34-12-17 Rush Brings in Rooster's Pants for Mending

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

It's about 10 in the morning and Vic and Sade discuss the big, enormous blizzard going on outside.  It's about that time that Rush comes home.  He says it's recess at school but he came home to ask if Sade would stitch up Rooster Davis' pants.  He had snagged them on a nail and there's a large hole in the seat.

Vic and Sade inquire about Rooster, who is out in the shed, sans pants, surely freezing to death.  Sade sends Rush to get some overalls for Rooster.  When he can't find any, he gives Rooster his own pants and comes back in the house.

His parents are shocked to see Rush almost naked.

Sade begins to sew up Rooster's pants when things start falling out.  The first thing that falls out is a piece of green chalk.  Rush remembers a few days before, someone had written, Rush is crazier than his uncle's grandmother on the back of his jacket.  Rooster had blamed it on Heinie Call.

Realizing Rush is still almost naked, his parents want him to do something about it. He eventually puts on his mother's apron.

Digging through Rooster's pockets, Rush finds an ink-eraser. Rush had hit Rooster in the head with it in school and when he went to look for it, couldn't find it. Rooster had swiped it.

Also in his pants, Rush finds 11 cents. He claims Rooster owes him 3 cents and has for six weeks.

Then Rush finds a note Rooster had written to Mildred Tisdel, who Rush claims as his girl. Rooster wanted to walk home from school with her.

He finds other articles in his pockets: a little book about how to fix a cook-stove, a comb with no teeth, a busted pen, a hinge, heel-plate, lady's shoe button, a Ohio 1914 hunting license and a horse shoe nail.

Rush is angry at Rooster. After his mom has finished sewing up the pants, Rush heads out to the shed to deal Rooster some damage.

Minutes later, Rush returns because he forgot his jacket. He explains to his parents that since Rooster had his pants, he had gone through Rush's pockets and found things that were just as incriminating: a buffalo nickel with a hole in he had swiped from Rooster, a tube of mucilage that proved Rush was the one who glued Rooster's books together, some wire that proves Rush was the one who had tied Rooster's overshoes together and a bottle of red sand just like the red sand Rooster had found in his hat the other day.

SEE THE SCRIPT

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To me, this is one of the best episodes. It's so easy to read this script (and I recommend the book, highly) and 'hear' what is going on. Everything about this script is perfect. You can feel the chill that Rooster must feel out in the shed without his pants with a blizzard going on around him and the gags about the items in the two pockets is priceless.

This one belongs in my ten favorite scripts.

Lois May Hemstreet was mentioned as a young girl who is known to flip streetcars.