 Your Coca-Cola bottler presents Claudia based on the famous play and novels by Rose Franken Brought to you transcribe Monday through Friday by your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola Relax and while you're listening refresh yourself. Have a coke and now Claudia Bum-bum-bum-bum-bum Look at that sky mom isn't it beautiful you look where you're driving I can look at both Thank you sky is so soft after rain. There's almost a rainbow. Do you notice? Mama say something all I can say is David must be worried sick I'm going as fast as the speed limit will let me that is not what I meant and I feel fine I don't see what driving has to do with having a baby in the first place That is still not what I mean then you're speaking in riddles mama. I'm not speaking hardly at all Go on speak make yourself at home. It's a free country all I can say is that David expected you I back home in five minutes. We've been gone nearly an hour It's almost seven o'clock still lightest day out David knows Gertrude lives just two miles down the road And it's only five minutes to take her home I suppose it's still so light because this is the longest day of the year mama This was also the longest five minutes of the year stop worrying David was just about to take a shower when we left home He forgets everything including the time when he's in the shower. I should know better What's the use of arguing with you? No use at all Besides who's arguing we're discussing. Oh, and that's healthy when a mother and a daughter can discuss things It's healthy who told you everybody knows it even psychologists Well, then if it's so healthy tell me why did we have to drive all the way down just tonight to the hot house for a few flowers You were a long mama, so you can't pay me. You know, I'm helpless when you've made your mind up That is the sweetest thing you said to me in 10 minutes You have not answered my question Claudia why the flowers just tonight. I felt like flowers just tonight mama Aren't they lovely? They are I think I like the snapdragon's best But that has nothing to do with this clandestine drive through the country behind David's back I intend to tell David's back just where we've been I have to explain the flowers anyway Besides which it's all his fault in the first place his fault Certainly his fault if he decided to let me plow the flower garden I wouldn't have to go tooting around the country buying them poor David He gets blamed for everything living in the country isn't living in the country without a flower garden. What is it then? Then I just as well be back in new york Except of course it's easier to buy flowers up here. Well, I'm glad you found some benefits I think I will put my cards on the table mama as soon as I get home And you better start shuffling them because here we are You'll agree with me, don't you certainly agree to what? You are a traitor. I can't depend on you for anything not even a two by four flower garden Just one question Claudia. Who do you expect to get as your flower gardener? What's the matter with me? Nothing that the birth of an eight pound son won't cure But for the time being you don't look like much of a gardener You know that eight pound son was david's excuse in the first place and he certainly won't change his mind now No, but I can start working on it A man's mind mama needs a lot of working on speak Solomon's wife Well, here we are now to explain our absence to your husband. I'm a honest You make david sound like a monster. I wouldn't blame him if he acted like one See him pacing up and down. Do you so far so good You just tell him that you felt like having some flowers mama me. Yes david wouldn't deny you anything Do you see him? Not in the front hall This is awfully quiet, isn't it? Here give me the flowers. I'll put them in a vase in the kitchen You will not you talk to david while I do it coward not at all. I love arranging flowers. I'm terrible at it Mama, I don't hear david any place. He's giving us the silent treatment Oh But just so his lips haven't turned white. I can cope with him I wish he'd come down. I'm going to get supper on. This is your funeral mama Uh-oh Here he comes Footstep sound as if he's been worrying probably imagines us tangled up in a car accident poor david For us we aren't How he's singing how angry can he be? Your father always sang when he was angry. Hello david. Hello You've been awfully quiet anything wrong anything wrong anything wrong Not a sound around this house for the last half hour. What have you been doing? Nothing no that's usual, but thanks anyway What for for the unaccustomed peace and quiet Is that all you have to say to me Darling is anything the matter? Everything is the matter isn't it mama. I don't blame you for being angry claudia. What's uh What's going on here? Oh you you you you man, haven't you even missed us? I missed a few interruptions and Idea questions. Yes, but that's all have you been gone. Listen to him mama. Have we been gone? Yes, we've been gone. Mama and I have been out gallivanting around the countryside Really he doesn't believe us claudia. You have a nice ride lovely. Thank you lovely I drove oh that's nice. He still doesn't believe us. I don't care so much about his not believing us But I do care that he didn't even miss us I would even have preferred you're being furious that I was driving the car around without telling you instead of this This indifference. There is no pleasing her mother Was something of a letdown david both claudia and I had our claws sharpened for the fray Well, since there are no fireworks to watch on get supper going come on darling kiss me and forgive my good humor and tell me where you've been Where do you think I got these flowers? I am holding pluck them right out of the sky very funny I bought them at the sunny side hot houses the sunny the sunny side hot houses. Yes You know down by eastbrook center Well david what is the matter? I thought you weren't supposed to go driving around the country I'm not but a minute ago the hot houses are miles away if I don't keep my eye on you every single day If I go in and take a simple shower and come out to find that you Hopped in the car and taken off against everybody's warranty. You never known if I hadn't told you you didn't even miss me That's nothing to do with it. You ought to be spank. Oh darling for a while. I thought you didn't care No, I sometimes wish I didn't does complicate life. Doesn't it? That's a masterpiece of understatement. Oh you flatter David darling if we had our own flower garden, I wouldn't have to drive around buying them Don't you really think we ought to raise some flowers? You're going to raise a son. That's enough for you for one season We're raising vegetables vegetable to the first the law of the land darling Let's go outside to talk dinners not for a while Laws laws laws Who made the law the rugged new englanders who first planted this land they They planted their vitals first our vitals are planted how I let you talk me into it I'll never know you mean you admit you're not a rugged new englanders They certainly do you can buy vegetables at one third of the price that we raise it David did you ever taste better asparagus or rhubarb or scallions than ours? They ought to be good each carrot is worth at least a dollar Well, they're certainly worth it. Well, what kind of higher mathematics do you use to figure that it's simple They're ours I thought I thought you were the young woman who couldn't eat anything she could look at in the eye I am that's why we haven't planted potatoes Darling you have no real objections. Am I having a flower garden? Have you now I have a great many objections to one this year I'm I'm not going to have you doing it. That's all These last few months the the doctor wouldn't have allowed it and the next few months I won't allow it Besides You'll be entirely too busy. Then it's not the flowers. You object to it's me. You want to put it that way I think a flower garden is a pretty nice thing to have But don't fool yourself. It's not so simple. It takes a great deal of work and the plot has to be prepared and spayed Oh, I love the work. It's work. It shows not just eaten and gone morning glories marigolds batonias chrysanthemums lock spur Pace will be beautiful. We'll have a flower garden. Darling next summer We'll start preparing that patch of land this fall. We'll have to pick just the right spot, baby. Very important We'll have to have the soil enriched and plant some of the bulbs and roots So they'll be ready to come up in the spring. How do you know so much? Oh, everybody does not I I don't know nothing You you you're a little city girl, but with country ambitions. Uh, that makes up for a lot of ignorant Better had Oh, darling You never act half as bad as you sound. Do you what does that mean? I mean the half the time you talk like a man You don't really feel like one. Do you there's nothing unmanly about liking a few flowers? Of course not. It's just un-New England unforefatherly But our ancestors won't feel so bad seeing as we did plan our vitals a whole year first Now I'm not amused now. Come on. Let's go back into the house supper all must be ready. It's a roast. We've got plenty of time Let's find the right place of land for our garden this minute. Why? Well, besides wanting to beat you while you're hot. I want to have a chance to think of it Now, where do you think? Well First we want a flat piece of ground where the soil goes pretty deep without rocks or stones Now let's see How about behind the barn it's flat there not bad as a matter of fact a few weeks ago I I noticed a nice privet hedge growing there and there's a nice private place for a nice privet hedge Wait a minute darling. We don't have to run. It's not going to disappear today is David starting to get dark And we'll see it in the morning nothing doing. I want to see it now We're almost a careful some loose stones on this wall Is that the hedge that little green roll stuff? Spoken like a true father cutlery I like privet heads even before I knew what it was now, you know Let's go back in the house. David. I want to see it close up. That's the hurry. No hurry. I'm just dying of hunger. Good Say it grows pretty high doesn't it just about average. Oh, you you're so blasé. Come on. Come on. You've seen it I'm hungrier David. Do you see what I see? Look there's the inside the square of hedge practically hidden Here's the garden of flowers Well, what do you know? Let's be a secret garden Look here cornflowers and delphinium a few violets some daisies and What's that one in the corner? This is a very old-fashioned garden Somebody must have planted it or these flowers come up by themselves. Oh, these are all perennials But they must have been planted by someone in the first place whoever it was who did it darling did it in secret Even I have never even noticed it before I guess some four mother of ours wasn't interested in raising vitals David. I suppose every woman needs a secret Not a secret darling It's the corner of something beautiful and fresh and Godly Something has worked on and grows only for beauty and pleasure not because you need No, it looks like we have a garden now. We're lucky we have it without any work all for gratis Only I only what? I'd rather our garden not be secret. I'd rather plant it right out in the open side by side with our vitals Wouldn't you Claudia? Claudia quite contrary. How does your garden grow? Any parties on your social calendar or meetings for which you have to plan refreshments If so just keep in mind that the simplest and least expensive menus are usually built around coca-cola Everybody enjoys the pause that refreshes And it takes so little preparation to serve coke All you have to do is to be sure it's ice cold the way folks like it best Mr. King have you seen Claudia and David the roast is ready and they're not back They'll be back though with a gift for you for me an arm full of secret flowers But claudia and I just bought some all these are homegrown much better. She says You know your daughter's really quite a sentimental young woman. She has sentiment. It's rather nice indeed it is Though tomorrow it may come between her and a young bridgeport doctor indeed and the explanation to that will be tomorrow Till then so long mrs. Brown. Oh there are claudia and david now We're going to spend all evening arranging flowers. Goodbye night, mr. King. Goodbye, mrs. Brown Every day monday through friday claudia comes to you transcribed With the best wishes of your friendly neighbor who bottles coca-cola So listen again tomorrow at the same time And now this is joe king saying or of war and remember Whoever you are whatever you do Wherever you may be when you think of refreshment think of coca-cola Or coca-cola makes any pause the pause that refreshes And ice-cold coca-cola is everywhere These broadcasts are adapted for radio by mania star and the entire production is supervised and directed by william brown meloni And now here's a word from your friendly neighbor who bottles coca-cola