A Lesson From 1958

I was watching an episode of “Leave It To Beaver” where Wally & Beave want a new bike. So they take on a paper route. They have to deal with a newspaper man they refer to as “old man Merkle” who is clearly in his 30’s (to a kid it’s a geezer). He’s a ballbuster. June, the mother, doesn’t want them to take on that responsibility because it’s too much work for kids. Ward, the dad, likes that they work for what they get. In fact, he tells them the story of how when he wanted a car in college he worked for it. So the two set out to take on this paper route. At first, they do the job with a sense of exuberance. But soon, life gets in their way. Things start to slip. Ward, seeing that the boys are trying, helps out, but…doesn’t want June to find out. June secretly helps, but doesn’t Ward to find out (which is discovered she’d hired a taxi company to help Beave finish his route on time). All the while keeping mean “old man” Merkle at bay.

Well, one day the boys stack a pile of return papers in the garage. These are the ones they have to take back to the news delivery company for money back.

Ward sees that there is a stack of papers, but thinks it’s the most recent delivery the boys have slacked on. So he tells June, to which, seemingly in order to help the boys, they deliver the return papers by accident.

The next morning, everyone is getting the wrong day’s paper. To which Old Man Merkle hears about it and immediately fires the boys. They’re completely confused as to why they were fired. Ward confesses that they were the ones helping them deliver the papers. Little did he know they were the wrong ones. So he goes down to confront Old Man Merkle and convinces him to give the boys back their job.

Back at home, Ward gives the good news that they are rehired by Merkle. But the boys had found another job at the grocery store packing boxes.

That’s not the lesson we learn here. Responsibility and work are good things. That’s obvious. It’s not until the coda, where Wally & the Beave earn enough for the bike. Ward starts to feel the boys not needing him anymore. He goes out to congratulate the boys. As they sit in the garage polishing up the new bike, they start talking about the sense of accomplishment. To finish his original story about his brother earning something, Ward mentions him and his brother fighting over who got the first ride on the bike. To which the boys had made a decision. That HE should get the first ride. Overcome with...pride and moved by the boys’ sense of his importance in their lives. And having learned the lesson of earning something, he is left speechless. Beave takes this to mean that he doesn’t want to ride a kid’s bike. That he’d be embarrassed to be seen on one. Which is when Ward takes the handle bars and rides off with the boys chasing after him. The sheer joy on Ward face as he rides off down the street says it all, the boys are raised right.

You may think this is corny, but I wish they wrote like this again. The beginning of the episode starts of with the boys attempting to tap dance their way into Ward just kicking in the money to buy them the bike. Ends with the boys really earning it. Not just the bike, but that their pop really cared enough about them. It’s too good. And it moved me deeply.