Was Laura a High School Dropout?

[t2shaww0]

<inappropriate post removed>

[JaneTVFan]

Originally posted by SawgrassSteve


Yikes! Jan!? How could you?
First, let me confess my bias. As my signature line unabashedly indicates, I have a certain fondness bordering on idolatry for Laura. That being said, I still think I'd recognize whether or not she was a bright individual. After all, Lucy Ricardo wasn't, we all know it, but we still love her, don't we?

Lucy Ricardo was very bright. She was very shrewd and was constantly concocting clever schemes. Her problem was either bad luck causing her schemes to unravel, or that she was too daring in the things she did, increasing her chances that things would go wrong. Occasionally things worked out as planned. Whenever any of the gang were in a pickle and needed a way out (including Ricky) they would always turn to Lucy because they knew she had the mind for finding a way out.

[JaneTVFan]

Originally posted by buddy love
It's never been discussed on the show, but I do think she was a high school drop out. When she dropped out she joined the USO and met Rob and married at 17. It wasn't all that uncommon in the late 50's. She probably lied about her age to get into the USO and then Rob. Look at all the teenage guys who lied about there age to get into the military. She just wanted to pursue her dream, and by golly, this is the wrong MTM show, but as Lou Grant would say, "She has spunk!!"

Well if you want to take the plotlines the least bit seriously, I think you give the most plausible explanation.

[JaneTVFan]

Originally posted by t2shaww0
Laura was actually a crack whore that danced for crack from the age of 13 to 15. She was then sent to the USO in order to dry out. Her prayer were answered when she met ROB.

I'm pretty sure crack didn't exist until the 1980's.

[SawgrassSteve]

Originally posted by t2shaww0
Laura was actually a crack whore...

Tsk, tsk, t2shaww0. The benevolent side of me wants to give you the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe that was your poor, but best attempt at humor. If so, stop now; you're no comedy writer. The other side of me says that maybe you're one of those people who likes to laugh at people in wheelchairs, snatch old ladies' purses, key the paint job on cars you can't afford, and generally make a nuisance of yourself to detract from your own, shall we say, shortcomings? You want to be noticed, but in that cowardly way that vandals do who strike and run off into the darkness. You didn't even give a full profile, so you remain as anonymous as possible.
In a world that's gone mad with people who, like you, show little or no love for anything of true goodness, beauty or value, I find relaxing to the gentle entertainment found on TV Land a wonderful opportunity to mentally go back to an era when people were much more mindful of the affect we had on others around us. It was, for the most part, a way of life. So people, at least publicly, didn't engage in demeaning, tawdry, insulting, and offensive activity with abandon. And I was very glad to learn of this message board where I could share my appreciation for some of the of the best, groundbreaking, and truly entertaining sitcoms from my youth with others who were like-minded. Why it is that people like you do what you do, say what you say, act as you act, and post what you post is a mystery to me.
That's says a lot t2shaww0, since for the past 20 years I have worked with mental patients. They still occasionally surprise me when they lash out for no apparent reason. You see, there was no antecedent for you. You were unprovoked, yet you had to ugly up something and someone so beautiful with your emotinal graffiti.
I hope you got it out of your system, my friend. I hope that whatever drove you to expose your own inner ugliness has been appeased, and that at least for the next few years it can lie dormant within you again.
My suggestion to you is to try really hard to look at the world through different eyes while you're still in it. There's so much that is wonderful, beautiful, and still innocent about this place. True, you must seek it out, but it is there. I'll guarantee that when you start to see it, you'll feel so much better about it, and yourself, that you'll wonder why you ever were the type of person you apparently are now.
Good luck, but in the meantime, knock it off.

[MTM1Fan]

Originally posted by SawgrassSteve
Hmmmm.... Not a bad guess MTM1Fan, but let's look at it:
That would mean that little Laura's parents had to somehow convince the school that their 3 year-old was actually a 5 year-old in order to enroll her early! To what end? Could you do that successfully? I wouldn't even try.
Let's assume they did it though, and it was because of their love for educational acheivement (since we'd have to assign a motive). In that case I'd have to agree with the point raised by Jane; why didn't they also insist on at least two years of college instead of allowing their minor daughter to go off and dance for Servicemen? Parents who are that focused early on don't usually tend to drop the ball when the goal is in sight. Nah, it just doesn't add up!

Maybe it had nothing to do with their daughter's educational acheivement. For instance, Sandra Dee (yes, 'Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee' Sandra Dee) was put in the 3rd grade when she was only 4 because her mother needed someone to watch her during the day. She lied about her age.

[Christina E]

Although I know a lot of theories have been offered, I thought I'd throw my two cents in. I don't think Laura was a drop out. I think she was too smart to have been a drop out.

My favorite teacher in high school graduated from HS at 16 years old. She was already pretty old (too me) when I had her, so I'd say she is around MTM's age, or even a little older. She was my history teacher, and she loved to talk about the past and how things were different.

I still remember her saying that before the space age, it was a lot easier to graduate from high school. There was no such thing as credits and very few required courses. She did start school when she was 4, although she had a Christmas birthday. She said that when she was in high school, she took extra classes because she liked school, and they thought she'd learned enough after three years, so she graduated.

She didn't go on to college at that point since she married her high school sweetheart and started having kids. It wasn't until after her kids were grown that she went to college and became a teacher.

So although it is possible to graduate from high school at 16, personally I don't think that was what the writers had in mind. I just think that they didn't pay attention to the details when they changed her age. Shows weren't gone over for errors back then like they are today. I'm sure they didn't think we'd be sitting here 40 years later talking about this. I remember someone, I think Dick, saying something along the lines of, "We all knew it was a good show, but I don't think any of us imagined we'd be sitting around talking about it 40 years later."

Personally I'm glad that they did the episode "Laura's Little Lie". It is one of my favorite episodes, and I don't care that it doesn't completely line up with everything else we know.

Christina