie.

Dorothy: Listen, Mom, we cannot afford a new TV. We're using the household money to repair the roof and repave the driveway.
Sophia: Great. And what am I supposed to do while every other old lady on the block is watching Cosby?
Dorothy: Well, you can sit in the new driveway and hope that an amusing black family drops by.

Rose: Maybe we could sell our old TV and use the money towards one of those new stereo models.
Blanche: Sell it? Honey, I don't think we could give it away.
Lily: Oh, you would be amazed at the things people will buy. When I moved from my house into the apartment, I had a garage sale and I made a lot of money. 'Course, I probably would've made a lot more if I could tell a one from a 20.