User Reviews

After cleaning Ward's desk June is tossing stuff off when Ward finds his old pedometer. Ward figures he will give to the boys and they might enjoy it. Wally claims he takes the bus to school and gets lifts from friends so he doesn't do much walking. Ward claims he did so much walking when he was a kid that he must have walked twenty miles a day. Beaver takes it uses it to see how far it is to school. At school, Beaver brags about how far his father used to walk in a day. Whitey says that Beaver's father is a liar; no kid could walk twenty miles a day. Beaver bets his new fielder's mitt against Whitey's flashlight that he can walk twenty miles like his dad.

Beaver and Larry have been walking around since school let out but so far he only has two miles on the pedometer. Larry suggests that maybe miles were shorter when Beaver's dad was a boy. Now that it is getting a little late, June is getting nervous. It's five thirty, but Beaver only has three miles on the pedometer. Larry is giving up and is heading for home, but Beaver is trying to log just a little more mileage before giving up.

Wally asks Beaver why he is taking his mitt to school. Beaver explains to Wally that he lost his mitt to Whitey in a bet about walking twenty miles. Wally says that dad was just talking and Beaver shouldn't have taken it seriously; adults are always saying stuff like that.

When Ward gets home, June tells him that Beaver is up in his room sulking. Ward goes up to cheer Beaver up and even offers to play some catch. That really seems to upset Beaver even more and he locks himself in the bathroom.

Wally overhears his parents talking, and he tells Ward why Beaver is so upset. Wally says he knew that Ward was exaggerating but Beaver is just a little kid and he believes everything. Ward thanks Wally and says he guess that both he and Wally will have to watch what they say to Beaver in the future.

Ward decides to try another talk with Beaver. Ward explains that he was exaggerating a little; Beaver should know that as kids exaggerate all the time. Beaver says that true for kids but grown-ups shouldn't do that. Ward has been backed into a corner but tries to wriggle out by suggesting that as Beaver gets older, he will look back on this day and find it so funny that he will tell his kids.

Ward ends up getting Beaver a new glove and Beavers asks Ward if he played baseball as a kid. Ward starts to talk about when he played semi-pro but a look from Wally brings him right back. Ward looks at Beaver and says it wasn't important and he only played half a season. Beaver tells Ward he doesn't want his dad to stop telling stories, even if he exaggerates.

A fun episode that reinforces how gullible little kids can be. Or at least how gullible they used to be in the 50's. Sometimes I find children who are too "grown-up" for their own good; but at heart they are still children. It's a tough line for both adults and children to walk.

As an aside, I used to tell my children that I walked two miles to school and two miles back when I was in high school. That elicited the usual eye rolls, but when we went back to my home town to visit some friends, we all got in the car and drove from where I lived as a boy and to my high school: two miles each way according to the odometer. Sometimes adults don't exaggerate.