Leave It To Beaver
Violet and Beaver
Ten years later
Beaver (Theodore James ) Cleaver just turned eighteen-years-old. He had just graduated from Mayfield High School, class of 1967. He was just driving into the Mayfield Hamburger Haven to buy himself a cheeseburger, some fries and a Coke when he saw someone that looked very familiar to him. As he got out of his car and walked toward the double doors, he saw the girl straight ahead of him, blonde, blue-eyed and smelling like White Shoulders perfume, he opened the door for her. The pretty girl spoke first.
"Why it's Beaver Cleaver, wow you sure are nice looking."
Beaver turned bright red with embarrassment like he always did when he was delighted or surprised about something. It was his turn to speak when he saw who the girl was.
"You're Violet Rutherford? I'd know your face anywhere, boy you sure are pretty."
Violet smiled at him, her eyes sparkling and she replied back to him.
"Thank you for the compliment, I just graduated from James Thompson Academy For Young Ladies, I have no idea why Daddy sent me there, I loved out old elementary school. I was heartbroken when he put me there."
After they entered the hamburger place, they ordered their food and sat down at a table facing one another. They talked about their childhoods, Violet talked about her friends at school . Beaver talked about his old friends.
Larry Mondello moved away when we were in the fourth grade, I Haven't saw him since, Gilbert Bates graduated with me, he's starting to University really soon. He's studying to become a lawyer, Richard Rickover is also going to University, he's going to become a pharmacist. Whitey Whitney got drafted right after we graduated, as far as I know, he's off somewhere in Saigon. Remember Judy Hensler? She's getting married to a guy she met last year, she's not going to have a baby or anything, they're in love and she's getting married in September."
Since Beaver knew nothing about Violet's school mates, he just listened to her talk about them.
"Sherry Ronaldson graduated and she's going to University to study to become a nurse, she was the smartest one of us, I'm planning to become a dental hygienist. I've always been fascinated by the dentists I've been to. Well Beaver? What are you planning on being?"
"Well I am really trying to become an engineer, I always liked my Dad's workplace, he and your Dad are always busy, planning houses and there's going to be a new shopping mall coming to the town next June, our Dad's are helping them start the plans, just think! There'll be book stores and eating places and a movie theater there."
After they ate and listened to some music on the jukebox, Violet loved The Beatles so they listened to five of their records, then Beaver listened to Lulu, an English girl sing the theme from a movie he had just saw at the Mayfield Bijou called " To Sir With Love"
"That was a very good movie, It was about this African American man that went to a very poor section in England and taught senior school children, they called him Sir, instead of Mr. Thackeray. In Europe and Australia they call their teachers Sir or Miss."
They left the hamburger place, Beaver drove Violet home, she asked him to come inside to meet her Mother Helen. Beaver came inside. When they entered he heard a baby's cry, It was her brother Clarence or as the fellows called him "Lumpy" it was his baby boy, he had married Cindy Saunders and they now had a six-month-old baby boy named Geoffrey. The couple married right after high school, Lumpy had a job as a carpet layer at a new hardware store in town and Cindy was a secretary for Fred and Wards company. Beaver held the sweet baby in his arms and the baby squirmed and tried to get down, he wanted his Aunty Violet.
After eating dinner with the Rutherford's, Beaver went home, June was just finishing up the dishes with Dad as Beaver walked in. He told them about his day, they smiled as he talked to them about Violet, the two of them had planned on seeing a new movie that had just came to the Globe Theater, Romeo And Juliet. On Saturday night.
"I'm planning on buying the tickets, the popcorn, the sodas and the candy, and Violet's just planning to bring herself. I hate this Dutch date thing that some kids have now. I believe the guy should treat the girl to it all."
The night of the movie, Beaver picked up Violet at her house, she smelled wonderfully and her hair was in a pony tail and it smelled wonderfully also. He heard her say she used Prell and something else called a Cream Rinse by a company called Suave. It was supposed to stop tangles, girls loved the feel of their hair after they used it. Before, they had stiff and unmanageable hair. After Beaver bought the popcorn, Coke's and Hershey bars, they sat at the back, that was the best place for viewing the movie. One time, Beaver had been forced to sit on the front row and it gave him a sick headache. As the movie played, the two were entranced in it. During the scene where Romeo drank the poison and died was very sad, and so was the part where Juliet stabbed herself, Violet cried.
As the movie was ending, Violet dried her tears and blew her nose on some tissues that Beaver had gave her. On their way home, they stopped and got a pizza and some soda. They went on and on about how good the movie was and how good the actors were. Before she went inside, she asked Beaver a question.
"Do you remember when we were about eight, and I was told to kiss you for that magazine cover? I told you that I spit on the picture and I tore it up? Well I used to think all boys were creepy, but now I really like them, especially you Beaver."
With that she kissed him on the cheek ,expecting Beaver to say "Yuck!" or something, he smiled and kissed her back.
"Wow Violet! I thought the same thing about girls until I was about thirteen, then I changed my mind, and I really like you too. As a matter of fact, I was about to give you a kiss first."
He did kiss her again, she said goodbye and got out and went inside her house. Later on that night, he called her house and the two of them talked until 11:00. He told her goodbye and before he hung up, Violet told him.
"I love you!"
Beaver thought he would turn red with embarrassment, but his heart began beating a little faster, and he went to bed. The next day, Violet asked him to go to church with her family and to eat Sunday lunch with them, he accepted, later on Beaver invited her over to have Sunday dinner with his family. Wally was home from University, where he was in his senior year , after he graduated the next month, he was going to be an English teacher at Mayfield High, plus he and his former sweetheart, Mary Ellen Rogers were marrying the following month. Ward, June and Wally thought that Violet had grown up and became beautiful.
As the summer progressed, Wally indeed did graduate, and he did indeed marry Mary Ellen, they went on a honeymoon in Florida and moved three blocks down the road, Beaver became lonely without his older brother in his room. But Violet was making his summer very happy, they went swimming and to the movies and to the pizza place. And always on Sundays, they attended the others church and ate the two meals at one another's homes. They argued , just like couples did and then kissed and made up. When fall came, the two went to their respective Universities, but always saw each other on the weekends.
The romance grew through the next four years, Wally and Mary Ellen had a baby girl they named Kelly, Violet's brother Lumpy and Cindy's little boy Geoffrey grew and grew, he crawled, then walked, then celebrated his first birthday, then turned two, then three. Then little Kelly turned one, than two. Beaver and Violet became engaged in 1970. After they graduated, they married in June of 1971.
The couple welcomed their new baby boy in the summer of 1974, they named him Kippy Andrew Cleaver. Three years later, another son Thomas James Cleaver was born. In February of 1980, Ward passed away. The four of them moved in with June to keep her from becoming lonely and depressed. In December of 1990, Fred passed away, then soon after this, Helen Rutherford passed away. Lumpy and his wife Cindy and bought the house and moved in it. Their son Geoffrey got a new baby brother Fred Harlan Rutherford Jr. Born in 1992
Wally and Mary Ellen had a baby boy they named Kevin in 1992, Beaver and Violets friends from childhood came into their lives once again. Larry moved back to town, he was a divorced father of three with full custody, Richard never left town ,he married and his wife Jean had triplets, Gilbert married his sweetheart Brenda Mayberry and they had a daughter, Whitey had gotten out of Vietnam and had a very hard time, while there, he was in charge of a group of orphaned Vietnamese children. He became like a father to a little three-year-old girl named Lien. By the time the Vietnam Conflict was over, he tried to adopt the child, but before he got her to the states, the Viet Cong had taken over the village and he had to leave Lien behind, all he could hear for years was the child piteously screaming "DADDY! DADDY!" Don't leave me!"
His life was sad. He began taking drugs and drinking alcohol to forget the Hell he had been through since losing Lien, he died from an over dose of pills and alcohol in 1983. Judy Hensler married Larry Mondello in 1990 and became a mother to his daughters Gina, Andrea and Joanna. Their mother never cared for them so Judy got to adopt them. Judy's former marriage never was right.
June died in 2010, she was ninety years old. She was active even up until the age of eighty eight, always walking, swimming and even jogging at the age of seventy three.