37-05-28 Decoration Day Parade

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic, who is in charge of the Decoration Day Parade, has to unexpectedly go out of town for work and won't be back in time to lead and coordinate those efforts.  [Decoration Day is now known as Memorial Day.]

Sade and Rush inform Vic that someone else can just take Vic's place - Rush even volunteers.  Vic hushes Rush and informs the family that this is a serious job and he has "three pencil tablets full of notes."

Vic hatches a plan to stay up all night with Mayor Simmons (who Vic assumes will take over the project since Vic will be away) to give him the benefit of his hours of work and pages of notes.

Vic wants to make the Mayor aware of this and so, calls him up.  The Mayor's secretary informs Vic that the Mayor has no idea who he is.

Later, the secretary calls back and informs Vic that the Mayor made a mistake. On the phone with the Mayor finally, the Mayor informs Vic he will put an ad in the paper to replace him, meaning Vic's parade leadership skills are actually worthless.

Vic is devastated to learn that professional obligations will be taking him to Chicago, making him unable to fulfill his obligations as the organizer of the Decoration Day (Memorial Day) parade. As usual, he may be slightly overestimating his own importance in the festivities…

I really feel for Vic in this one. I think Sade and Rush do, too, although they’re laughing at him privately. When you have an obsession, it can be very hard to find out that not everyone takes it as seriously as you do — that other people are satisfied when things are done in a shoddy and half-baked manner and that they don’t realize what they’re missing out on by not just listening to you.

Vic’s obsession with parades and ceremonies is a recurring theme in the show, and I think anyone who has had an unusual obsession (like writing transcripts of a radio sitcom from the 1930s) has felt exactly what he goes through again and again in the series. - Lydia Crowe

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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To many, this will be the first show of Vic and Sade that they hear. It is a perfect example of Vic taking whatever job he has too seriously and to extremes.

While Sade and Rush do not tease Vic about his parade leadership, it is obvious to both of them that almost anyone can "lead the parade down to the cemetery."

TRIVIA:

+ The parade route goes down Mulberry Street.

+ It's mentioned that Mayor Simmons plays golf.

{{{Hear}}} Vic talk to Mayor Simmons.

THE PARADE ENDS AT THE CEMETERY...

As a metaphor for life, you could say that the cemetery is where we all end up eventually. Parades are meant as a celebration, and a cemetery is an unlikely place for that. Considering that it's for Decoration Day (Memorial Day) the purpose is to honor those in the military who served our country and decorate the graves of those who have passed on. - Keith @ Retro Radio Podcast

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