42-07-xx Thunderstorm

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BERNARDINE FLYNN

Vic and Sade sit out on the front porch, talk about life and await a loud thunderstorm.

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Exceptional sound upgrade

There are generally two kinds of Vic and Sade episodes; the outrageous and the home spun; this happens to be the latter. It happens to be one of the very best episodes not only for the fact that it is really acted well (perhaps the best-acted episode of the series) but it feels towards the end that you are actually on the front porch with them. The timing by Bernadine Flynn and Art Van Harvey here is impeccable.

Also, the episode is crammed full of information that we hadn't had until now, making this an episode that the avid fan will soak up with delight.

Trivia:

+ Mis' Elder's father is visiting her for a couple of weeks. A former school teacher, Mis' Elder refers to him as "The Professor" and he has the odd habits of waving to the Gooks every couple of minutes and "hanging his legs over the swing."

The reference to "hanging his legs over the swing" seems to be a most important one - albeit only for the advanced Vic and Sade fan: both Vic and Sade refer to this habit of The Professor (across the street.)  However, it seems to me that "hanging his legs over the swing" is actually the proper way to sit in a porch swing, Doesn't this then lead us to believe the reason the Gooks have so much trouble fitting 3 people on the porch swing (in almost every episode where they are on the porch) is that whichever Gook is in the swing tends to curl their legs up under themselves while sitting in the porch swing? I think it may be the Gooks who are unusual, not the visiting neighbor across the street!

+ After months of wondering what exactly is the relationship between the high school principal Mr. Chinbunny and Freda Call, we find out they are married. It was said in an earlier episode that she was married but she was always referred to as Freda Call. We can assume this is because the Call family live across the street and the family (especially Rush) just got used to calling her by that name, even after she married Mr. Chinbunny.

[We know from the notes received from Barbara Schwarz that Freda Call and Mr. Chinbunny were romantically involved as early as 1936.]

+ Mis' Hawkins is mentioned for the first time. Ruthie Stembottom and Sade ran into her in the underwear department of Yamilton's. Her husband is a telegrapher at the C and A Depot. This is the first time the C and A Depot has been mentioned.

+ Mis' Montgomery is mentioned for the first time and she lives on East Walnut Street. Her husband doesn't work and he plays the cornet for the Sewage Disposal Worker's Band.

There is a Mr. Montgomery who lives at the Bright Kentucky Hotel - but we can assume the man referred to above is not him, since the guy at the hotel is completely deaf and in my experience, deaf people rarely play the cornet.

+ Sade confesses that when she was little, she was scared of the thunder and lightning. And her mother was always scared of it.

+ Vic says he loves to sleep while it's raining: {{{HEAR}}}

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