Sunday, June 30, 2013

Normal Americans - up to a point

If you have read the newspaper and magazine articles that I have found, especially those that were written during the show's original run, you will find a recurring theme: the writers often refer to the Gooks as being an average family - normal Americans, so to speak.

And this can be justified: Vic was a hard working, 8-4:30 white collar businessman.  Sade was domestic as anyone in radio history and was President of a sewing club.  Rush and Russell loved reading, sports, went to school and Sunday School, hated homework, etc.

The Gooks often played cards with other couples and went to the cinema.  They devoured a newspaper daily.  However, the Gooks didn't have a car.  Most of the people they knew seemed to have a car.  Not having a car somewhat prevented their freedom and restricted them from leaving their own yard... This is an important fact which I'll clue you in on later.

Outside of their daily routine, the Gooks' world became a bit strange.  Vic's two favorite activities were going to the lodge once a week (where he was the head muckity muck) and playing indoor horseshoes, which is what he did to get away from Sade when he got his feelings hurt.

Lodges used to be considered "normal" I suppose, especially during the Gook's run on radio (and the time shortly afterwards.)   I think in today's world, the kind of a lodge Vic attended might be looked on as a cult, not to mention pagan.  Some people don't really know the underpinnings of the Masons and those type of lodges but a further study of such might open your eyes.

Vic also enjoyed pitching horseshoes.  Now... you don't really think of pitching horseshoes as being abnormal, but really, how common was it?  Since the area the Gooks lived in was full of harsh winter weather, Vic played the sport indoors.  Okay, it's NOT crazy but it's pretty unconventional, don't you think?  Still, this activity occurred on his own street.  The Gooks' street was fairly 'normal.'

Sade's domestic normality ends when you consider the off-the-wall dishes she cooked: beef punkles, Hoover dip and other tasty items no one had ever heard of before the Gooks.  There's no mention of chicken dinners, apple pie or even sandwiches.  Vic loved limberschwartz cheese.

'Normal 'Sade was two-faced as a horse.  She was nice enough to someone's face (or on the phone) with her cheery talky-talk, but in the privacy of her own home, she'd get wound up and some might even call her "vicious" (at the very least, she could be tart and acidic.)

The two young boys were the most normal, until you realize that Rush enjoyed Gloria Golden pictures at the Bijou, even the mushy ones (although Russell probably enjoyed Golden pictures less than Rush.)  And neither never seemed to mind the mushy Lady Margaret in their books.  Both enjoyed going to the YMCA to watch the fat men sweat.  I can understand that enjoyment - but is this 'normal' behavior to want to do this?

Of course, once you leave the Gook yard (and especially the comforts of Virginia Avenue), you find their world has turned slightly askew.  Friends with normal names (Mr. and Mrs. Donahue, the Scotts, the Davis', Mis' Harris) suddenly turn into friends with abnormal names.  For instance, in the Thimble Club, the women that Sade interacted with on a daily (or near-daily) basis were 'normal' - but the less she was involved with a member, the weirder they seemed to get, whether it was just a weird name (Harry Antidisestablishmentarianistic Jackson, for example) or a weird story associated with them.

The same can be said with Vic's friends.  His fellow office workers were completely normal for the most part and most had normal names.  But this all begins to bend when you look at those friends who were also in his lodge - and the lodge in general.  Everything about his lodge is twisted.  All of his friends who do not work at the local Kitchenware plant either have eyebrow-raising names or do absurd things.

Rush and Russell's friends are just normal kids; though some may have strange names, they are kids and are prone to behaving like kids.  They do nutty things but kids do nutty things.

Of course I've left out Uncle Fletcher.  He was probably as rich as they come, yet he hung around with and behaved like a tramp.  A former teacher, he was a very, very smart man, yet he's forgetful and repeats himself and can be annoying.  Almost everyone he knows or knew either has a strange name or is nutty.  The only "normal" people in his life are his landlady, Mis' Keller (who completely changes in Series 3) and the fellows who run various the gas stations around town that he fills in for at lunch.

One might conclude that his good chum, B.B. Baugh, is normal and doesn't have an unusual name.  And I've concluded long ago that Baugh is a genius.  Of course, all genius' are a bit nuts and Baugh is no exception.

Yes, the Gooks were normal in their own yard.  But outside of the yard, anything can and did happen.

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