Original subtitles

Hi. Welcome to our show.

How's it look, Buffy?

It's beautiful.

Except we forgot the RSVP.

I didn't know what it meant, so I didn't put it in.

I think it means they want to know if you're coming or not, so they can have

enough hamburgers.

I'll put it in.

Mr.

Davis is home, children. You better prepare for dinner.

Okay, Mr. French.

RSVP.

I beg your pardon?

So you'll know if you have enough hamburgers.

Oh, I see, I see, yes. But I happen to be preparing lamb chops.

Mr. French, Jody made a beautiful invitation to the father -son dinner.

May I see it?

Sure.

That's very good, Jody. It's almost professional.

Hello. Hi. What are you doing? Having a convention here?

You can give him the invitation now, Mr. French. What invitation?

If I told you, then I wasted all that time just making it.

Okay.

You are invited to attend father -son dinner in the school cafeteria.

Gee, that's nice.

Is that blue suit still fitting?

We may have to lengthen the sleeves a little, sir.

We already did that once.

Well, we'll buy him a new one.

How soon are we going to eat?

Whenever you're ready, sir.

Ten minutes okay?

Yes.

Uncle Bill?

Yeah. Is it okay if we call your dad from now on?

Why do you want to do that?

So we wouldn't have to explain why you're taking us to stuff instead of our

father.

Well, I'm not your real father, Jody. I try to kind of fill in for him, but

I never could take his place.

But you do everything your father does, and besides.

I can't even remember our real father.

I can't remember him either.

It's even getting hard to remember our mother.

Sure.

Well, let's think about it a while, huh?

Okay. Uncle Bill, I know it sounds silly, but is it all right if I just try

just to see how it sounds?

Go ahead.

Thanks, Dad.

You're welcome.

Come on, let's eat.

We better wash up for dinner.

Yeah, because Mr. French and Dad will be waiting for us.

Hey, Jody just said something kind of got me shook up.

Oh, he picks those words up from the other kids, Uncle Bill. He doesn't know

what they mean.

No, I don't mean that kind of words. No, he wants to...

Tell everybody that I'm his father. He wants to call me dad and all of that.

I wouldn't mind that either, Uncle Bill.

It seems natural.

No, I don't want you to forget your real mother and father.

Buffy and Jody were young when it happened.

Of course, it's different with me.

And yet, I guess no matter how much you love somebody, as the years go on, the

memory fades.

Will there be anything else, sir?

No, thanks.

You know, sir, in some ways you've been, well, rather parents to the children,

sir.

No, not really.

You know, it's only been a few years and I'm forgetting about parents already.

I understand, sir.

I don't want them to do that.

Unless I can show them these pictures, but that wouldn't mean much to them.

just an album.

Yes, sir.

Maybe if I took them back to Indiana and they met some of the people that used

to know their folks, that might do something.

Sort of sentimental journey, sir.

Well, that's what I like to see, everybody doing their homework.

That's not what I like to see.

Hi, Uncle Bill. Join the group.

I got a nice surprise for you kids.

Do we have to guess?

Nope. Got an airplane ticket.

Airplane tickets?

With the nice surprises that you're going away again, that's no nice

Not just me. We're all going to go this weekend.

Oh, boy. Where to?

I hope it's fishing.

We're going to go to Indiana.

What are we going back there for?

Well, I got a look at some property back there, and I thought you might want to

go along and see where you used to live.

Do we have to?

No, you don't have to. We'll go if you want to.

Well, it might be fun, at least the airplane park.

Sure, I'd like to revisit some of the old places.

I can get permission to get you out of school on Monday.

Hey, maybe it would be fun.

Okay. We'll fly out of here tomorrow night, then.

Jody's going to be fencing all those old places.

I don't remember much about them.

Neither do I. So there'll be new places to have.

It's a little different from New York, isn't it? Right.

In my room, they got cherries on the wallpaper.

And the bathtub has paws on it, like a lion.

Well, it's a pretty old house. Oh, I love seeing it again.

This was always such a pretty street.

Your father and I used to deliver papers right on that street.

I'd fold them up, and he'd throw them up on the porches, because they'd go in

the bushes sometimes.

Hey, we'd better go see Mr.

Thompson. I want to keep him waiting.

That was real nice of Mr. Thompson to open the school on Saturday just for us.

Well, I told him we were only going to be here a couple of days. Besides, he

knew your folks real well. How about that?

He must be pretty old.

Come on.

You look about the same, Mr. Thompson.

I guess we're more comfortable with our old ways.

That's why the school board keeps me here.

Sometimes I can remember the boys and girls from years ago.

Bob Davis.

Like yesterday.

Walking these halls, sitting in the class.

Your father was one of our star athletes.

His team won the state basketball championship the year he was captain.

Never let me forget that one.

Trophy's there in the caves.

The 63rd Street Tigers won a trophy, too. That's my team, Mr. Thompson.

Good for you.

If I remember correctly, your mother played the lead in the Pirates of

that year.

Let's see.

Mary Patterson.

Ah, there she is.

That's the whole cast, but I imagine you can recognize your mother.

No.

She's in the first row, in the middle, Buffy.

Oh, she looks like a little girl.

She was 16 then.

Let's see the trophy, huh?

Yeah, it's supposed to be arranged. It cost me years.

The kids fiddle with them.

Yeah, there it is.

Yeah, I guess this was one of the best basketball teams Emerson High ever

produced.

Bob Davis was the heart of it.

Long time ago.

You don't forget boys like your dad.

It's heavy.

I'm glad to see you, Bill. What are you doing back here?

Oh, we're just having a little visit.

Made some changes, didn't you?

Yeah, you got to keep up or folks will go clear downtown.

Yeah.

You got a lot of stuff in here, Mr. Bradley.

Yeah, almost like a department store.

You sure got yourself a nice family here, Bill.

Only Bob's kids.

Oh,

why, I knew your daddy when he was, well, about so high.

He was a lot different from your Uncle Bill here. When they were kids, I mean.

Now, Bill was always coming in to get stuff to build his model dams and

out of.

Uncle Bill makes real dams and bridges now.

He built a tunnel under a river so a train could come through.

You don't say.

But you must have seen a lot of our father, too, didn't you, Mr. Bradley?

Oh, sure.

Every time he busted a window playing baseball, he'd come in to find out how

much I'd charge him to fix it.

Got so I'd give him a job on Saturdays just so he'd have enough to fix all them

busted windows.

I sure did like that kid, though.

Hey, look, Bob.

Excuse me. I deliver those screens, Grandpa.

Oh, good.

Bill, this is my grandson, Alan.

Hello, Alan. Alan, Mr.

Davis, and his niece.

Sissy.

Hello. Working here?

I just help out on the weekends.

I go to state during the week. Oh, my parents went to state.

You're local.

I don't think I've seen you before.

The Davises live in New York now, Alan. But their father used to come in here

all the time when he was a kid.

Grandpa's got a memory that won't quit.

I can remember when Bob Davis got himself engaged.

I remember that day.

It was the evening of the...

Yeah, the 4th of July.

The next day, Bob went downtown and put an ad in the paper to announce the

engagement. Gave everybody around here a big laugh, too, because it appeared in

the column under Help Wanted.

Oh, excuse me, I've got a customer.

Oh,

I never heard that story before.

Your father must have been quite a guy.

Oh, he was.

My mother was wonderful, too.

You know, coming back here, I can almost see them.

Almost.

If you're not busy tonight, maybe I could take you around to some of the old

places.

You know, like the park and the community center.

Would you like that?

Yes, I'd like that very much.

Hi. Hello.

Oh,

I just came out for a breath of air. Hot, isn't it?

Oh, we covered a lot of territory today.

We must have walked ten miles.

I'll bet this place is bigger than New York.

Oh, I almost forgot. While you were out, Miss Pringle called.

Miss Pringle?

How old is she now?

Well, she says that she won't go until she's ready. And she's not ready yet.

She was 83 this summer.

Who's Miss Pringle?

She's a piano teacher. I guess every kid in town took lessons from Miss Pringle.

Did you?

Yeah, I wasn't very good, though. Your dad was a lot better than me. Miss

Pringle said I had two left ears and both of them were tin.

That sounds like Miss Pringle.

Well, she heard you were in town. That's why she called.

And she'd like you to come and see her tomorrow.

Wouldn't miss it for the world.

Well, here's me.

Uncle Bill, do we have to go?

We see piano teachers in New York.

Not like this one.

Let's go play on the swing, Buffy.

Me first.

Doesn't seem to be working, does it?

When somebody talks about mom or dad, Buffy and Jody react as if it's some

stranger they never met.

You're the only dad they remember.

Who said we came out here so they could remember their mom and dad anyway?

I'm beginning to understand a few things.

You are, huh?

Okay, well, maybe I thought a trip home would kind of stir up their memories a

little bit.

They act like they've never been here before.

Uncle Bill, I wish I could remember where we used to live here.

Well...

I'd rather live in New York.

Come on.

Want to get washed up?

Okay.

You coming?

Okay, Uncle Bill.

It's just like your dad. Only we had bicycles.

Really? I think I'm going to go in and put a clean shirt on. Okay.

What are you thinking about?

How beautiful it is by moonlight.

I forgot how crickets sound.

What's it like here now, on the 4th of July?

Nothing ever changes.

Don't you remember?

Not really.

Well, it's hot as blazes.

And then there's a picnic in the park, and a band concert, and then the mayor

makes a speech.

And after it gets dark, they're fireworks.

Now what are you thinking about?

What it was like the night my mother and father got engaged.

And how my father must have looked.

And my mother.

Uncle Bill, they have the same comics here as they do in New York.

That's because they're syndicated.

That means you're right.

Well, I'm off to church.

Never fails, does it? No.

Boy, it's going to be hot today.

How would you like to go out to the lake after we see Miss Pringle?

I would.

Me too.

I can't go to the lake, Uncle Bill.

Alan's going to come over later.

Okay. The call's for you, Mr. Davis. A Mr. French from New York.

Oh. Well, see you all later.

Bye -bye.

Bye.

Mr. French is probably calling us because he misses us.

We've only been here two days.

It seems longer.

I hope nothing's wrong.

Mr. French is just probably calling to see if we're having a good time.

Are we?

Not really, but Uncle Bill is.

That's good.

Yeah, you're right.

Yeah, I know their number. I'll call them this afternoon, French.

May I inquire, sir, as to how the experiment is progressing?

Oh. Oh, terrible.

I might as well have saved the plane fare.

I'm sorry, sir.

And now with your trip cut short by this emergency, there seems to be little

chance, really.

Well, as long as we're here, I'll keep trying.

We'll see you tonight.

All right, bye.

Uncle Bill, did Mr. French say he misses us?

Oh! Sure he does. We're going to see him tonight anyway. We have to go back.

You?

Anything matter?

No, just business. I have a meeting in New York tomorrow morning.

That's okay, Uncle Bill.

Only we have permission to stay out of school tomorrow.

I don't mind going back to school tomorrow, Buffy.

Boy, you've changed.

Well, we've still got time to go see Pringle.

Are you sure I can't help you serve, Miss Pringle?

Perfectly able to help myself.

Thank you.

I don't know why it is, but I never saw a boy yet that could resist chocolate

cake.

Thank you, Miss Pringle.

Bet you never saw a girl either.

Doesn't your canary sing, Miss Pringle?

It used to.

It's pretty old.

My memory's not so good these days either, but I do remember some of my

Couldn't forget Bob Davis, even if I tried.

Did my father like taking piano lessons, Miss Pringle?

He loathed it. You never saw a boy arrive so slow and depart so fast.

He was always fiddling with something.

Mostly a ball.

Couldn't wait to get back to his game.

Of course, he wasn't the only one. I've got a box full of... Just a minute.

Always meant to return this stuff, but didn't always remember.

Bob David.

Wrote his name on it so he'd be sure to get the same one back again.

Guess he never did, though.

Jody?

Might as well take it.

Bob David.

Kind of smudged, but you can still read it.

Thank you, Miss Pringle. Our team can use it for practice.

Hey, did you check and see if the kids have got everything?

Yep. Where are they?

Well, they're in the kitchen with Mrs. Mallory, and she's making them a whole

lot of sandwiches to take on the plane because we can't make her believe that

you get fed on the plane.

I'm sorry I got to cut the visit short.

Oh, that's okay, Uncle Bill. It was really nice for me.

I'm sorry it didn't mean much to Jody.

Well, we tried. I guess it didn't take.

Uncle Bill, why didn't we go to our old house where I grew up?

Oh, I don't know, honey.

The people bought it, bought it furnished, and I guess I just didn't

want to see strangers in there with your old things.

But I'd like to see it again.

You sure?

Mm -hmm. If the people who are living there don't mind. It won't mean a thing

Buffy and Jody.

Okay. We'll stop in on the way to the airport.

It looks so different, Mrs. Lacey.

Well, we refurnished about two years ago.

I don't remember this place at all.

Me neither.

Well, you were real little guys when you lived here.

Well, this is your house and your mother's and father's.

Sure seems strange not to see our own things here.

I replaced them one by one.

You know, there is one piece.

A desk.

I refinished it. That's why you didn't recognize it.

Right over there.

I'm afraid it's rather messy.

I remember this desk now. It was in the study.

And there were some books in one of the drawers.

I intended to send it to the children's hospital, but never got around to it.

Maybe you'd like to look them over.

Thanks. I'll go see how my roast is doing.

Do we have enough time?

Oh, yeah. A few minutes will make a difference.

Hey, this one's a baby book.

So is this one.

There's a postcard in it, though.

And it's addressed to Jody.

Hey.

Master Jody Davis.

That's me, all right.

Dear son, your mother said you were worried I wouldn't be home in time to

you to the lake.

I wouldn't miss our Sundays together for anything in the world.

I bought a fishing rod exactly right for a three -year -old boy.

The X on the picture is my hotel room.

Wish you were here.

Your dad.

Wish you were here.

Dad.

Maybe you children would like to see the backyard where you used to play.

Sure. Come on, Jody.

I'm sure glad we came to Indiana.

Just imagine, a postcard from my dad.

How about that?

Well, I don't think it's so strange, Uncle Bill.

Nothing else works.

At the school, the hardware store, even the baseball that belonged to his dad

when he was a little kid.

But that's just it.

Everybody we met talked about a little kid named Bob Davis.

That little kid was a stranger to Jody.

Jody was looking for a man, not a little boy. He was looking for his father.

Funny. So I took a postcard, huh?

A nickel postcard.

Addressed to dear son.

Saying wish you were here.

Signed, your dad.

Well, I guess we can go home.

Thanks for watching. See you next week.

On Family Affair.