 The Mutual Broadcasting System in cooperation with Family Theatre Incorporated presents The Awakening, starring Susan Peters and Richard Quine with the orchestra of Meredith Wilson. Alan Jones is your host. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. This is Alan Jones. I guess I don't have to tell all you who listen to us every Thursday night what a wonderful important thing a family is. You know. And you know too that the purpose of this Family Theatre is to remind you that prayer, yes prayer, family prayer, can do more than you can dream of to keep your family a wonderful thing, a happy family that knows they can win by sticking together. And when it comes to the importance of a family, to our country and to us individuals, I'd like to point out that this particular week is being observed as National Family Week, a week that belongs to us all. So, if you haven't been doing things together as a family, working together, playing together, praying together, now is a good time to start. Start tonight by praying together. Start right now by listening together to your theatre. The Family Theatre as we bring you tonight's play. Darling, see if the toast in the oven is done, will you? I can't. I'm taking the garbage can out so it won't be standing around full all week. Come on, David. Let mother come here and wash your face. Hurry up. We're late. Good morning. David, honey, don't wiggle around like that. You're not ready. Daddy will go off and leave you. David, come here and let me finish your ears. Come here now and sit still. I've got to comb your hair. Good night, Connie. Haven't you even got the eggs on yet? Now, dear, you just keep that cherry-morning tone in your voice and nothing will be ready. The eggs are coddling and they'll be ready as soon as I finish with David. It's the same old thing every morning. Rush, rush, rush. No clean shirt again. No clean socks. I should think you could at least... Oh, you and your shirts. Can I help it if the laundry man only comes once? Can I help it if I forget to leave it out once in a while when I've got so many things on my mind? Why didn't you iron a shirt for yourself last night instead of fiddling with that old projector all evening? Darling, didn't you promise Larry we'd bring the projector to the party with us tonight? Oh, yes. Well, I had to fix it then, didn't I? I couldn't iron a shirt, too. Ouch! Mommy, you're itching my ear with a comb. Where's that cream that was in the refrigerator last night? Oh, I'm sorry, honey. There wasn't any milk for the cat, so I just gave her... Good night, Connie. That was all we had for breakfast. Now, what are we going to use in our coffee? Well, drink it black. It'll be a change. Now, sit down and eat your breakfast and quit crabbing. It's a ten-minute state and I've got a million things to do before I can leave. Yes, yes. I know what time it is. It's time you quit that job of yours. Maybe we could eat breakfast in peace and quiet once in a while. Well, I'm not going to quit yet, so don't start that argument all over again this morning. David, do you drink your milk and don't dribble on the tablecloth? Oh, and that reminds me, Fred, don't forget to shop on the way home. What again tonight? Yes, I won't have time to do because I've got to finish my monthly report at the office. And I'll be a little late. Okay. What'll I get? David Boy, eat up your egg, huh? Ready. Get a roast if you can and two or three canned vegetables. They have any good cakes or pies. Get either one or the other. And if they don't have a roast, well, oh, get some sort of canned meat, I guess. Canned meat, huh? Haven't you had enough canned meat? Canned meat, canned vegetables, weekend and week out. Don't you ever get tired of that junk? I told you to get a roast if you could. Suit yourself. Get anything you like. Why did you ask me in the first place? Ah, skip it, skip it. Come on, Sonny. Daddy's got to go now. Daddy, will you play with me tonight? Okay, Son. If Daddy has time after he quits work, shops get dinner, and iron's a clean shirt, come on, let's go piggyback. And, Connie, I wish you'd find my black silk socks I've looked everywhere for them. I can't find them. Are you wedded to that particular pair of socks? Oh, never mind. I'll find them if I can after I call Mrs. Barlow. And please get home as early as you can. Up you go. Come on, Davey. Do it again, Daddy, again. We've got to get out of here. You'll be late to nursery school, too. Bye, Mommy. Bye, dear. Hello, Mrs. Barlow. This is Connie. I didn't have time to run over this morning, but can you stay with David tonight? Oh, thanks a lot. We'll leave about eight o'clock, I think. It's an anniversary party for the Allerton's. Yes, yes, I am. What time of you? 8.45. Heaven's, our clock is slower than usual. I told Fred to get it fixed, but he always forgets it. Don, I haven't done my dishes or beds or anything yet. Well, thanks again. Bye. Listen, dear, this report is the peskiest thing I ever typed. Nowhere near finished with it. So will you go by and pick up David on your way home and don't stop to do any shopping? You and David just go into Merrill's and eat your dinner. I'll get them all at the drug store on my way to the bus. Can't you type the report tomorrow, Connie? Well, you know how Mr. Mack is. It's got to be in the mail tonight or we'll be hearing from the home office. Well, tell Mr. Mack you have an engagement. Please don't argue, Fred. You're only delaying me. I'll get home as fast as I can. Well, here comes Mrs. Barlow across the lawn already. Come in, Mrs. Barlow, right on the dot. I don't know what the newberries would do without you. There wouldn't be any social life for them, I guess. Oh, you know I'm always glad to help out whenever I can. Has David gone to bed? Yes, thank goodness. He went right off to sleep so you won't have to worry with him like he did last time. Well, can I help with anything else? No, no thanks. You just sit here in the living room and play the radio or read or do anything. But please, Mrs. Barlow, don't look at the house or go near the kitchen. It's a terrible mess. I'm behind with everything this week. Someday I'll get caught up, I hope. What time will you be home, do you think? Oh, we'll be home about 12.30. We will if we get there before the party's over. Can you imagine, Mrs. Barlow, before we could go out tonight, I had to iron a shirt and finally had to put a zipper in her dress to keep it from falling off. What a life. Oh, don't pay any attention to Fred, Mrs. Barlow. He's all hot and bothered because I forgot to leave the laundry out last week. We got so busy at the office I didn't get a chance to do any washing or ironing. And I suppose I'll never hear the end of it. I'll get it. Hello? Fred? This is Sue. Oh, hello, Sue. Where are you? Well, I'm out on Bonnie and drive on home to Colton in the morning. Fine, fine. Come on over. You know we always have room for you. Look, Sue, we're going to the Allardons for their anniversary, but Mrs. Barlow will be here with David and she'll let you in, huh? Good. Then we can visit in the morning. Did you have a nice vacation? Wonderful. I'll tell you all about it in the morning. Okay, as well. We have to run now, sis. Bye. See you later, huh? Oh, good evening. Good evening. Well, you're Mr. Newberry's sister, Sue, aren't you? Mm-hmm. He said you'd be along about this time. Come on in. Here. Let me help you with your things. Well, I might as well leave him right here in the living room. This is where I always sleep. Hope I can find a clean sheet or two. Last time the laundry hadn't come back. Isn't it warm this evening? Yes, it is. Mr. Newberry said there'd be some grape juice in the refrigerator if you wanted it. Well, I am thirsty. Come to think of it. Will you have some, too? Heavens, what a kitchen. Looks as if Connie hadn't washed any dishes for a week. Well, I do think she tries to do too much. Working in an office all day, trying to keep a house in order, and take care of little David. Here. Let me help with those dishes. I'll dry. Well, that's just it. And the worst part of it is she doesn't have to do it at all. She went to work while Fred was in the service. Now that he's out and has a fine job with a very good salary, and commissions besides, she refuses to quit. Just determined to have that extra money. Well, I asked her why she didn't have someone come in and help her, but she says they won't come out so far about the day, and she doesn't want anyone all the time who might have to live here. Says they get in her way. Well, she always has an alibi. Fred is begged and pleaded with her to quit, but the real reason is that she doesn't like housework. That is, she's decided she doesn't. And when she once makes up her mind to anything, she's harder to budge than a boulder in a mountain. Well, it's awfully hard to try to run a home and be out of it all day. I sometimes wonder if that's why little David is so restless at night. You know, I live next door, and my bedroom is just opposite his, and I hear him crying so often of late. Well, a constant rush and confusion and irregularity of meals probably keep him stirred up all the time. But it's not my problem, and I quit talking about it a long time ago. But I do feel sorry for Fred. He's such a home man. Loves to work in the garden. Oh, he had such plans when they bought this. Well, where in the Sam Hill is the place, anyway? Pardon me, sir, could you tell me where 1717 Lansing Drive is? Let me see. Lansing Drive. Yeah, 1717. Oh, I know now. You've passed it. You'll have to go back down this road about three miles after you make the turn at the foot of the hill. Well, thanks very much. That's what we get for arguing. Well, who started it? Well, we won't go into that, but I'll tell you this much. If you don't give up that job, but quick, I'm going to... You're going to do what? Plenty. We don't need your salary, Connie. You know it as well as I do. Oh, don't we? Well, you know as well as I do we couldn't belong to the country club without it. We couldn't have our cottage at the beach, and we couldn't take that lecture course and... Right, right. And we could do very well without any or all of them. What good do they do us? We haven't been to the club once since we joined, and the one time we planned on going, you refused because you didn't think your clothes were good enough. We were supposed to meet all the best people. Further, my business connections, according to your ideas. We will later on. Oh, no doubt. In the meantime, we've spent just one weekend at the beach. We go to the lectures, and both of us are so sleepy and tired after working all day we can't even keep awake. But, Fred, it won't always be this way. No. So we keep throwing our money away while we go around in circles. You work, I work. We never get time to play with David. And this year finds us just where we were last year. Now, let's quit kidding ourselves, Connie. You promised to quit a year ago. But don't you realize that I want to get the beach place paid for? I realize this. When we got married, we planned that as soon as I got out of the service, we'd have a real home. Not a camping setup. Oh, darling, I want my boy to grow up knowing what it is to have his mother around the house. I like to have him run out to meet me when I come home. I like to smell dinner cooking and feel like I have some place to come to. You, Connie, at home, not dashing in tired to death, opening cans... But why didn't you marry a cook? I married the girl I wanted. And I'm not going to let any office job come between her and me. I know what I want, Connie, and I mean to have it. All you want is to bury me at home with your old pots and pans. A woman's place is in the home stuff. Too bad you didn't live in the bustle age. Too bad you don't get yourself a hotel room and a can opener. You'd probably be just as happy. Evidently, you prefer to have our home life go the way of Edna's and Frank's on the rocks. But it's not going that way. If I have to tie you down, I'm warning you. So you're warning me. Well, let me tell you a few things, Mr. Fred Newberry. I'm not going to be a household dredge for you or anybody else. I could make a living for myself and for David, too. Oh, just whom do you think you are, Mr. Mussolini Hitler? What's the use? You win. Go ahead. I guess you can carry off the honors at the party, too, because I'm not going. Not going? Well, Mr. Hitler, I'm going and you're going to drive me there. Don't worry. I'll drive you there and you can get home the best way you can. Fed up being late everywhere we go. I'm fed up trying to submerge all our activities under your business career. I don't know what women like you want with a home, a husband and children anyway. Hang home so soon. Is the party over? Where's Connie? She went to the party. I didn't. You didn't go? Why? Oh, Sue, I don't know what's the matter with me, with Connie. I was so angry with her that night I could have boarded a freighter for the Solomon Islands and never come back. Fred, what in the world has happened? Oh, nothing, nothing at all. It's the same old story. That job of hers. It's wrecking everything. Oh, you're just tired. I'll say I'm tired. I feel like a bird with no feet, no place to light. Sue, is it so wrong for a man to expect his wife to keep a simple home? All we do is sleep here. Half the time we don't even eat our meals at home. No order, no system, just a couple of jumping jacks with no head, no socks, no shirts, no... Well, you're a grown man. Can't you take care of your own socks and shirts? Sure, sure I can. Live alone. It's not that, Sue. It's just that no home can be normal without somebody giving some thought and time to making it that way. That's a wife's job. It's my job to make the living, and I'm making a pretty darn good one. Well, you happen to marry a girl who's not domestic. She can't help that. She likes office work. She's just not the domestic type. That domestic type, my eyes. She's just stubborn. She wants that extra money to keep up with the Joneses. I made the mistake of telling her so tonight. Well, you argued like a couple of wildcats. Well, something's happening to us, Sue. We're always arguing. She's working too hard down there, and she won't admit it. Well, I think you should have taken things into your own hands long ago. It's time little Connie learned a thing or two about her responsibility to her home. Something's got to be done. Well, I've tried every way I know. I suppose being patient for ten years or so might enable her to come to her conclusion in her own way when we both quit caring one way or the other. Nonsense. She has to be made to see just what she's doing to her husband's and her child's happiness. But how are we ever going to change her viewpoint? Fred, I believe I've got an idea. If Mrs. Barlow will help us, it might work. Oh, Mrs. Barlow! I'll be there in just a minute. If this doesn't cure, nothing will. But if you ever tell her it was my idea, I'll jump in the ocean and pull you in after me. Now listen and see if you think this is worth trying. Good night. Thanks for bringing me home. I'll call you tomorrow, Dorothy. Good night. Oh, Sue, did we wake you up? I forgot you'd be sleeping in here. No. Oh, I haven't been asleep. I got interested in this book. I just couldn't put it down. What time is it anyway? Oh, it's just one o'clock. Is Mrs. Barlow gone home? Yes, I told her to go early. No need to keep her here when I was going to be here all night. Where's Fred? Fred, didn't he come home? Isn't he here? Wasn't he at the party with you? No. And you wait till I get hold of that old sore head. We had a wonderful time at the party. Met some lovely people, and invited especially on our account. And just because we were late and we'd gotten to a really terrific argument and both said things we didn't mean, he suddenly announces that he's not going. So I went by myself. Oh, I was so mad at him I could have boiled him an oil. Oh, well, he probably went to a show. I was never so embarrassed in my whole merry life. Imagine not going to a party when it was right at the door. Oh, I'm going to lecture him what he does know about etiquette in a manner he won't soon forget. Everybody wanting to know where he was and I having to make up all kinds of excuses that sounded reasonable. Oh, just wait till he comes home. Sue, Sue, wake up. Sue, Fred hasn't come on in yet. It's nearly three o'clock and I haven't slept a wink. What? What'd you say, Connie? Oh, is it morning already? Oh, I'm so sleepy. Sue, it's Freddie. He hasn't come yet. Oh, I'm worried to death. Where could he have gone? He's never done a thing like this before. Oh, something must have happened to him. Oh, Connie, don't worry. He probably went over to your mother's. No, he couldn't have mother and dad have gone north for a month. There's nobody there. Something terrible has happened to it. I know it. No, Connie, don't get excited. What has gone back to bed? Maybe he went over to Dan's. Oh, but Dan and Margaret were at the party. He couldn't have gone there. Well, I wouldn't worry. Connie, maybe he... He might have been in an accident or anything. Oh, Sue, I've got to do something. I'm going to call the emergency hospital. Why, Sue, he might be lying there dead this very minute for all I know. Well, don't you suppose they would have called us if he'd been taken there? Oh, I don't know. I'll call the police. Emergency hospital. No such accident reported, madam. No Fred Newberry reported yet, lady. You should put that name, madam. No one put that name on the register, ma'am. Sue, what shall I do? Where can he be? If only we hadn't quarreled. I'll never say another crossword to him as long as I live. Oh, Sue. Connie, Connie, you mustn't get so upset. I know he's all right. How do you know it? Look at the people who were killed in automobile accidents every day. The road out to Larry's is an awfully bad winding road. He might have gone over to the other side and down the hill. Maybe he's lying there right now. Connie, stop imagining things. He's liable to walk in any minute. Oh, no, no. He wouldn't stay out like this and worry me. You know he wouldn't. Not my friend. Oh, Sue, do you think he might have gone down to the beach cottage? Oh, I don't think he'd do that, Connie, 20 miles. Well, maybe he thought he'd just ride down there and cool off. He was so angry with me. Well, because of that old job that I can't pry myself loose from. Oh, Sue, will you let me have your car? I've got to drive down and see if he's there. I can't stand not knowing where he is. Or will you go with me? But what about David? We can't leave him here alone. Well, we could wake up Mrs. Barlow and ask her if we can't leave him over there until morning. Oh, no. I think it'd be better if she came over here so we wouldn't have to wake him up. I'll run over there right now. You get dressed and try to relax. Fred, Mrs. Barlow, I think we'd better call the whole thing off. It isn't happening the way we planned it all. Connie's just about crazy with fear and worry about what's happened to you, Fred. I can hardly stand not to tell her that you're right here and have been all the time. What happened, Sue? What did she say? We saw the lights go on a little while ago. We expected you sooner. Oh, she was planning to give you a good lecture when you did get home. After she went to bed, though, then she woke me up. She's called up the police, the emergency hospital, and have a dozen other places, and now she's determined to drive to the beach to see if you went down there. Oh, I wonder if we ought not to tell her. I think we should. Well, I don't. I'm desperate. It's a few tears now against what could mean our future happiness, and I'm willing to take my chances on getting her cured once and for all. But Fred, that long drive at this time of night? Well, I'll trail your car a couple of minutes behind you all the way. I've stayed up this late, Mrs. Barlow. Can you help us out for the rest of the night? Well, of course. I'll just go over to your house and stay until you get back. Well, I'm afraid Connie might actually make herself ill. You've no idea the way she's carrying on. Well, I don't want anything serious to happen, either, Sue. But half the troubles of married couples today are just like ours. And for once, I'm going to use my head. All right, but remember, I didn't bargain for anything like this. Connie, don't you think... And you better let me drive. I'm not too tired. You're going too fast. Please slow up, will you? You frighten me. Oh, I... I didn't realize. I'll go slower. I hardly know what I'm doing. But isn't there, I'll never forgive myself. Anything has happened to Fred, I'll... Oh, Sue, I just wouldn't want to live. Oh, Connie, please stop worrying. All this just because of an old job. Argument. But there's so much more back of it than that, Connie. I don't see how you or any other girl can expect to do justice to a house, a four-year-old child, a husband, and an eight-hour-a-day exacting job. There just are not enough hours in the day to take care of it all. You ought to be able to see that. Somebody always gets the little end of a sudden setup like that. There's no way to make a home. But hundreds of women do it. Successful wives and mothers. You think they just break themselves up? Making a home for a family is an all-time job. Oh, poo, that's old-fashioned. You sound like Grandma Jackson. Well, I agree with you. Home is an old-fashioned idea, just like the multiplication table and the alphabet. But they all work when we apply them. The same as a home grows to mean something when somebody is working at it. Oh, Sue, you're just an old maid with berries. What do you know about husbands and children and homes and... Oh, forgive me, that was mean. I didn't mean to say a thing like that. Oh, Sue, I... I don't know what I'm talking about. Honey, dear, of course I forgive you. But if I could only make you realize what you're doing to Fred, to yourself and to David... But if others can do it, why can't I? You know how I dislike housework. But it isn't your job to get out and make the living. Your job, the one you took on when you got married, is to make the home. It's the whole basic idea of marriage itself, whether you like it or not. Otherwise it becomes just a box of April Fool's candy. Sweet and a bitter sort of way. Connie, you're not even listening. I... I was just thinking of Fred. If he's not down at the cottage. Connie, slow down for heaven's sake. You're up to 60 again. Here we go. And that's when I'll get that thing out. Oh, if you think this is how you do it, then the stuff that's in here will sit out and there's nothing to get out of it. And if you think they do it, you're screwing out at the farthest corner that I've had. Oh, really? Don't think I won't. The stuff that's in there, oh, man, there's not a cab that's in there, it's all smashed in there. The stuff that's in there, well, I don't even see it. Oh, yeah, that's very... oh, man. This can't come down there if it's in the top like that. Oh, and it does get all the way to the top again. Oh, well, here it comes. Not in the top, but in the end, it has your own root out there. Oh, it's what has it's own root out there. Uh, no. Yeah, that's what we do with it. You've worked. Hm? What's wrong with it? What's wrong with it? I have seen your shots, and I am a lot worse than it. Well, I have an old shot, but I don't know what I was talking about. Today is the most nice day of the year. Thank you, Howard, and I will always look for the villain. And that's one behalf. The home is the greatest single factor in establishing and maintaining moral values. Nothing else can take the place of the home in that respect. The family is the strongest fortress we have as a nation. That's why it's so important to have the right kind of family. A happy family. A good family. And that kind of a family isn't a matter of luck. It's a matter of pulling together in every way. It means being interested in each other, working together, having fun together, being proud of each other, and praying together. Because just as nothing can take the place of the family, nothing can take the place of family prayer, of family that prays together, stays together. We said at the very beginning of this program that more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Well, you'll never know how much a prayer can do until you've said one. And it shouldn't be hard to pray. After all, prayer is a talking to God. So pray tonight as a family, just a simple, sincere prayer for the help you need. Pray together tonight, tomorrow night, every night. Before saying goodnight, I'd like to thank Susan Peters for her performances, Connie, and Richard Quine for his portrayal of Fred. And a special word of thanks also to Mary Cox for writing tonight's play, to Mal Williamson for his direction, and a max tear for his music. Others who have appeared in our play tonight were Henry Blair, Iain Tedrow, Lila Webb, and Don Doolittle. Next week, our Family Theater stars will be Nelson Eddias Host and Gregory Peck in Lonely Road. Good night and God bless you. This series of the Family Theater broadcast is made possible by the thousands of you who felt the need for this kind of program, by the Mutual Broadcasting System which has responded to this need, and by the actors and technicians in the motion picture and radio industries who have volunteered their services to fulfill it. This program is heard overseas through the facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio Services. Tony LaFranco speaking. This is the Mutual Broadcasting System.