The answer to this question can be found in chapter 1 of Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee. The opening chapter explains to readers that Jeffrey first lived in a wonderfully loving household with his mom and dad. Unfortunately, Jeffrey's time in this environment was very short-lived, as his parents were killed in a trolley accident when Jeffrey was only three years old.

At that moment Jeffrey became an orphan; however, he had family members that could take care of him rather than being forced into an orphanage. Jeffrey's Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan took him into their home in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. It is a not a good situation. Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan don't mistreat Jeffrey, but they do mistreat each other, and they refuse to get a divorce. Their home is not a loving home in which a husband and wife function as two halves of the same team.

Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan exist as two different entities that refuse to interact with each other. They have two of everything so that they don't have to interact, and they even take turns having dinner with Jeffrey. He lived in that environment for eight years, and Jeffrey eventually got to the point where he couldn't take it anymore. While at a school performance, Jeffrey started screaming that his aunt and uncle needed to simply talk. Jeffrey then left the stage and ran away. He couldn't bring himself to be a part of that negative household any longer.