The pedometer episode

[tdr]

I saw the last half of this ep today, and I was reminded of a few observations I have made before about this one. First, it's treated as a near-impossibility that anyone could walk 20 miles in a day. Of course, it isn't. One day I was in Washington DC, and my girlfriend and I spent hours around the 'mall' area after having to park more than a mile away from anything, and our feet and legs really hurt that night-- crossing the bridge over the Patomic to Arlington National Cemetery and back must be more than 2 miles by itself. I retraced the route we walked on a map, and it was at least 18 miles; then considering all the extra steps inside the attractions, and from drink and ice cream stands (it was hot that day) to the benches to sit on... I'm sure it was at least 22 miles altogether that day. Sure, we are/were adults, but kids of course have more energy and walk faster; so Beaver in this ep should have registered more than 4 miles, if it was set reasonably correctly for his stride.

I have timed myself on the walkway around a lake park in my town, of which the sign says it is 1.2 miles. I takes about 22 minutes for me to walk it at a steady pace, meaning I walk at about 3 1/4 miles per hour. If Beaver had been walking at my speed for even 2 hours, then he should have more than 6miles, and that's only the deliberate walking he did after school. So I think if the pedometer was set right for him, he probably should have gotten 8-10 miles-- obviously far from 20, but not so much that Whitey could infer Ward was such a liar or fraud when Beaver handed over his baseball glove.

As for what Ward himself actually walked as a kid... if he did have to walk into town to school, and then still had farm chores when he got home, it was probably around the same 8-10 miles. In spite of so many stories, I don't think very many kids were ever forced to walk about 16 round trip miles to school and back. I don't know when school buses began operating, but my dad told me that his dad drove one to supplement income during the early years of the depression.

[Ireneparalegal]

When we went to Las Vegas, it was all abt walking the strip. Up and down. There were some cab trips to certain hotels/casinos, but all in all, it was all abt walking. I know we walked over 20 miles in one day alone. Our day started at 10 a.m. and we went back to our hotel at 11 p.m. Mind you, we had our son with us and he was barely 5 years old at that time. He didn't mind the walking. Kids do have more energy.

[JudgeGarth]

That's one of my least favorite episodes.