Calling Home and An American Childhood

In Calling Home a little gal shoplifts to avoid a huge line almost instinctively. I say almost instinctively since she was about to put the snoopy button back, but with a last moment decision she stuck it in her pocket. She knew she wanted the button, but didn't exactly know why she just took it that day rather than going back another day and purchasing it when there were smaller lines. Someone caught her, she goes to jail for a bit of time, her parents pick her up and decide that she had suffered more than enough. She isn't punished more, but she is reminded that her parents didn't approve of her actions.
In An American Childhood Annie basically grows up as a tom boy and hangs out with all the boys in the neighborhood. She did things with them and one of those things ended up to be throwing snowballs at passing cars. The one and only car that stopped ended up being a black Buick with an unhappy driver who chases the kids for blocks on end. He finally catches them and states "You stupid kids." Annie admires the man for chasing them like he did since it meant that he had great persistence, just like she would have when tackling people in football.
I feel that one of the reasons writers may use framing is to remind us how we got to the end. The story didn't start out with Mikey and Annie running away, but sometimes that is all we remember at the end. Framing brings the reader to remember what occurred at the beginning. The framing, to me, seems to suggest that the man probably did have other things to do when he was chasing down the kids. Did he have someone else in the car? Was he the driver of an important person? He might have represented what happens when things "catch up" to you.
If this were to have happened within the last few years I think that Dillard wouldn't be afraid of the man since if he did anything else he might be sued. She should have been since the man probably had a lot of authority somewhere and could have possibly sued her parents for allowing such a child throw snowballs at cars. Dillard also seems to lack a bit of responsibility at her age.
To me, effective stories are usually longer than five short lines. Although it is nice to know that someone went to a dance somewhere or got a job, we know nothing except that they went to a dance or got a job. What happened? Did you see the guy there that you have been dying to dance with? What type of job are you going to do? Effective writers allow us to know more of what is going on more than a brief overview. They finish the story. This might make one consider what else may have happened that day if it was an interesting story, but that only happens if the person is nice and wishes to make you feel like they are paying attention or if they really have interest.