How big is/was Mayfield?

[Tankeryanker]

I apologize if this has already been discussed.

Mayfield seems to have the small town safety, but sometimes I think it has multilevel office buildings and such.

[Bonniegirl]

Originally Posted by Tankeryanker

I apologize if this has already been discussed.

Mayfield seems to have the small town safety, but sometimes I think it has multilevel office buildings and such.

I think it's a good topic!!

I would say a large town or a small city in late 1950's- early 60's standards ! I think they lived in a pretty good part of town with large single homes, so of course it wasn't the inner city. And did they ever mention public transportation? Which would indicate that it was within city limits?

The kids were in walking distance to things, like school, the park, movie theaters and stuff which makes me think it wasn't a really small town, unless they lived really close to the Main Street? So I'd say a town, but a larger size town not a real small town , like you mentioned the office buildings, that would indicate that it wasn't TOO small a town !

[Tankeryanker]

Hmm, do we ever see someone riding a bus other than the Greyhound out of town type or the school bus? I don't think we do. I was raised in a small town and we did not have city buses, but we did have this goofy thing called "dial a ride". They were bigger than a van but smaller than a school bus.

[Bonniegirl]

Originally Posted by Tankeryanker

Hmm, do we ever see someone riding a bus other than the Greyhound out of town type or the school bus? I don't think we do. I was raised in a small town and we did not have city buses, but we did have this goofy thing called "dial a ride". They were bigger than a van but smaller than a school bus.

No, I don't remember any city busses in Leave it to Beaver! No talk of "taking the bus" or seeing one randomly pass on the street when they did outside shots! That's what makes me think they really weren't in a city, and it was a town, but they were in walking distance to the stuff I mentioned in my other posts. and seemed like there were lots of stores that June shopped at so it wasn't real small town-ish! Also a lot of people seemed to be walking around . So I'm sticking to my thought of it being a large town,but not quite big enough to be considered a city though!

[Tankeryanker]

Yes, what was up with all the people walking around? There were always people on the sidewalks even in the neighborhoods.

Shoot I am not sure of the episode, but it is the one where the boys take over the garage to build chinchilla cages and Wards car's tire has a flat and the boys roll it through town to get it fixed. It seems that Ward and Lumpy's dad were at work in a multi-level office building.

[stevea]

I think in the episode where Beaver wears the bunny suit, Wally suggests he take the bus, when Lumpy's car has a flat.

[Bonniegirl]

Originally Posted by Tankeryanker

Yes, what was up with all the people walking around? There were always people on the sidewalks even in the neighborhoods.

Shoot I am not sure of the episode, but it is the one where the boys take over the garage to build chinchilla cages and Wards car's tire has a flat and the boys roll it through town to get it fixed. It seems that Ward and Lumpy's dad were at work in a multi-level office building.

Yeah totally!! I remember that ep. and besides rolling the tire past the office building , the garage/gas station where ever they got the tire fixed was in walking distance too! So LOTS of stuff was in walking distance, so it wasn't a really small town for sure!

And the people walking around seemed very well dressed , more like city people, sophisticated dressed as opposed to small town people,( like the way small town people were depicted in those days) !

[Bonniegirl]

Originally Posted by stevea

I think in the episode where Beaver wears the bunny suit, Wally suggests he take the bus, when Lumpy's car has a flat.

Oh wow, yeah I kinda remember that!!

So maybe they were like on the outskirts of a city?

[tdr]

In an episode in the later seasons, Wally mentions that Mayfield High has 6 grammar schools that 'feed' into the student population. As my home town was similar with 4 elementary schools into one junior high and one high school, and was about 16,000 population, possibly Mayfield is about 24,000 (1.5 x 16,000).

[Tankeryanker]

Beaver and Larry are supposed to go to dancing school and end up riding a horse. The area looked pretty rural where they were riding. Seems like the Cleaver house is conveniently located between downtown and down on the farm.

[Torgo]

Originally Posted by Tankeryanker

Beaver and Larry are supposed to go to dancing school and end up riding a horse. The area looked pretty rural where they were riding. Seems like the Cleaver house is conveniently located between downtown and down on the farm.

It may not even be a farm, one of my sister's neighbors has horses, and they don't live on a farm, and she lives within walking distance of a town, so it's not unrealistic where the Cleavers are located.

[Tankeryanker]

True. My horse was kept within bicycling distance of our house, but our town was not big enough to have the multi-level business offices as well as horses fairly close to town. We rode our horses in town but you could tell it was town.

[Scrabjan1]

Regarding buses as I recall Harry is at Beaver’s being his model in Beaver’s Poster and he says he better get going so he can take his rumbling pills. He doesn’t like how people look at him on the bus.