Your Coca-Cola Bottler presents, Claudia, based on the famous play and novels by Rose Franken, brought to you transcribed Monday through Friday by your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola. Relax and while you're listening, refresh yourself, have a Coke. And now, Claudia. Hey there, Mr. and Mrs. Naughton. Hey there. Hey David, did you hear somebody calling you? Hey there, Naughton's holed up a bit. Oh, it's Mr. Tucker down at the end of the street. Look at him, he's waving frantically. We better find out what he wants. Hello, Mr. Tucker. Hey. Good morning, ma'am. What are you doing in Eastbrook this morning, Mr. Naughton? Don't tell me you've gone and given up architecture. No, no such thing. Architecture gone and given you up? No, quite the contrary. David had to stay in Eastbrook this morning because he has a meeting on the schoolhouse plan. Oh, it sure takes a lot of dickering to put up a building. When I was a boy and a man wanted to put up a building, he'd spit onto his hands and said, too. Now it seems there's more palavering than there is building going on. Don't think I don't agree with you either. Say, how are you two fixed on time? On what, Mr. Tucker? You ain't occupied these next few minutes, eh? Oh, no, we're just going down to the hardware store. David wanted to pick up a few things. Well, if you ain't got nothing more important to do than that, I sure could use some advice. Well, Mr. Tucker, you are the one person in the world whom I thought never needed advice. Please don't shatter my last illusion. You're right, David. I guess I don't need advice. Just what I want is to, well, to be honest with you, I guess what I want is an audience. Well, what are you up to, Mr. Tucker? Well, my watch has gone puked out on me. Ain't running no more. I brought it down to the watchmaker here a few weeks ago, and yesterday he called me up in his highfalutin language. He told me that watch of mine ain't fixable. Says it's plumb wore out. Well, how long have you had it? Well, it ain't been so long. My pa got it from his papi. I guess he had it about 20 years before it passed on to me. No. Well, I'd say that watch has put in quite a lifetime. Well, I sure never did expect for it to get tired and stop before I did. Always kind of thought that watch and Jared Tucker would spend all their time together. Like one of them stories, when I closed my eyes in final rest, the ticking of my watch would stop it ticking, too. But you see, there ain't nothing you can depend on, ma'am. Nothing whatsoever. Not even time. Well, you can still depend on Jared Tucker. So you can. Yep. Now, just about to go in here to the watchmaker's and buy me a new watch. I was wondering if you youngins could spare yourselves 10 minutes if you'd lend an eye, eh? Sure, come on, let's go. You have any particular ideas on what kind of watch you want to get? Oh, I got an open mind. There ain't much that I like and I know just what I want, but I got an open mind, so... I see. Well, here will be. Tucker here? Anybody at the home? I'd be right with you, Mr. Tucker. Looks like a very nice little store. Everything neat as a pin. Mr. Ames runs this here place. He's supposed to be the best watchmaker in this part of the country. Oh. Can't see it myself, spending all day poring over them little wheels, but takes all kinds to make a world, I always say. Well, if I ain't called ganged... Well, what's the trouble, Mr. Tucker? Did you ever see so many watches? Big ones, small ones, yellow ones, white ones, standing ones, laying down ones. Folks sure do have all the time in the world. Still, they don't know what to do with it. Hey, listen to that grandfather clock. Oh, I'd love to have one up at the farm. Someday let's buy grandfather clock, David. Yes, Mr. Tucker, here I am, all yours. But if you're after me to repair that old watch of yours, I repeat it cannot be done, and if I can't do it, nobody else can. Now, slow up there. I ain't said a word about that old watch of mine. Well, I'm just anticipating you. Matter of fact, I come in to buy myself a new timepiece, and I've got with me my two neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Naughton. Hello. How do you do? I've been looking forward to meeting you. You young folks having watch trouble? No, not recently. Well, you don't have to have watch trouble to come in to say hello. Well, now that we've met, we'll come in again. Yes, well, not this nonsense here. Now, let's get down to business. What kind of a watch are you aiming to sell me, Ames? Well, what kind of a watch are you aiming to buy? It seems like a more logical approach. The best watch you got. All my watches are the best, Mr. Tucker. Well, there's always one that'd be the best of the best. All my pigs is the best, too, but Ruby was the best. Now, this here might be an important watch I'm buying, Mr. Ames, and I don't expect you realize just how important it is. Mr. Tucker, every watch I sell is the most important watch to the person who buys it. But my watch is the only watch in Eastbrook, Mr. Ames. Now, you can't say that about any other watches you sell, can you? Now, Mr. Tucker, I know you consider yourself the only farmer in Eastbrook, the only old man in Eastbrook, and the only rightful citizen in Eastbrook, but yours will not be the only watch in Eastbrook. I beg to differ with you. It'll be the only watch in Eastbrook. How, Mr. Tucker? I mean, if you say so, it must be, but how, Mr. Tucker? Have you ever seen all the tax returns in a seertown? You can't say that I have. Well, I have. A while back, I was a probate for this town. One of my duties was to check the Connecticut state tax returns. Well, you know, that line in your return says you've got to declare all your personal possessions, and there's a line for jewelry and watches? Yeah, I've seen that line. I always thought it was a very amusing text. Well, I'm the only man in Eastbrook who was honest enough to declare he owned a watch. Consequently, it seems I'm the only man in Eastbrook who legally and rightfully and honestly owns a watch. What do you know? Well, Mr. Ames, whether he knows it or not, he's about to sell me the only watch in Eastbrook. Better be a right fine watch, my friend. You are going to choose it, Mr. Tucker, so it's up to you. Sure is going to be funny to look at another watch in the face. Strange watch. It don't say nothing more to me but what hour it is. Well, you'll make friends with it. Yes. I guess a man, when he's made of such bone and muscle that he lives longer than his father time himself, I guess he's got to expect some strange faces, even on his watch. Now, what have you got to show me? Now, do you want a wristwatch or a pocket watch? A wristwatch? One of them there watches you wear around your wrist like a bracelet? Yes. Look, Mr. Ames, you're talking to a man. I never went in for no jewelry or bracelets of any kind. No, I never did. Well, I've always worn a wristwatch. You, son? You wore a wristwatch? Yeah, look. You admit it? Yes, yes, I admit it. I've always worn a wristwatch. I've had a pocket watch, but it wasn't as convenient. I've always worn a wristwatch. Well, I guess it just shows you can ruminate on an idea for 70 years, but you mustn't come to a conclusion. Maybe it ain't sophisticated to wear a wristwatch. Maybe it ain't, because I consider you something of a man, son. Well, thank you, Mr. Tucker. Think nothing of it. Mr. Tucker, there are watches lying inside waiting for me to fix them. Do you or do you not want to buy a watch? Sure I do. That's what we come for. I just want it to be reassured. You got anything with a 25-year guarantee? You want a watch with a 25-year guarantee? You're doggone tootin' a doo. I ain't going to have any other watch poop out on me, I ain't. It takes quite a lot of guts for a man 86 years old to want a 25-year guarantee on a watch, Claudia. Mr. Tucker, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll guarantee that any watch I sell you will last as long as you. I ain't taking no guarantee of that nature. It's too flexible. 25-year guarantee or no guarantee at all, eh? Well, now then, let's choose the watch and then we'll see. Now, here is a very fine watch. Swiss movement, 17 jewels. That's me. I don't see no jewels. They're inside, Mr. Tucker. You mean I'm paying my money for jewels that don't show? A man like you, Mr. Tucker, doesn't want jewels that show. These jewels ensure the running of your watch so that it won't wear out any faster than you do. They're inside. Guess I got jewels in my joints. I ain't wearing out neither. Well, now there's a watch tells you what day of the week it is. You're fooling. Right here. See, it says Wednesday. I wouldn't buy such of a watch. It's an insult, it is. It's probably witchery. Now, this watch is waterproof. What's the use of a watch being waterproof? You ever hear of anything like that, Mr. Norton? Yes, yes, I have. It's foolishness to me. If a man don't know better than to plunge his wrist into water when he's got his watch on or jump into the tub with his watch in his vest, why, he ain't fitting no one. I'll save my money, Mr. Ames. I don't need no waterproof watches. Most of the watches today are waterproof, Mr. Tucker. It's no extra cost. They are also shockproof. Oh, they sure ain't making things as sturdy as they used to. Used to be a watch could stand some shockin'. Now they got to insure a watch again. Same things happen to the human race. Used to be folks was built hard enough to stand shock. Now they're educated to be shockproof. Well, guess that's the way it is. And here's a watch, Mr. Tucker, that winds itself. Wines itself, let me see. A watch that winds, winds, winds itself? The movement of your wrist is all the watch needs to be wound. Fascinating, isn't it? Well, what do you know? It's got to show hazard that a man can't even make his own time anymore. It's got to make itself. That sad thing. Time's got to be shockproof, waterproof, foolproof, and windproof. Sure is queer generation. David, I'm starting to feel acutely uncomfortable that I wasn't born 80 years ago. Well, as Mr. Tucker says, darling, you can't do anything about time. Mr. Tucker, I've got the finest line of watches you will find in the country, and if they don't suit you, I'm sorry. Oh, Mr. Ames, I think that Mr. Tucker can find a watch here. He's a little more discouraged with the time of the century that it is than the timepieces that you sell. Haven't you got one of them nice watches with a cheerful round face that looks up at you as if to say, I got time, Jared, plenty of time? A watch a man can put in his vest pocket will feel set in there. A watch that ain't an insult to carry. Well, now, I do have one old watch in the shop. I've had it for practically a century. Nobody before ever wanted to buy it, but you might. I'll sell it to you cheap. Cheap, you say? Well, now you're talking, man. Now you're talking. Here it is. If you don't want this, you don't want anything. Look at it. I never saw such a watch. Well, it's practically a clock in a hunter's case. My father used to have a watch like that. Does it ring the hours, Mr. Ames? Oh, it does more than that. It rings the time for you. Now, listen. Well, listen to that. What about that? Nine o'clock. What a lovely sound that watch has. It tells time in the dark with this here watch. Sounds like we're almost telling a story. Look at its spindly little hands like spiders. Clear, lacy numbers. Such an open, honest face. Like the man in the moon. Now, I'll sell you this watch cheap. Thirty-five dollars. Made of solid gold? Made of solid gold. Well, now here be a watch. A watch man can wind, a watch man can see, a watch man can hear. A watch a man is responsible for, not vice versa. With a watch like this one, man couldn't be ashamed to pass in the time. Mr. Ames, you made yourself a sale. Well, well, I must say I'm as surprised as you are. Here, now, now you give me the watch before you change your mind. I'll take it in the back room and check it for you. Well, Mr. Ames, you made yourself a sale. And any time anybody wants time of day, I'll be pleased to give it to them. Just to prove they're something old. Jerry Tucker don't mind giving away. If there's a youth center in your neighborhood, drop in some evening and watch the young people at play. Their pleasures are wholesome pleasures. Music, dancing, talking, and coke. When there's ice cold Coca-Cola on hand, teenagers have them making of good times at their social centers or at home. You might remember that when you're doing the family marketing. Well, son, how'd you like to look at me new watch? Hmm, a handsome piece of watch, Mr. Tucker. That kind of suits my personality, wouldn't you say? I'd say exactly that. But you didn't know I had such fine taste, did you? Never doubted it for a moment. Where you going now? Oh, gotta get home and show me what's to do. I'll make her eyes pop out like chestnuts, it will. Funny about time, isn't it, Mr. Tucker? How one evening can be long, the next one short, all with the same clock ticking away the minutes. Son, while you're near talking philosophy, give me a for-instance. A for-instance tomorrow evening. Endless. Because Claudia has to spend it with a book. Minutes take hours to tick by till she finds the right book. I know what you mean. Never could stand reading trash. Well, gotta be on the way. See you, son. Goodbye, Mr. Tucker. Every day, Monday through Friday, Claudia comes to you transcribed with the best wishes of your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola. So listen again tomorrow at the same time. And now this is Joe King saying, au revoir. And remember, whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you may be, when you think of refreshment, think of Coca-Cola. For Coca-Cola makes any pause the pause that refreshes, and ice-cold Coca-Cola is everywhere. This broadcast of Claudia was supervised and directed by William Brown Maloney. And now here's a word from your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola.