June Cleaver just died. Well, really she didn't. The fact is she, Ward, Wally, or the Beaver never existed. They were just characters in a TV program. Barbara Billingsley, the actress who played the well groomed, always together housewife/mom just died at age 94.
The Beaver and I are the same age. I used to like to watch his adventures--still do, if I catch a rerun. It is popular to criticize the Cleavers as representing something that never was, and to the extent it was, shouldn't have been. OK, I can't remember my mom wearing high-heels unless she was going to church or another dressy occasion. Maybe no one is as unflappable as Mrs. C appeared. Still, I think little Beavers today would be a whole lot better off if more of them moms more like June.
There was never any doubt that she loved her boys, or their dad.
She made sure that their home was a haven.
She was nice to Eddie--because she was nice to everyone, but she saw through his smooth talk and didn't trust him any farther than she could through Lumpy--didn't she insist on calling him Clarence?
Later on when there was Beaver movie, it made sense for him to find refuge with mom. She was as dependable as a happy ending at the end of the thirty-minute show.
The Cleavers of Mayfield never really existed, but entirely in the realm of reality are these words from the Apostle Paul:
". .. encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored." (Titus 2:4-5, NASB95)
It's STTA
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