41-11-xx No Hooky For Vic & Rush

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN, BILL IDELSON AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

Sade is surprised to see not just Rush but Vic come home early in the morning and finds out neither has been to school or work, respectively.

Uncle Fletcher shows up too and Sade finds out they are all planning to head around the corner to watch men clean out a building!

Sade tries to restore the men to their responsibilities and can't; only a phone call from Vic's secretary gets them in motion because Rush's excuse hinges on Vic missing work.

Mis' Crow Says:

Vic & Rush make plans to skip school & work to watch a spectacle downtown. Sade puts her foot down.

A noteworthy detail in this episode is that Fletcher seems to understand more of what’s going on than he lets on. While he pretends to be oblivious while it is in his best interest to do so, he shows himself to be particularly attuned with the emotions of the room here. The second the conflict between Vic and Sade comes to a head, Fletcher attempts to make a hasty departure. (Maybe he’s worried that if he waits long enough, Sade will detect his part in the scheme and set her sights on HIM!)  Then he stays back, trying to see which way the argument is going to go. As it becomes clearer and clearer that Vic isn’t going to get away with this, he keeps trying to leave – but keeps getting interrupted, to his chagrin. It’s a great Fletcher episode!

Vic really displays his hubris on this one. Did he really think Sade would let him get away with setting this example for Rush? And then he has the gall to try and use Sade as his personal secretary to call work and make excuses for him! This plan was doomed from the start. They should have just gone downtown and suffered through the cold. (Then, of course, Vic’s work would have called home anyway, Sade would have been worried about why he didn’t show up to work, and his head would have been on the chopping block anyway!)

SCRIPT (Transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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The whole situation of playing hookey seems to be the fault of Uncle Fletcher, even though technically he's not the one to blame.

Vic should've stepped up and told Rush to go to school and Vic should head off to the office.

Uncle Fletcher probably innocently goaded Vic and Rush into playing hookey. He was the one excited about watching men clean out an office building. It's not they are tearing a building down or anything exciting; this leaves me to believe this would be more in the nature of something Uncle Fletcher would be interested in, since he does nothing all day long but goof off.

Also, it's worth pointing out that this episode proves one of two things: either Uncle Fletcher acts senile as a complete excuse to do and say anything he wants or he really is devoid of any kind of reasoning and or hearing abilities.

Trivia:

+ The Cutler Building is the name of the building that is being cleaned. It seems to be located just off Kelsey Street and downtown, between Virgina Avenue and Rush's high school.

+ Uncle Fletcher tells the story of Ollie Wilmurdon, a man from Belvidere. He was a real tall, skinny fellow that wore and overcoat in the summer and just a seersucker suit in the winter. He had cards printed and would hand them out on the street. The cards read:

Hello Friend, my name is Ollie,
Life is beautiful and life is jolly,
Howdy stranger, yes by golly!

Vic is not responsible for Rush playing hookey! (EDITED): {{{HEAR}}}

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