42-03-03 Accounting for Spondulicks

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY,  BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Rush goes shopping with Sade and Ruthie Stembottom for the sole purpose of keeping track of their monies; the left-hand pants pocket for Sade and the right-hand pocket for Ruthie.

However, like the ladies, Rush gets the money confused, much to the delight of Sade, who keeps pestering him to come up with the correct amount.

Vic, an innocent bystander in the whole mess, is chastised by Sade as well for previous comments about keeping track of monies.

SADE OFFENDED... AND RETREATS

Getting frustrated with being grilled by Rush for details, Sade is offended when she feels that she’s being belittled. Going into her realm of her strongest trait, Sade retires to the kitchen to make supper.  - Keith @ Retro Radio Podcast

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This would be a terrific episode - maybe in the Top 10 best - if not for the absolutely horrible sound we encounter all the way through this. Listening to this episode is a tedious task to be sure.

Trivia:

+ Spondulicks (sometimes spelled, "spondulix") is another name for money; used frequently by (guess who) Mark Twain and O. Henry (according to the Etymology Dictionary). Vic and Sade writer Paul Rhymer has been compared to them both. I have often seen a correlation between Rhymer and O. Henry and have made note of this in the past.

+ Ruthie bought a collar pin for her husband Fred for a dollar at Kleeburger's. She also got weighed (which cost a penny) at the Ten Cent store. Sade bought a pair of brown shoe laces at Emson's shoe store. You wonder if maybe she didn't buy them for Uncle Fletcher, in case he got a knot they'd have to cut.

RUSH CALLS RUTHIE, "RUTHIE"

Rush is always calling adults by their first names. Not such a tragedy by today’s standards. He is a teenager, on the fast track for adulthood, but especially in the era of the early 20th century, it was proper for married women to be called Misses., and in even more formal settings to be called by their husbands name as in, "Mrs. Fred Stembottom." Her identity was lost in her marriage, and that’s the way society preferred it.  For a woman to be known by her first name meant you were a family member, or a very close friend. Etiquette dictated that single women weren’t even called by their first name. You knew a girl was sweet on you if she offered you the use of calling her by her first name. 

So, you can tell why Sade was always scandalized by Rush’s casual nature with her friends. - Keith @ Retro Radio Podcast

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