Crossed Connections

The newly-invented telephone comes to Walnut Grove. The switchboard, housed in Nellie's Restaurant, is manned by Harriet, the system's new operator. She listens in on a phone conversation from Alice Garvey about her past, which has an adverse effect on the entire Garvey family.

Good episode; it combines the serious(Alice Garvey's) 1st husband, with the funny(Harriet and the stock market.) One thing though, Walnut Grove seems to get the latest and greatest things before anyone else.

alexczarn wrote:

[i] with the funny(Harriet and the stock market.)

The part were Harriet comes in and she's just lost all her money is just hilarious!!!!!!

Great episode...

people today still listien on eacher's converstions.That's nothing new.

Liked the esp/

sweetkrissy2011 wrote:

people today still listien on eacher's converstions.That's nothing new.

Liked the esp/

There's a similar situation in "On the Banks of the Bayou", by Roger Lea MacBride, in his books about Rose Wilder's childhood. Rose was in Crowley, Louisiana, living with auntie Eliza Jane when she discovered private telephones. Eliza had one in her house and if other people was speaking you could listen to them. Rose and cousin Wilder had a great time listen to Mansfield neighbors' private conversation at phone and had a great deal of fun until Eliza Jane came and commanded them to leave the telephone alone...

But all this was in 1904 and "Crossed Connections" is almost 18 ears earlier than the telephone episode in Crowley...I don't know if in the late 1870 or 1880, having a telephone in a little Middlewest town was that common.

Vanesa.

I didn't know that. I guess listing on phone converstions was like watching T.V.

My grandmother had a party line. She had to share her phone line with the other ppl on the street.This was in the country.

Not a favorite episode. It was okay.

I didn't like this one either. The poor Garveys were given more than their share of marital woes.

bethandmanly wrote:

I didn't like this one either. The poor Garveys were given more than their share of marital woes.

How very true. They almost divorced in The High Cost Of Being Right because of Jonathan's refusal to let her work, then was mad because she didn't tell him she was married before.

But they least worked out the problems.

sweetkrissy2011 wrote:

But they least worked out the problems.

Yes...But they must suffer soooo much in the show! They reminds me a little the kind of situations the writers will imagine for poor Mary.

Vanesa.

Vanesa wrote:

sweetkrissy2011 wrote:

But they least worked out the problems.

Yes...But they must suffer soooo much in the show! They reminds me a little the kind of situations the writers will imagine for poor Mary.

Vanesa.

Exactly. I just wanted the Garveys to get along.

I watched this entire episode for the first time yesterday (I had seen the beginning but not all of it) and I was happy to see Nels standing up to Harriet! I don't think we saw that often enough in the show  

This one is one of my favorites!! Of course after Walnut Grove gets telephone service, Harriet begins listening in and spreading what she hears. Information about Alice's first husband got out in just about the worst way possible, and caused a ton of problems for the Garvey's. I absolutely loved how Albert and Laura thought up a perfect way to handle the issue of Harriet listening in on other's conversations.... They used the fact that she listened in on the phone, and had the banker call someone about a "hot tip" that was really false. Harriet fell for it, even to the point of giving her portion of the store over to Nels. I was laughing so hard when Harriet walked in and made a huge scene about loosing everything.... Nels just sat there with no compassion and told her she can get a job. I love how she ended up getting a job working for Nels at the store, now that he owned all of it! I have never seen Harriet get it so good.

I was happy that Jonathan came to his senses in the end and everything worked out for the Garveys. Wonderful ending to a very good episode!

I do think Alice should have told Jonathan she was married before. That would be quite a shock, I think, to find out that your spouse had been married before if they didn't tell you. But back in those days, perhaps it would have been so scandalous so maybe her reasons make even more sense than they would nowadays. In any case, I'm glad that Jonathan did come back to her, although once again I'm kind of sad knowing what is going to soon be happening with Alice.

Also, it seems like Harriet quickly regained control of the store in future episodes. I think it would have been kind of nice if at least for a while, Nels really was the sole store owner and Harriet just worked for him. Then she could not be so snippy with everyone and tell them they could not charge or whatever.