Reta Shaw

            On Saturday morning my back was sore, probably because of my fast because there are usually aches in the first few days. 

            I worked out the chords for all the vocal parts of “Mélo Mélo” by Serge Gainsbourg and most of the instrumental. I should have it done on Sunday and I’ll start posting it on Christian’s Translations.

            Around midday I went down to No Frills. They haven’t had grapes of any kind there for a month. I bought a bag of oranges, several of two kinds of mangoes, a pint of strawberries, several avocadoes, some vine tomatoes, shampoo-conditioner, three small bottles of Garden cocktail, a can of coffee for next month and two jugs of orange juice. 

            In the supermarket I ran into Bruce, who used to be a volunteer at the food bank and was always very friendly. We exchanged greetings in the store but we talked a little longer later, as he was leaving while I unlocked my bike. He said he finally got housing after a twenty year wait and he’s now living in the far west end by Royal York. But he says he still does all his shopping in Parkdale because he knows the pharmacist and the store owners and this is where all his friends are. He said it’s his whole social life is, “as much as someone seventy years old can have a social life.” 

            For lunch I had mashed avocadoes with the rest of the plantain chips. So now I’m fully into my fast, although I officially started it yesterday. 

            I didn’t take a bike ride because I’d already been out to the supermarket. 

            I researched some more of the references in Oscar Wilde’s “The Critic As Artist” but I got tired again and took another siesta from 18:45 to 19:45. When I got up I did some more research and then at 20:30 it was time to make dinner. 

            I had tomatoes and avocadoes and a glass of Garden Cocktail while watching Andy Griffith. This was the funniest episode in the series so far. 

            The story begins with three convicts escaping from a women’s prison. Meanwhile Barney and Floyd are on a fishing trip and have run out of gas. They go looking for a farmhouse and come across the O’Malley cabin, which they assume O’Malley has rented to someone while he is in Detroit. But they are captured by the three convicts who are holed up in the cabin. Barney had donned his deputy’s uniform when they went looking for gas because he’d thought it would be easier to hitchhike that way. The leader is Big Maud who doesn’t seem much brighter than the other two. Maud takes barney’s gun and cooperative Floyd informs her that the one bullet is in his shirt pocket. Naomi is a convicted husband beater who hates men. Sally thinks Barney looks like her ex-husband Al and then starts thinking that he is Al. Everyone, including Floyd starts calling Barney Al. Barney is forced at gunpoint to call Andy and let him know that O’Malley has invited them to spend the night. Sally constantly wants to dance with Barney while Naomi keeps trying to get Floyd to fistfight with her for fun. Maude sends Sally and Floyd into Mayberry for provisions, making sure he knows that if he tries anything funny Al will get it. I guess they take gas to the car that Barney and Floyd had been driving because that’s what they drive into town. But in town Andy sees Floyd come out of a store with groceries and comes up to talk with him. He notices the woman behind the wheel and thinks Floyd has a new girlfriend. But after they drive off a bus pulls up and O’Malley gets off. Andy realizes something is suspicious and offers to drive O’Malley out to his place. Back at the cabin they are about to make dinner and Sally goes to get water from the pump outside. She puts the bucket on the kitchen window and when her back is turned Andy comes to the window, dumps the water and puts the empty bucket back. When Naomi finds the bucket empty she goes out to get more water but she is cuffed by Andy and gagged by O’Malley. I doubt if a private citizen would be engaged by a sheriff in capturing convicts. When Naomi doesn’t come back, Sally is sent out but she is also captured. Big Maud makes Barney look after the burgers and Andy comes to the window. He tells Barney to get Maud outside. When Maud puts a tango on the record player Barney makes his move. He becomes suddenly seductive and asks Maud to dance. As he leads her around the cabin he eventually is able to open the door but it takes two or three turns around the room before he finally gets her outside for Andy to cuff. Although Floyd had sat passively and even pleasantly the whole time, the newspaper the next day reports that he captured the convicts. 

            Big Maud was played by Reta Shaw, who was the housekeeper in The Ghost and Mrs Muir and also played a singing cook in Mary Poppins. She created the part of Mabel in “The Pajama Game” on Broadway and reprised the role in the film version. 

            Except for her husky voice, Jean Carson, who usually plays Daphne the fun girl on the show, was barely recognizable as Naomi. 

            Sally was played by Jane Dulo, who started out performing on Vaudeville at the age of ten. She played navy nurse Molly Turner on McHale’s Navy and 99’s mother on Get Smart.