Imagine this...
It's the 1960's. You're watching the perfect family have a perfect picnic.
Their new car is parked by the roadside with one door ajar so you can hear the music that is coming from the radio. They are lying on the grass under a shady tree enjoying the day and being a family together.
There's dad who's a recently promoted partner at a successful advertising agency. He's just bought the latest Cadillac for $6500. Mum is the true picture of the wife-at-home-looking-after-the-kids type. She's beautiful, charming, and always does the right thing. Of course they have the idyllic one boy and one girl.
They are dressed immaculately without a single thread astray.
Lying on a checkered red and white blanket, the picnic basket is out. Dad is fully stretched out relaxing. Mum is player checkers with their daughter and the son has just exclaimed how proud he is to have "peed" behind the tree for the first time.
They decide it's time to go.
Dad gets up and flamboyantly hurls his beer can into the distance. The daughter packs up the checkers. Dad and son head for the car with the picnic basket.
As the others are walking to the car you see Mum pull the blanket from the ground in the same fashion that performers do when they take a table cloth from a table yet leave all the glassware, plates, and cutlery perfectly intact.
The final image is of what was a perfect picnic site with the leftover food and rubbish just lying on the grass abandoned.
..
I ought to be clear about why I wrote this. My reaction was akin to seeing someone murdered. I was shocked. After dad threw the can I was waiting for someone to object. I was doubly stupefied when no-one objected to the blanket episode.
It's a brilliantly depicted scene from Mad Men, Season 2, Ep. 7, at about 30 minutes.
It's the 1960's. You're watching the perfect family have a perfect picnic.
Their new car is parked by the roadside with one door ajar so you can hear the music that is coming from the radio. They are lying on the grass under a shady tree enjoying the day and being a family together.
There's dad who's a recently promoted partner at a successful advertising agency. He's just bought the latest Cadillac for $6500. Mum is the true picture of the wife-at-home-looking-after-the-kids type. She's beautiful, charming, and always does the right thing. Of course they have the idyllic one boy and one girl.
They are dressed immaculately without a single thread astray.
Lying on a checkered red and white blanket, the picnic basket is out. Dad is fully stretched out relaxing. Mum is player checkers with their daughter and the son has just exclaimed how proud he is to have "peed" behind the tree for the first time.
They decide it's time to go.
Dad gets up and flamboyantly hurls his beer can into the distance. The daughter packs up the checkers. Dad and son head for the car with the picnic basket.
As the others are walking to the car you see Mum pull the blanket from the ground in the same fashion that performers do when they take a table cloth from a table yet leave all the glassware, plates, and cutlery perfectly intact.
The final image is of what was a perfect picnic site with the leftover food and rubbish just lying on the grass abandoned.
..
I ought to be clear about why I wrote this. My reaction was akin to seeing someone murdered. I was shocked. After dad threw the can I was waiting for someone to object. I was doubly stupefied when no-one objected to the blanket episode.
It's a brilliantly depicted scene from Mad Men, Season 2, Ep. 7, at about 30 minutes.
I remember having that exact same reaction to that scene!
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