More Blesed To Give Even More To Snoop For

[Hazel Anyday]

Uh oh, June was at it again in my Thursday Beaver watching. In "More Blessed To Give" June was, guess, searching thru Beaver's drawers. So she found the locket Beaver won at the "Toyland" carnival. I thought "Toyland" was an odd name for a carnival, by the way. Anyway June immediately runs down to Ward to report her latest snoop find. I think June must have had a problem, she just couldn't stop herself from going thru those drawers. And yes, earlier in the episode she was doing a couple strange things, I don't know what she was doing. First she was spraying water on some clothing and then rolled it up and stacked it next to other rolled up shirts(?). Why would you spray water on shirts that you're not supposed to iron and you're not even ironing at the time. Who sprays their clothes before they put them away in a drawer. Maybe June's always snooping to see if any mold has developed in the clothes she puts in the drawers. The other odd thing June busied herself with in this episode was cutting the edges off of a magazine page. Huh? Why? A recipe maybe? A mental problem? I dun know.

Oh, Eddie had several funny lines in this episode too, upon seeing Gilbert and Beaver at the carnival approaching, he said Beav and Gilbert were crying because they dropped their candy apples on the ground. Later he called Gilbert "Hydrant Head". When I was a kid I used to call people, including my brother, "Sam" stealing that from Eddie.

So, basically it seems Seasons 5 & 6, apart from Eddie, the shows just weren't written that well, Beaver went from being a clunky kid to being an athlete who talked stupid and acted even worse. As a kid he actually acted like a kid might act, but when he got older he just turned stupid and unbelievable as a real slightly older kid. The writing just went down in those last 2 years. So this is where all the complaints seem to be coming from recently. Beaver was still one of the best shows, it just went downhill the last 2 years.

[stevea]

I made a comment about spraying those clothes in another thread. Maybe it was a 60s thing, but you'd think she'd be ironing. I don't remember my mother sprinkling clothes, but I think she sprayed Niagara starch on some stuff before ironing. In any event, the spraying is a mystery...we'll file that with Whitney Blake's disappearance from several Hazel episodes.

Yes, June had a real penchant for snooping. If I were the boys I might have considered putting a snap mousetrap in the drawers--nail her like Ralph Kramden when he went feeling around under the ice box (that was a big ol' rat trap). Now they'd say she had obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and send her to a shrink.

The writing actually suffered in season 4 thru 6, and, yes, the one smart thing they did later was skew more scripts toward Wally/Eddie/Lumpy. To make up for Mathers' slide (he later said in his book, I think, that he wanted out toward the end, and just go to regular high school), they really wrote much better lines for Ken Osmond in the final season. That, combined with his great comedic timing, and delivery. Frank Bank delivered well, too...and I think someone else said in another thread they changed him from a bully to a big, harmless oaf (Fred would have called him worse). Kind of like Robert Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond.

[Hazel Anyday]

Right, my Mom used to spray shirts or pants seconds before ironing them, but there's no sane reason to spray clothes you're not ironing at the time. I used to do some ironing and I'd spray a shirt too it helps take the wrinkles out just before you iron it. But never heard of spraying un-ironable clothes and then putting them away wet. That would make mold sitting in a drawer.

I wish Eddie had suggested the mousetrap idea to Beaver, sounds like a great idea Eddie'd come up with. Right, Lumpy was a big bully in the early years of the show, glad he was morphed into just a big lovable oaf by the last few years.

I don't think the show had to have gone downhill, if they had only written Beaver with a little more smarts and savvy that a teenager would have. He wouldn't have been as annoying to watch then, but when he acts like a clueless fool you just wish he'd go away. Even in today's episode, he acts like he doesn't know what it is he's feeling toward the little hottie girlfriend who saunters by. Then even Wally tells Beaver he's too young to know feel what he feels, BALONEY. I liked girls before Beaver's age in this show and I knew what it was I liked. Come on, a kid as old as Beaver in this show is still acting like he's mentally 4. And Wally even acting like Beaver's not old enough to know what a good looking girl is. Crazy man.

[stevea]

They should have written it so Beaver "woke up" to girls somewhere in season 4.

On the positive side, there were some memorable episodes in the last half of the series. The awkward age episode, Nobody Loves Me, was one of the best.

[Scrabjan1]

That’s the only time we see June shaking water on those shirts but she was wetting them down to make ironing easier. Ward had his shirts done by the dry cleaner (and no starch) so these were probably the boys’ shirts. I think June was cutting out recipes.

As for Beaver he certainly didn’t have much smarts and could be talked into anything. It might have annoyed Mathers to have to play it dumb every episode. He never learned to not listen to Eddie. He didn’t have too many snappy lines but love in One of the Boys to Eddie “You look like a dummy in a department store window.” Eddie- You take that back. Beaver- “Okay you just look like a dummy.”

[stevea]

Same kind of line as Beaver is letting Lumpy in the front door (I think in the Merchant Marine episode):

Beaver: "Wally, dopey Lumpy is here."
Lumpy: "The name is Clarence."
Beaver: "Wally, dopey CLARENCE is here."

[Hazel Anyday]

As I already said above, Scrabjan, spraying water on clothes is done when ironing, BUT June was NOT ironing, she was folding, or more correctly, rolling these shirts up. She was NOT ironing, so the point is still valid, June spraying water didn't make any sense.

[Scrabjan1]

She wasn’t spraying water, Hazel Anyday, and I read your post. She was shaking water on the shirts and rolling them up to keep them moist to iron later. She wasn’t putting them away wet. I know she wasn’t ironing. Jeeeesh! Hate repeating. You’re not nice like my friend, stevea.

[Tankeryanker]

"shaking water on the shirts and rolling them up to keep them moist to iron later"

That is how grandma Walton did it too. Seem to be a common way of garment care. Wonder if June learned that in college?

[Torgo]

From S.W. Seventeen: A Prairie Girl Remembers by Carol Schroeder...

[Hazel Anyday]

Well, I never claimed to be a Prairie girl who comes with built in helpful hints. And I do hate to have to repeat once again, BUT I said June was NOT, that's NOT NOT NOT ironing, get it Scrabj??? She was spraying water on clothes and rolling them up. I say she was then going to put them away wet in the drawer which explains why she is always checking out drawers, she's looking for mold. If you want to ASSUME that June's ironing, you go right ahead and assume, but you know what assume means? Well, look it up. I'm always nice to nice people, remember that.

[CJ]

June was indeed "dampening" the clothes in preparation for ironing them later. Trust me, she was not going to put them in the drawers, wet.

I saw my mom doing this all through my childhood and even had this little "sprinkling" devise pictured below to put on top of a pop bottle. I think our bottle was "Pepsi", too. Sometimes, I got to help with the sprinkling

There were "dampening bags" made for this purpose, that you placed the
wet clothes into. My mom then put our bag in the refrigerator until she ironed, probably later in the day or the next day.

May sound crazy, but it made my dresses and my dad's shirts very crisp.

[J_D]

This has nothing to do with the wet clothes and ironing but did anyone notice when Eddie stayed the night at Wally's (at Eddie's request) that he stayed with no pjs, tooth brush, change of clothes, etc.? Then Wally kicked him out to go back home after they had a big fight. Ward found out Eddie's dad is out of town and Eddie gets scared being home alone. Ward and Wally go to get Eddie to stay the weekend now (not just overnight) and Eddie leaves his house with only his jacket (no toothbrush, etc). Maybe the writers were portraying true priorities of teens that age, although I would think at least a tooth brush would have been important at that age. Classic Eddie this episode. Love the episode and Eddie's lines.

[getsmartbeaver]

I never noticed. I'll have to watch that episode again. I did notice this during the Arthur episode, "Arthur vs. the Very Mean Crossing Guard," where the new crossing guard tells Brain and Arthur it costs $10 a day to cross the street. (Brain has to take to the crosswalk to his house, and it's right by the school. Arthur doesn't have to cross the street; he was just going to hang out at Brain's house.) I think it was Arthur's idea to have Brain spend the night at Arthur's house, however, Brain has no way of getting his overnight things without telling his mom and dad. This is one of those second half of season 2 episodes where Buster us traveling around the world with his dad, and most everyone is acting dumber than usual.

It appeared to be partly based on the Get Smart episode "Witness for the Persecution," but it was an epic fail.