Robbie is walking home with a new girlfriend as we open, asking her to "go steady." She resists because he doesn't have his own car, specifically citing the problem of him not having a car to take her to the upcoming class picnic, we learned is at a lake 10 miles away. A guy in a nice late-model convertible drives up and asks her if she'd like him to drive her home. She jumps into his car almost immediately, and Robbie is sad that he doesn't have "wheels."
"Going steady" in those years was a good way for couples in high school to be able to plan on having a date for all school functions-dances, picnics, etc.-without having to worry about finding someone to ask, or be asked by, worrying about not having anyone to go with. It wasn't so much any proclamation of love as it was a way to not be left out.
For this class picnic that was discussed, it would seem obvious that a lot of the attendees would be traveling with others. For a 10-mile trip, it shouldn't have been hard at all to join in with one or two other couples for the ride to the lake.
When Robbie gets home that evening, he is stunned to learn that his brother Mike is giving him his car because he is about to buy a new one. Appreciative though Robbie is, he doesn't want his brother's car, he wants one he earned on his own. So he gets Mike to accept an offer of $50 (on an IOU) and then takes the car to a dealer and swaps it for a nice looking car from 25 years ago or earlier, but one that does not run.
Robbie sets out ordering parts from various places, on credit, and spends weeks fixing it up so it does run. He finally fires it up and it runs. He takes it back to that car dealer and winds up trading it to him for, I believe $375, plus an old clunker that would only start when pushed, stalled a lot and look like it had been through the war.
This enabled Robbie to pay all his debts but he wound up with a terrible car that you'd figure would have chased the girlfriend away, after toiling for dozens and dozens of hours fixing up another vehicle. I wanted Robbie to sell/trade the car he toiled on so hard to pay his debts AND have a nice car to drive-maybe even the same one Mike gave him, but after he re-purchased it.
The point of this episode was that Robbie wanted something he acquired on his own. But he could not have gotten the classic-era car if not for the nice used car his brother gave him. In the end, it was like he spent several weeks making an old car run again, just so he could trade his nice used car that he got from Mike-said to be worth $50, for something that would have probably not cost him $10 to buy in the first place-considering it didn't really run and looked horrible. If he had just traded Mike's car to the dealer for the heap plus $40, he'd have come out farther ahead.
They kept showing Robbie obtaining various car parts, we heard Bub's counting the total he owed reach a figure over $300, and for most of the episode, it seemed Robbie was going to get into trouble over owing so much money. But that wasn't it, and we wind up kind of disappointed that there was no payoff to this story, no lesson learned, and because the thing he wound up with was so miserable, we couldn't even feel happy for Robbie in the end. I just cannot give this a score higher than 4.
For this class picnic that was discussed, it would seem obvious that a lot of the attendees would be traveling with others. For a 10-mile trip, it shouldn't have been hard at all to join in with one or two other couples for the ride to the lake.
When Robbie gets home that evening, he is stunned to learn that his brother Mike is giving him his car because he is about to buy a new one. Appreciative though Robbie is, he doesn't want his brother's car, he wants one he earned on his own. So he gets Mike to accept an offer of $50 (on an IOU) and then takes the car to a dealer and swaps it for a nice looking car from 25 years ago or earlier, but one that does not run.
Robbie sets out ordering parts from various places, on credit, and spends weeks fixing it up so it does run. He finally fires it up and it runs. He takes it back to that car dealer and winds up trading it to him for, I believe $375, plus an old clunker that would only start when pushed, stalled a lot and look like it had been through the war.
This enabled Robbie to pay all his debts but he wound up with a terrible car that you'd figure would have chased the girlfriend away, after toiling for dozens and dozens of hours fixing up another vehicle. I wanted Robbie to sell/trade the car he toiled on so hard to pay his debts AND have a nice car to drive-maybe even the same one Mike gave him, but after he re-purchased it.
The point of this episode was that Robbie wanted something he acquired on his own. But he could not have gotten the classic-era car if not for the nice used car his brother gave him. In the end, it was like he spent several weeks making an old car run again, just so he could trade his nice used car that he got from Mike-said to be worth $50, for something that would have probably not cost him $10 to buy in the first place-considering it didn't really run and looked horrible. If he had just traded Mike's car to the dealer for the heap plus $40, he'd have come out farther ahead.
They kept showing Robbie obtaining various car parts, we heard Bub's counting the total he owed reach a figure over $300, and for most of the episode, it seemed Robbie was going to get into trouble over owing so much money. But that wasn't it, and we wind up kind of disappointed that there was no payoff to this story, no lesson learned, and because the thing he wound up with was so miserable, we couldn't even feel happy for Robbie in the end. I just cannot give this a score higher than 4.
