44-09-06 Muted Silver Moonbeam Chimes

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BERNARDINE FLYNN

ping tinkle tinkle ping tinkle

Vic is once again busted by Sade for his extracurricular activities with Lolita di Rienzi and Pom Pom Cordova. While Vic is certainly not fooling around with either woman, he does seem to be around the women often and without Sade's knowledge.

As in the past, it's once again music that brings the three in contact. And just as in the past episodes, Vic is subjected to embarrassment and slight ridicule by his wife.

Is Sade jealous?  Does she pretend to be jealous?  These are things we can only guess at for there is no way for us to know.

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This one unfolds pretty much like the others where Vic teams up with "the kids" at work - and there are no surprises here - the odd musical instrument (muted silver moonbeam chimes) being the one exception.

There's quite a bit of new information about the town in this episode and I always enjoy expanding my encyclopedia of characters, buildings, map, etc.

I can't imagine for the life of me that Sade is really jealous of the two young ladies.  Vic is just too goofy to be taken seriously by any female, it would seem to me.  Sure, he has charm at times and from everything we have heard, he's good looking and has pretty eyes and wrists, etc.  But come on, who would fall for Vic (aside from Sade?) 

Trivia:

+ We find out that the town Vic and Sade live in has a bus system. We never knew this before this episode. Sade and Mis' Trogle are taking the bus to Oakland Avenue to visit Mis' Schill. This is the first time she's been mentioned. Since she lives on Oakland Avenue, we can assume her husband makes a lot of money, since the street is referred to in previous episodes as being one of the more expensive neighborhoods.

+ Shoe laces are mentioned again. Specifically, brown shoe laces. This is at least the second time Sade mentioned brown shoe laces at Emson's shoe store. Careful listening to the series will provide enough mention of shoe laces to literally choke Billy Patterson.

+ Herder's music store was mentioned for the first time. It's owned by Mr. Herder and it's the first time he's been mentioned in the surviving series.

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41-03-25 Muddled Shopping Money

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sade's been shopping with Ruthie Stembottom and she comes home wih a muddled money situation and missing a spool of thread. This is what happens when you owe someone twelve and a half cents.

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Sade seems to have little if any math skills. The muddled shopping money experiences will continue to plague Sade for the rest of the series.

Trivia:

+ Rush was silently reading from 3rd Lieutenant Clinton Stanley Among the Counterfeiting Left-Handed Natives of the Orange Sea or How Luck and Honesty Won Fame and Fortune. In it, 3rd Lieutenant Stanley faced death by drowning but escaped through a secret tunnel. Later, he is bound and gagged and all he can do is flex his muscles. He gets Lady Margaret to put a bullet on his arm. He flexes his muscle and the bullet shoots across the river and kills a counterfeiting, left-handed native of the Orange Sea.

+ One of Vic's nicknames for Rush in this episode is most-improbable -- "dove hiney": {{HEAR}}

+ Things we know that Sade bought: shoelaces for a dime, hairpins, Spool of white thread #50 for 5 cents, 15 cents worth of candy (for Ruthie) and 12 and half cents for Mis' Cryder's church charity and $1 worth of washrags.

+ Mis' Wilton is mentioned for the first time. Sade saw her in the underwear department of Yamilton's and stopped to talk to her.

+ Rush asks Vic what the word, "grandiloquent" means: {{{HEAR}}}

Sade is upset over her muddle money matter (edited): {{{HEAR}}}

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39-08-30 Rush Mad at Pre-selected School Clothes

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

Rush is upset and what 14 year-old boy could blame him?  Sade has gone
and picked out all of his school clothes at the various department stores around town.  All Rush has to do is go in and they will fit him to the right size.

Being 14 years old, he feels he is too old for such stuff.  Sade is afraid he would pick out crazy clothes.

Vic and Sade feel that Rush should just be happy his parents can afford clothes for him and not sulk.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Sade has selected Rush’s school clothes in advance and Rush is terribly unhappy about it.

Whenever Rush wants to do something grown up, Sade reminds him that he’s a “little boy.” Whenever Rush does something childish, Sade chides him for being a “big, monstrous, grown-up high school gentleman.” The poor guy just can’t win!

Sade is worried about Rush picking out “loud, crashy” clothing, but so what? He is a teenager, after all. But Sade has always been concerned about appearances. She badly wants to be accepted by her community, and she’s a little overly-conscious of what others will think. It extends to her husband, too — particularly in the area of headwear. She wants a good social standing among her friends and neighbors, and she isn’t going to let anything stand in the way of that.

Such customer service in those days, though! Sade’s request would be too extreme for most stores in today’s world (especially if she were shopping for school clothes at a big-box store, like most parents do nowadays). But it’s no trouble for the fine professionals at Yamilton’s, Kleeburger’s, and Emson’s.

Rush is such a teenager in this episode. The potential for embarrassment is everywhere, his parents are unbelievably cruel and unfair, and everything is a gigantic disaster. He’s suitably overdramatic about the situation and Bill Idelson really gets to shine.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Not a very memorable episode.  Rush is whiny and sulky and mad at Sade.

Trivia:

+ In a previous episode, Mis' Harris was not a member of the Thimble Club but in this episode, Rush relays a message from her to Sade, "That she will not be at the Thimble meeting."

+ Sade pre-bought Rush a blue serge suit, a pair of reddish brown shoes and a  plaid cap.

+ At Yamilton's, Rush is to ask for Mr. Richards.  At Kleeburgers, he is to ask for Mr. White (a young fellow with nose glasses) and at Emson's Shoes, he is to see Mr. Finn (he's bald and probably has an artificial leg).

+ Mr. Call is mentioned.  We can assume this is Heinie Call's father.

TWO SIDES...

JIMBO: This episode and a later one (42-08-24 Rush's New School Clothes) seems to show that Sade doesn't trust Rush when it comes to buying clothes. We also know she doesn't trust her husband when he buys clothes either (a suit and numerous hats.)

I say this is because Sade is all hung up on controlling the family but I have a feeling (from other conversations we have had and writings you have submitted) that you will say that Sade is only being prudent and that their clothes' selection reflect on her.

That might be, but why does Ruthie and the other ladies have to come along? Rush doesn't want to be embarrassed and she doesn't seem to care if he's put into that situation.

SARAH COLE: One of the keys to understanding the relationship between Sade and Rush is that Sade can't get used to the idea that Rush is nearly an adult. A mother can take a child shopping with her friends -- she had probably done it plenty of times when Rush was a little boy. Rush, however, is no longer a child. Although Sade may still think of him as the eight-year-old the Gooks adopted, he is approaching a man's estate, and expects to be treated with adult respect.

In Sade's defense, it has just occurred to me that she has probably never seen a healthy adult parent/child relationship modeled. She had left school to marry, her father was seldom (if ever) mentioned, and her mother died when she was still fairly young. The only behavior she has ever seen is that of adults governing their inexperienced offspring. Discovering that, eventually children expect to govern themselves is a disagreeable surprise to her.

The issue is not that Sade won't let Rush pick his own school clothes (for, no matter what he may think, he is inexperienced in the selection of smart, yet durable attire), but that she treats the process so casually that it is incidental to her real motivation: an afternoon socializing with her friends while shopping. Eventually, the social circle expands to the point where even Sade sees Rush's embarrassing position, though pride, perhaps, keeps her from altering her plans.

Another issue that would influence her decisions is the Depression. In 1939, the country was beginning to emerge from the second dip of the Great Depression (see Amity Shlaes' history of The Forgotten Man). Frugality had been a crucial virtue, and Sade is domestically virtuous! The fact that Vic presumably makes a good salary as head bookkeeper, and that the economy is starting to improve have not occurred to her. Even at the expense of Rush's self-respect, a sale is an opportunity not to be missed.

An ideal solution to the situations in both of these episodes would have been for Sade and Rush to go together to pick out his clothes, with Sade acting as adviser, rather It would have provided a fine opportunity for mother/son bonding. But Sade still has a lot to learn about being a mother; just as Rush has a lot to learn about being a son.

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