Dandelion Wine Short Response

So far in Dandelion Wine, I have been very confused. The characters are easy enough to follow, but the stories are scattered around. Doug and Tom have an interesting relationship. They seem to be the town's outcasts. They spend their time writing down every "first" they do like the first Eskimo Pie they ever ate or the annual making of the Dandelion Wine. They also spend their time arguing over dull things like water-strider-spider catching. Another confusing part of this particular collection of vignettes is the ongoing discussion of Leo Auffmann's HAppiness machine. I understand that it is a metaphor for happiness, but there is also the mention of Sadness Machine. This implies that there is only two emotions a human being can go through, Happiness and Sadness. All and all I have researched numerous times the meaning of the novel, and have fallen upon many other people with the same problem as me, confusion.