The "The Real-Life Wally and The Beaver" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Watching one of my all-time favorite  television shows from the past..."Leave It To Beaver."  Perhaps you have seen it on the MeTV channel.  It is on every weekday morning at 8:00 am with another episode airing at 8:30 am.  I've probably seen ever episode that was ever made...a least a dozen times each.  Today's episode had Theodore's  (The Beaver) teacher, Miss Landers, visiting the Cleaver home for the evening meal.  Miss Landers was all jazzed up with a scoop-necked dress and shoes that had no toes in them.  Beaver met her at the front door and then introduced Miss Landers to his mom and dad.  After talking for a few minutes they went to the back patio, which you very seldom saw on any other show, to eat their meal.  Only problem was that high up in a tree along the sidewalk of the house were Beav's friends Larry, Whitey and Gilbert.  They just had to come to see their teacher all snazzed up for dinner.  Naturally they were caught in the act and were told to get down from the tree and stop over to see their teacher to greet her.  

The show ended with Miss Landers departing the Cleaver home after an interesting evening.  "Leave It to Beaver" was a sitcom that was broadcast between 1957 and 1963 and was about an inquisitive and often naïve boy known as "The Beaver."  234 episodes were produced and I saw just about every of them, many of them multiple times. It was originally on CBS, but changed to ABC in 1958.  Today it is on the MeTV channel.  If you ever watched the show, you more than likely would recognize the song that was played at the beginning and the end of show.  It was "The Toy Parade."  The original show ended on June 20, 1963, after I had graduated from high school.  Many who watched the show said it was meant to be in Mayfield, but there are a few Mayfields in the USA and I never knew in what Mayfield it was supposed to have been in.  The cast of the show still remains friends and keeps in touch.  Many appeared on the Today show in 2017 to mark the show's 60 anniversary.  Supposedly, Barbara Bilingsley (Mrs Cleaver) was asked to wear pearls on the original show because she had a deep hollow in her neck.  The pearls covered the area perfectly.  Check next time you watch the show.  You still do watch the show...DON'T YOU?  Well, when I went to Brecht Elementary School in 1950-1956, my mom would invite Mr. Bucher, the school principal, to visit and eat supper at our house on North Queen Street a few times each year.  Mr. Bucher lived  a few blocks away on East New Street and was a bachelor, so mom thought it would be nice to have him come and visit.  I also had a younger brother, such as the "Beav," who always ate supper with us when Mr. Bucher arrived.  Often wondered what Mr. Bucher thought about my brother and I when he came to visit snd eat a meal with us.   Mom also continued to have Mr. Bucher for super after I entered Jr. High and my brother, Steve, entered Brecht Elemntary School. Was it just possible that the show was based on our lives?  Never had the nerve to ask Dr. Bucher (he had obtained his Dr. degree after I left the school) what he thought of my family when I was younger.  I became a teacher in the same school district in the late-1960s when Dr. Bucher was still in the same district.  Often thought of asking him, but he retired from the school district before I ever had the chance to ask him and he is no longer with us today.  Well,  could my brother have been "The Beaver" and I Wally?  My brother would have fit into the "Beaver" mold and I could easily have been Wally.  Guess we will never know.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.