"You should not be expecting some kind of crazy wild adventure. If that’s what you want, then you need to read The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, by D. Manus Pinkwater, which is the greatest book ever written.
But we did see something that not many other people have gotten to see and no one will get to see again — the Amazing Poop Fountain at the Crickenburg Wastewater Treatment Plant."
In the opening pages, young Lyle Hertzog outlines the formation of the Qwikpick Adventure Society. Almost immediately—by the second page—Hertzog feels the need to warn readers against expectations that this story is going to be about kids who undergo the tremendously unlikely sort of great adventure of the sort that seems only to happen in fiction. The Hoboken Chicken Emergency is an actual book. What Lyle means by a "crazy wild adventure" refers to the plot of that book which revolves around a chicken weighing more than 250 lbs. By contrast, the story that Lyle and his friends relate to which makes up the plot of this book revolves around a sewer plant. The "Poop Fountain" of the title referenced in this passage is not precisely literal, although it is certainly close enough.
"I've aways been sensitive about living in a trailer because a lot of people are trailer bigots. They think there's something wrong with you if you live in a trailer."
Much of this story is set in the trailer park in which Lyle lives. Other characters also occupy this trailer park. What Lyle is referring to here with the phrase "trailer bigots" is a discriminatory prejudice that is not primarily built on actual social engagement. The portrayal of young people who live in mobile homes is dominated by the idea that such living conditions correlate with social problems ranging from abuse to alcoholism to drug addiction to divorce. One of the elements of this novel that stands out from the norm is that it features characters living in trailer park conditions whose lives are not dominated by the problems associated with any of those social issues. Lyle is not just making a meaningless aside with this expression of being sensitive about the stereotype. He is making a commentary on the fact that this stereotype has been constructed for most people by media portrayal rather than any actual social interaction with those living in a trailer like Lyle.
"The $12-million upgrade to Crickenburg's wastewater treatment plant is ready. On January 2, the new aeration system will begin operation, expanding the town's sewage capacity to 20 million gallons of sewage per day...The new equipment will replace the antiquated sludge fountain, which has been in use since the plant was built in 1962."
The poop fountain of the title is actually the old and outdated "sludge fountain" associated with the sewage plant. The event which stimulates the adventures of the Qwikpick Adventure Society is the upgrade covered in this newspaper article. This is the basis for Lyle asserting that the narrative will not be a crazy adventure. The story is presented in a structure that reflects the fundamental realism of the adventure. In addition to a newspaper article, some sections of the book are presented as handwriting on notebook paper. There are also drawings, comic-book-style illustrations, transcripts of the "minutes" of meetings of the Adventure Society, handwritten notes inserted into the regular typeface, a hand-drawn map, and photographs. The overall effect of this variation in styles and narrative techniques is to intensify the sense of realism and add to the illusion that this is a story that could actually happen. This attention to form matches the content expounded upon in this quote which firmly sets the background of the story within the mundane reality of the building of a new water treatment facility.
