 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 A mother how do you like our peaceful life in the country? I haven't slept so well in years. Don't you like all the lovely rural noises mama? The hammers and saws. Oh, well, we'll get used to that. Well, I hope it stops before we get used to it They ought to have that annex finished in another 10 days Can't even hear the birds singing with all the noises and mama we have the most singing birds you have ever heard Really? I hope they sing better than that parrot you gave me. Hey, I hope Aunt Louisa is taking good care of Solomon while you're here And I hope he doesn't bring on her asthma Aunt Louisa tells me that she tests negative to parrot feathers and I test negative to Aunt Louisa Don't you like her? Oh, I like her very much But I live in trembling fear that one day I'll open the front door and find that Umbrella stand she's been threatening you with since you were three I wish somebody'd send us something even just a letter We'll get all of the letters we want very soon. I don't think anybody even knows we're here by I thought that's why people went to the country So they'd be somewhere where nobody knows where they are. What was that? Plenty of people know where we are and We'll be hearing from them very soon To the bank the tax collector the plumber and the electric light people And mr. Paradiso, are they all going to write us letters? How nice of them? We'll be nice, too We'll write them all letters back with little green checks and oh you mean bills Those aren't letters. Well, they're most of the letters most people get David Why don't you write me a letter from new york just so we can see if the mailbox works? It works fine Well, you see how much that little mailbox can hold without flinching the flinching is up to us I don't know if it worked for Mitch the electrician and billy and the birds I'd feel all by myself up here. You can um You can see how much we count around here, David because I don't mean you. I mean people There aren't any fancy that We aren't people and all of my life. I have calmly calmly proceeded under the assumption that we were When you aren't other people I can't be other people because I'm myself I mean I'm I That still sounds silly. I know it's right, but still sounds silly I'm I well there there must be loads of other people around here Even if we're not we've been here practically four whole days and we haven't met one a one people Not even one people I'd say we've been kind of busy unpacking and putting things away and Plugging up our ears so we don't have to listen to all the hammers all morning Claudia I'll bet it all the months you lived in that apartment in new york You never met one person who lived in the same floor with you. Did you that is all together different? Oh, sure. That's different It was so easy to meet them that we never bothered to say hello I thought in the country neighbors want to meet their neighbors Well, they'll probably come to call on us when they think we're settled I think it's very unfriendly of us to wait everybody. I think we're just plain old city people very rude I think the custom is for the people who've been living here to come and Call on us first. I'm not that lazy Claudia I do not think you ought to walk around the countryside dropping in on other people's houses I think it'd be very friendly of me. I think it would be nosy of you I thought when we had a party line, I could find out everything about the other people on the line Have you been listening to other people on the telephone not on purpose? That makes it all right. I suppose you can't listen to it on purpose. It only rings when it's for us But yesterday I just happened to hear I'm not I'm not interested in what you just happened to hear. Are you mama? I should say not What did you hear? I'll tell you after david's gone Good and I thought your mother was a woman of this superior character. She is. She is. Claudia I don't want you to go snooping around our neighbor's houses like a chipmunk. You hear david Don't you just love that little red house down the river road? I wonder who lives there. I don't know anything about it except it's none of my business And did you notice the house with the funny black stripes on it? I wonder why they painted those stripes the owner probably has a pet zebra Maybe he has See what you miss david when you don't know your neighbors Well think how much they miss not knowing you. I don't see them crying about it. Maybe they are Claudia Please don't listen in on the telephone and don't try to meet our neighbors until they try to meet us Oh, you're just like a man All right. All right. I was just thinking about it and my final word of advice Don't think Well, here goes the happy commuter. Goodbye happy commuter I have 20 minutes to get the eastbrook station Who is coming with me? I am I am good ladies this way to the chariot Mommy it's two o'clock really You think I can't count only four hours and 18 minutes till david comes home Well, it's time to put the suet pudding in the oven. Are we having suet pudding? No, but I can't think of anything else that takes that long to cook. Oh mama Look through the window there. Well, well, I don't see anything. There's a car And what did you expect to see in elephant, but it's topping in our mailbox Mama, it's the postman. We must have some mail. I'm going right out to see what it is Now don't run claudia the postman leaves the mail, you know, he he just doesn't wave it at you Hey, hey Hello Hello there. I brought you your first letter. Hello. Thanks. How'd you know we were here? The united states post department has a very very good way of finding out these things But you're a lady. Well, you're taking a little bit for granted, but I hope you're right But I thought there were always men mailman. I mean, I am a mailwoman and please spell that correctly I'm claudia noughton. Hello. I'm alvira cook. I'm your mailwoman. How do you like living in the country? Oh, we love it been here since friday, haven't you got here around eight o'clock Yes, but how'd you know? Oh, we have ways of finding these things out. Do you come by every day? This is the first time I've ever seen you had no mail for you till now and this one don't amount to anything Just an advertisement from the lumber company. You do have ways of finding things out, don't you? When's the baby do about june? Yes, and Say it's going to be a boy, isn't it? Well, I hope you look like your husband mrs. Noughton I hear tell he's a very good-looking man. Have you met mr. Noughton? Not exactly met him But well, martha lee abbott they live in that red house down the road. She saw you and mr. Noughton driving to the station yesterday The abbots live in that red house been living there four years moved in just about the time I took over this job for mr. Cook. He's my husband and when he went in the army didn't he I mean Oh, he came back all right, but he couldn't get the job away from me He has a little hardware store now. Here's his card if you need anything. Oh, thank you You know, it's funny about men when my husband brought mail around You'd think it was the bore in his job in the world says he don't understand how I have such a good time Why I think it'd be wonderful fun someday when you have nothing to do Why not ride around with me and meet the folks around here? That's what martha lee abbott did when she first moved in she did Lovely girl got three of the nicest children you ever want to meet two boys and the girl two boys One seven and one nine and has the sweetest little girl of three named synthia Oh, what a pretty name mr. Abbott works up to bridgeport at the aluminum company fine Man mr. Abbott. I didn't know there was an aluminum planted bridgeport Oh, they opened it during the war and it's the biggest thing you ever saw Mr. Abbott has a fine job there But his boss is a fellow named mclellan and sometimes he really tries to make life miserable for mr. Abbott And you know, mr. Abbott is just crazy about dogs and he and martha lee have two of the sweetest German police dogs you ever saw and they've been raising little puppies and the other day one of the little babies ran away Well, claudia that wasn't such a bad dinner No, not bad at all. Well don't sound so surprised you too. I bought the meat in a store There's such a nice store. Mm-hmm. And such a nice butcher You talk then you talk then you talk then you talk then you talk and talk and talk Not that much I suppose you were with her mother. I certainly was heaven help me. I was that is not fair You said I drove much better today. Well, it seems you have a new bad habit Now you're driving too slow. Oh, can't please the woman You might almost call that a good habit mother. No, not when it means dawdling outside people's houses when it means just Looking in a window. Mama, you look too. Well, uh, wasn't anything else for me to do now, was it? Oh, I'm so looking forward to meeting the abbots. I'd love to see their dogs Uh, who are the abbots? Oh, didn't I tell you? I thought I told you they're the people who live in that that little red house You saw their name on the mailbox Well, very very observant of you. Martha Lee Abbott. Isn't that a nice name? It's a very nice name, but how do you know her first name is Martha Lee? We have a way of finding these things out Mr. Abbott works for the aluminum company. Did you know there was an aluminum company in bridgeport? I didn't have the slightest idea that there was an aluminum company Claudia yes, have you been listening to the telephone when other people were talking? Ah, I have not have I mama no david She has me see there. I don't know whether I should take mama's word for it after what she said this morning How do you think police dogs and great danes get along together? The abbots have the nicest police dogs. I should think bluff would like to meet them Oh, I get it one of the abbot dogs ran away and came down here the other day. Is that it mother? There hasn't been a dog in the place all day long david claudium Have you been walking on the road? Well, I ask you not to do that. Don't you realize that those police dogs? It can be very wild sometimes He might have bitten you. That's just exactly why I told you time and time again Darling, I haven't been off the place once Except to go to the market just once then how do you know? And and darling this and I forgot to tell you the abbots have the cutest little girl by the name of synthia Isn't that a nice name too mother? What's going on here? When I left the house this morning claudia didn't know one person on the river road Now she not only knows all the people and all their dogs and all their ancestors and their dissidents. David I'm I'm just as surprised as you are. Oh, we have ways of finding these things out. What ways do you have? Well, we got a letter this afternoon. Yeah, what sort of letter? An advertisement from the lumber company Want to buy some lumber? I do not. I want to find out how you've become a gossip by remote control I am not a gossip. I just opened the mailbox and david you were perfectly right this morning You would be surprised how much that little mailbox can hold Um, when you're at home doing the housework is lunchtime simply a snatch a bite time or do you make it a relaxing interlude There's one way you can manage to add refreshment to lunch without taking a bit of trouble And that's to open a nice cold bottle of coca-cola Coke goes with any food and makes even the sketchiest leftovers taste better Try it and see whether you don't find the afternoon shores lighter when you lunch refreshed Say mr. King, uh, right nice young girl that mrs. Norton I hope you'll be bringing her a lot of mail and not just bills either. Oh likes getting mail does she well most people do But claudia especially What's she gonna be doing with herself up here besides opening all her mail? She ain't got yet Oh claudia will keep busy claudia and david rarely ever have a dull moment That's the same with mr. Cook and myself. Why just the matter of buying a dozen eggs That's a very gay adventure with claudia Well, I can't see I ever get a kick out of buying a dozen eggs Well come around tomorrow mrs. Cook and you'll get a big kick out of the way claudia goes about buying one simple dozen country eggs I'll be there so long mr. King by miss cook 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 olivar 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 This broadcast of claudia was supervised and directed by william brown meloni And now here's a word from your friendly neighbor who bottles coca-cola