Here's something worth pondering. While Ralph was out all day working and either bowling or gathering with the Raccoon Lodge at night, did any of you think that Alice got very bored being home all day?

As a long-time Honeymooners fan, I felt that she would be bored after doing the housework and not having anything else to do since they didn't have a phone or a TV set.

Feel free to post your thoughts on this.

Alice works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I think she said it best to Ralph...

"Right after you left this morning, I got in one of those silly moods of mine. You know how I get sometimes? So just for laughs, I thought, well, I'll do the breakfast dishes and make the beds and take the garbage down. When I came back, I was still in such a funny mood, I thought, why should I settle down to the drudgery of mending your socks, so I scrubbed the kitchen floor. Then, you know something, I was still so giddy and gay over this whole thing, that I thought, I'm really enjoying myself. So I washed all the windows. Then, ralph, I went out and did the marketing, and I came back with a pot roast, put it on the stove, and while it was cooking, I cleaned out the bedroom closet. Now, I know this may sound like work to you, ralph, but it isn't. It's fun! It's such good sport. Do you know why it's such good sport, ralph? Because I'm so loaded with modern conveniences. Just loaded. Steam irons and vacuum cleaners and dishwashers and washing machines... to say nothing of this lovely, new, modern refrigerator. Oh, that reminds me. It's time to defrost it."

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Alice just confess to being GAY during that speech???

It was different in those days. I posted on Mr. Ed's forum a little while ago about the same topic. Housework was a lot more "work" than, and with the hubby being the only bread winner and her home all day, the ladies really took pride in their homes. They considered it their job! And without the modern conveniences of these days. But still that was a small apartment. It probably didn't take THAT long to clean. And no kids to tend to. But than it was a run down apartment in the city, so it had to really be "kept up' to avoid bugs and rodents. And also back than women shopped for groceries almost every day. Different stores too. like a meat market, vegetable stand, etc. , before the days of the big chain grocery stores that you go and buy lots of stuff at a time. And no car, all shopping and errands on foot or by bus. And with the women home and not out at jobs, I'm sure she chatted and gossiped with other women in the neighborhood and apartment building . I remember back in the 60's when my Mom who was a housewife having coffee and tea with neighbors in the afternoon. But wow, like I said before, such a run down small apartment. And another poster said no TV , no phone, not to mention no sofa or comfortable chair. WOW!! Seems like it might get a bit boring!

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Alice just confess to being GAY during that speech???
Trixie was home all day too..... ;)

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Alice just confess to being GAY during that speech???
The word "gay" had a very different meaning in the 1950's!!

Trixie was home all day too..... ;)



I am new here , so I don't want to make waves, BUT!!!!!!!!!


Come on, do we really want to go there? :( Alice and Trixie were neighbors/friends. They were old fashioned housewives from the 50's. Loved their hubby's!;) I like to think of them drinking coffee or tea in the afternoon , gossiping about the other neighbors, and complaining about their husbands. But not being 'girl friends"!!! I'm not homo phobic by any means, or a prude, but I'd like to think Alice and Trixie were into their husbands, or well they could fantasize and have a crush on a handsome single neighbor guy from the building or neighborhood! ;) but not be into each other "that way"! :(

That is a good point, what the hell did she have to do all day in that small apt LOL

No TV
No Internet
No Books
No radio
No newspaper

How don't know how she did it

Bumping this thread up because we were discussing the Kramden's rundown apt. on another thread!;)

I am guessing their bathroom was in the bedroom since it was never seen lol

I am guessing their bathroom was in the bedroom since it was never seen lol

Yep! And I bet the bathroom was really old and rundown considering how bad the kitchen looked!! Ewww! :p

Yep! And I bet the bathroom was really old and rundown considering how bad the kitchen looked!! Ewww! :p


The entire apt looked dirty

Playing this out a bit, the Honeymooners took place in the 50's but I always thought it's mindset was the 1930's. In the 1950's, it was not unusual for unmarried women and women who did not have children yet to work. It might be suggested that Alice was in a borderline abusive relationship, her husband was constantly making physical threats, while he was permitted to live and enjoy his life (work, belongs to a club, has other recreational activities) she was isolated, no phone, no TV, no job (in fact she is forbidden to work). She couldn't even have her mother come over without some kind of a problem. All this while she was trapped in an apartment that hadn't changed since the day they moved in some 15 years earlier.

Playing this out a bit, the Honeymooners took place in the 50's but I always thought it's mindset was the 1930's. In the 1950's, it was not unusual for unmarried women and women who did not have children yet to work. It might be suggested that Alice was in a borderline abusive relationship, her husband was constantly making physical threats, while he was permitted to live and enjoy his life (work, belongs to a club, has other recreational activities) she was isolated, no phone, no TV, no job (in fact she is forbidden to work). She couldn't even have her mother come over without some kind of a problem. All this while she was trapped in an apartment that hadn't changed since the day they moved in some 15 years earlier.


I am guessing she was with Trixie during the day because it was no way she was in that apt all day until he came home

I think Alice sat around eating Bon Bons and looking forward to Ralph's wonderful personality and kind words when he got home.:rolleyes:

They really did live like people in the '20's and '30's though, no phone and that "Ice Box" my Dad who grew up in the '20's and '30's had an ice box, but by the '50's most people had 'frigerators. My grandmother in the '60's though did have a ringer type clothes washer, long after it was replaced by automatic washers of today. I still remember seeing it in her basement. My other Grandmother had one too in the '30's and the story goes accidentaly got her ub, erb, "upper frontals" (as Pattie Deutch on the '70s Match Games says) caught in the ringers.:o That must have been a bit more than painful.:(