I was watching this episode and found something interesting and I decided to post to see if I can get any input as to what everyone else thinks. This is the episode where Beaver wins a gold locket at the carnival and decides to give it to Donna Yeager. Wally makes a comment to him that I find a little strange, even for that era. He said, "There is a rule in your school about not dating." Now I find that strange because I feel that would be the parents call if their child was to "date." I know social graces were much different back then, but really, if you all recall the mother's dance committe at the school had the boys ask a girl to the 8th grade dance in that episode where Mary Ellen Rogers befriended Beaver just to get Wally to invite her to the dance...that was a "date." Maybe my definition of dating is different from what theirs was but to me that was date and if they meant it was against school rules to date steady, then IMO, that was also the parents call. I thought it was good that the school was more "involved" then they are now, but I still think that in cases like that they could have been too involved.

Another thing, I really think that both sets of parents made to big of a deal about Beaver giving Donna that necklace. I mean really, what did they think was Beaver's intentions? The idiot had to have Wally and Gilbert tell him not to sell it to Eddie for his $3! I highly doubt he had anything on his mind more then just giving it to her to wear.

But in the end, he gave the locket to June. That was a nice gesture.

I think the main reason everybody got so uptight was that it was a very expensive locket, and it seemed real extravagant for a boy Beaver's age to give to a girl.

Okay, maybe I'm the only one who thought it wasn't a big deal because I guess all I saw was the innocense in the gift, despite the expense and he won it, he didn't go out and buy it. I suppose they wouldn't have much of a show had they shrugged over it....LOL. Thanks for your responses.

Okay, maybe I'm the only one who thought it wasn't a big deal because I guess all I saw was the innocense in the gift, despite the expense and he won it, he didn't go out and buy it. I suppose they wouldn't have much of a show had they shrugged over it....LOL. Thanks for your responses.i didnt think the locket was a big deal ether so he gave her a locket WHOOP DE DOO ward june and donna;s parents were way off base in this ep imho they all acted like beaver and donna were talking marriage kids the house with the white pickett fence oh please it was a locket not the hope diamond

I see this episode as just a comedy of misunderstanding. The whole thing wouldn't really have gone so far as both sets of parents thinking the 'other kid' had given an expensive gift to theirs, which must have a deeper meaning of commitment. It would have come out swifter and more easily that it was just something Beaver won at a carnival.

However, it may be true that giving a locket was seen by many as almost the same as a diamond solitaire ring. In an episode of My Three Sons, ca. 1970, Chip Douglas bought his girlfriend, Polly, a locket for her birthday and Polly-- really getting her hopes us about Chip because she has a very suspicious and controlling father-- takes it to mean they are engaged. Later, they do elope because of Polly's father. However, they were both 18 and in college at the time. So that locket did serve as the engagement token.

As to the school having a rule against dating-- I have not known a (public) school to have such a rule. But maybe a grammar school would have had such a rule in the early 60's. Someone pointed out Wally's date for a school dance, and that, in the first season, should also have been the Grant Avenue Grammar School. But maybe it's different because it was a school function, presumably chaperoned and all that. But otherwise, the closest I have known to a "no dating" rule was when a group of students go to a convention or something and most are away from home and their parents.