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13 Episodes 1996 - 1997
Episode 1
60 mins
It's the summer of 1932, and the Depression is taking its toll on the people of Ontario. Jack and Honey Bailey own a hardware store in North Bridge, and Jack, understanding the hardships of the townsfolk, provides credit to whoever needs it, which seems to be everybody. Honey is a little more business oriented with their customers, but that does not prevent the hardware store from going under and the Baileys declaring bankruptcy. Honey's brother, Joe Callaghan, is not of much assistance to his sister's family as he too is just scraping by running his rooming house; he has often needed to live off his sister. Jack and Honey feel they have no choice but to ask Jack's family for support. Offered by Jack's mother, Jack and Honey with their brood - pre-teens Hubert (known as Hub), Henry (known as Fat) and infant Violet - decide to move to Jack's hometown of New Bedford to live in the abandoned Bailey family summer house located just outside of town at Bass Lake. New Bedford, a mining town, was founded by the Bailey family when they struck a lode of silver forty years earlier. To this day, the Baileys still control what happens in New Bedford. The Bailey family is ruled by its stern, no-nonsense and traditional matriarch, May - Jack's mother - who still owns Silver Dome mine. Jack's two siblings also still live in New Bedford: eldest son Bob (with his wife Toppy and daughter Doris) who, with an air of superiority, heads the administration of the mining company, and younger sister Grace, the sheltered spinster who still lives at home. Jack and Honey are not looking forward to life in New Bedford as they have no job prospects (Jack wants nothing to do with the mine), Jack has always been the black sheep of the family, and May has never liked Honey primarily due to religious differences, the Baileys being stout Presbyterians and the Callaghans being Catholic. Jack and Honey are raising their children Catholic. Distance and time has not healed the rifts between Jack/Honey and the Baileys of New Bedford. Disaster strikes when shortly after their arrival at Bass Lake, Jack is killed in a freak accident. Beyond mutual mourning and grief, May offers no support to her impoverished daughter-in-law - which includes kicking her out of the summer house - as the two no longer have any formal ties. However, May wants to keep heirs Hub and Fat - Violet is to live with Jack's childless cousin - while Honey re-establishes her life. Honey doesn't agree with this arrangement but has neither the energy or means to fight the powerful May Bailey. Honey's sole ally in the Bailey family is Grace. Reluctantly, Honey agrees to the situation - to which her sons are angry - as she goes back to North Bridge with Joe to earn enough to bring her family together again under one roof.
Episode 2
60 mins
In North Bridge, Honey and Joe are just scraping by. Honey can't find a job but is determined if only for the sake of her family. But she is no where near able yet to reunite her family. In New Bedford, May admits that she sees the arrangement with all three children as being permanent, never giving Honey the children ever again. Despite warming up to their Aunt Grace who personally can relate to the boys' situation, Hub and Fat are rebellious and Hub in particular is defiant. Bob thinks that splitting up the boys would be the best solution, but May is equally adamant that she and Grace can manage the boys. The boys decide to run off, their first choice being back to North Bridge to be with their mother. But when opportunity shows itself, they stow away a ride back to the summer house at Bass Lake. When May and Grace first find that the boys are missing, May is inclined to think that Honey apprehended them. Not wanting to give Bob the satisfaction of an 'I told you so', May instead sends a nervous and timid Grace to North Bridge to confront Honey. When Grace meets with Honey and finds that the boys aren't there, Honey is livid with May about her sons' disappearance. At the lake, the boys manage temporarily to live in the house unnoticed, until Max Sutton, New Bedford School's athletics director, runs into them. News of 'boys' at the house gets back to May, who rushes out to the lake. Max, May and mill workers from across the lake all descend on the house simultaneously just in time as Hub has had a serious accident requiring immediate medical attention and the boys have started a large uncontrolled fire in the house. May comes to the realization that the boys emotionally do need their mother and that Honey is not quite the monster she thought. May decides the best for everyone is for the boys to have bi-weekly visits with their mother and Uncle Joe back in North Bridge.
Episode 3
60 mins
Honey's financial fortunes take a turn for the better as she finally gets a job, albeit a poorly paying one, as a bookkeeper/clerk at Molloy's Grocery Store. Even the boys have a job as George Murphy, one of the mine managers, is going away on a much needed vacation and needs someone to look after his dog, Pal. Joe's fortunes are not as good. The bank is foreclosing on the mortgage on his rooming house. He wants to start a catalog business, but obviously the bank won't lend him the money. He tells Honey that he is selling the rooming house to finance the catalog business. But in reality, he has lost everything and unscrupulous financiers are after him, so Joe secretly leaves North Bridge, leaving Honey to fend for herself. But Joe's problems are not as desperate as the many hobos who are descending on New Bedford. The town is split, where some like Max and Grace, do whatever they can to help, whereas others like May and Bob, want the hobos just to leave town. May thinks her case is supported when she thinks a hobo, who appeared at her back step, stole her purse, she not believing his sob story about an ailing son. And a robbery occurs at the bank, again attributed to the transients. When a reward is offered for the return of the robbery money, Hub and Fat think they can find it by looking around the railway tracks where the hobos are hanging out. There, they meet Patrick Mullen, the hobo who was at May's back door. The boys and Patrick are involved in two incidents, the latter which results in a death, which may look like Patrick's fault. Although the boys ultimately defend Patrick to May and the authorities, both sides of the issue are still adamant on their position of what desperate hobos are capable. To protect Patrick, their savior, Hub and Fat tell Patrick and his ailing son, Luke, that it best to leave town, providing Patrick with a little pocket money. The boys also find what happened to May's purse, which needless to say was not stolen by Patrick.
Episode 4
60 mins
Honey's economic fortunes again take a turn for the worse. The bank is increasing the rent on the apartment, and she loses her job at Molloy's Grocery Store. She is thinking of moving to faraway Toronto, where she suspects there are more jobs than in North Bridge. She needs the company of her children now more than ever. However May is threatening to decrease the boys' visits to North Bridge to once a month, in part because she wants to shield escort Grace from the company of a high school beau, Judd Wainwright, with whom Grace got reacquainted on the bus trip and who May never liked. And since Grace doesn't know how to drive, there is no other means of transport. May's effort to teach Grace to drive was a disaster, the lesson which resulted in a car crash requiring extensive and expensive repairs to May's car, and May landing in the hospital for an extended stay with a concussion. The boys, wanting more than ever to be with their mother, try to earn enough money for it to happen. They think they've come up with the perfect plan when Max is threatened by the school board with cutting of the athletics program: they should hold an intercity Boys Olympics sponsored by local businesses, including the newspaper - the New Bedford Chronicle - owned by Alden Cramp. The showcase of the Olympics is to be the 12-boy human pyramid, the winning team who will split a $60 first prize. Hub and Fat are certain the New Bedford team can win. The boys' training goes up and down, but ultimately it looks as if the New Bedford team has a real shot of winning. On the weekend of the Olympics, Honey is in desperate need of her boys' company to maintain a positive outlook on life. Although the boys initially aren't going to go to North Bridge due to the need for last minute training, they feel they need to support their mother more. With no other way to get there, Grace decides to drive. With Judd's assistance, they make it to North Bridge in one piece. Seeing how financially desperate Honey is, Grace decides that the $25 for the car repairs would better go to Honey. Although the $25 is May's money, Grace will deal with the consequences of May's wrath later. But the next issue is to make it back to New Bedford in time for the Olympics, which is a problem as Grace is directionally and speed challenged, not to mention that she has no idea what the "E" and "F" on the car's fuel gauge means. Regardless of if the boys make it back in time, the Olympics end up having a positive effect on Max, the boys and the school board, the latter who was initially skeptical of the whole event.
Episode 5
60 mins
The boys, especially Fat, are getting emotionally attached to Pal. Fat even wants to keep him. May, on the other hand, is totally exasperated by Pal's antics. It gets worse for May when George Murphy is tied up on his vacation, which he needs to extend by two weeks. Since the boys are starting school and May does not want to look after the dog, the Baileys make arrangements with Max to look after Pal for the additional two weeks. This new arrangement does not stop Pal from wandering back to the Bailey household and his friends, Fat and Hub. Pal's latest antics start a war between Fat - and by extension all those in the Bailey household - and May's neighbors, the Grady's. Although Dottie Grady initiated the argument by demeaning Honey to Fat, Fat escalated it. May demands that Fat apologize to Dottie Grady, in front of a meeting of the Daughters of the Order of the Empire, which he eventually but reluctantly does. The over-the-top apology is not sincere, but so theatrical that Dottie Grady has no other option but to accept. This apology does not stop the war between neighbors as two of the Grady's chicken are found dead, which the Grady's attribute to Pal. Although Pal could not have done it - in reality, it was a neighborhood fox that did the deed - the Grady's do not accept that anyone or anything else could have killed their chickens other than Pal. Immediately following, Pal is found shot to death. Although Alastair Grady denies killing Pal, May exposes Alastair for the hypocrite that he is.
Episode 6
60 mins
Honey has moved to Toronto in the prospect of a job. She manages to get work in a garment factory as a seamstress, but the hours are long and the conditions harsh. Because of the conditions and being worn out, Honey comes down with a chest infection and is fired from work. She is more destitute as, still sick, the hospital won't let her stay since she can't pay. Back in New Bedford, everyone is unaware of Honey's situation. May thinks that it would be good for Hub to learn some responsibility and as such Bob gets him a job on Wick Thompson's farm on weekends doing haying. It is also long hours. There, he bunks with Harry Bloomington, an older Englishman who keeps to himself during their off hours. Harry mentors Hub, who enjoys the cooperative nature of a farmer's family life. When the farm goes under, Hub learns about humility and fairness from Wick and Harry. And Fat also gets a temporary job, in a Chatauqua show passing through New Bedford. Fat loves the life of being on stage, seeing Brambly Wilson, the show's star, as to what he would like to aspire. But Fat learns that Brambly is a regular human being, affected by the Depression as much as the next guy. Meanwhile, Grace learns of Honey's situation and tries to convince May that Honey's presence is the best thing for the life of Hub and Fat.
Episode 7
60 mins
Honey is back in New Bedford, living in May's house with the boys, and working in the mine office under Bob's supervision. On the invitation of Honey's co-worker, Marjorie Behan, Honey joins Marjorie's informal social grouping of single friends. Not specifically looking for a new man in her life, Honey nonetheless attracts the attention of a couple of men. The one who seems to have her initial affections is Percy Ardley, a constable with the New Bedford Police Department. Percy is a proper Englishman with, to use Fat's description, a swelled head. Most of the men in the singles group, including Max and Archie, have the same impression of Percy as they don't much care for him. Marjorie, slightly jealous, warns Honey that if she is looking for a new husband, Percy is not the man for her as he is a wanderer, and as such is not stable as husband material. May and the rest of the Baileys aren't too happy with what they see as Honey's cavorting as they feel it is demeaning to the Bailey name and improper to the memory of Jack. It isn't until Hub and Fat get into a predicament with a crazed moonshiner, Old Bones, that Honey sees the pompous, arrogant side of Percy that others see. Perhaps the other man who is vying for Honey's attention, that being Max, might now have an opportunity with her. The fact that he broke the law for her to help save Hub and Fat is a point in his favor.
Episode 8
60 mins
Max, the new English teacher and aspiring playwright, is encouraged by Honey and Grace to submit a one-act play to National Public Radio for their serialized mystery program with the chance of winning one of three prizes of a new Packard. Although Max does not win, he gets an encouraging rejection letter asking for more submissions from him for one-act plays. Since the rejection was due to what the radio station characterized as wooden dialog, Honey and Grace think that Max would benefit by having his play actually performed on stage so that he can listen to real people speaking his words. The obvious choice for the theater company to perform the play is the New Bedford Amateur Dramatic League. However, the League is no longer in existence, and they would have to ask the former president to resurrect the company. This situation causes a potential problem as the former president is snobbish Toppy, who has no use for Honey. But a good play and the stage is more important to Toppy than her feelings toward her former sister-in-law. The play is to be directed by Max but realistically it is run by Toppy as League president. And as League president, Toppy insists on playing the lead. Toppy feels that she can relate to the character's stifled existence - at home, Toppy is being ignored while at the same time controlled by a preoccupied-with-work Bob, who at the best of times is wary of Toppy's frivolous activities - despite the character being twenty-something, while Toppy, who will not admit to the world, is forty-something. The production has other problems, including a temperamental set designer, a temperamental costumer, a stage shy leading man (Archie) and love scenes between the leads, Toppy who is a respectable wife whose husband, Bob, would be embarrassed and humiliated by his wife kissing another man in public. The on-stage romance seems to be spilling into real life, which is at least opening Archie out of his shell, but it gets the whole town's collective tongue wagging. The only tongue not wagging is that of Bob, who is oblivious to what's going on since he's concerned about business. However, when Bob finally sees the show and sees his wife kissing another man so realistically, Toppy doesn't get the reaction that everyone was anticipating. As for the original reason for mounting the production, Max may not have got what he intended but at least he got to spend time with Honey.
Episode 9
60 mins
May's latest town project is opening a mission to assist the down and out in New Bedford. This worthwhile project does have its detractors, such as Max, as the mission is only available to townsfolk and not to the many transients passing through town. And as the mission is reaping all the town's donations, Max's soup kitchen for the transients is no longer getting any donations. Meanwhile, Grace is invited on her first official date with Judd Wainwright, to a mutual friend's out-of-town wedding. Grace so wants to go but doesn't want to tell her mother the reason why she wants to go so badly. May won't let her go only because she needs Grace's help at the mission. But May, who still doesn't approve of Judd solely based on his financial standing, suspects Grace's desire to go is because of Judd, this suspicion based on family gossip Toppy's information. Although Grace tries to tell her mother the truth, May as usual doesn't budge in her feelings. May has her eye on Reverend Peterson as a suitor for Grace, Reverend Peterson who does not appeal to Grace as a potential husband at all. As such, Grace - with accomplices Honey, Max, Hub and Fat - deceives May so that she can sneak away with Judd to the wedding. Just as Grace and Judd board the train, May catches them. Grace decides to board the train anyway, this probably the first act of direct defiance ever against her mother. This is only the first of two heartbreaking events for May, as some hobos, retaliating against May for her lack of charity, vandalize the mission just before its opening. But the heartbreaking incidents give time for May to think about her actions, just in time for apologies from Grace and Judd, and a hopeful question from Judd to May.
Episode 10
60 mins
Joe Callaghan, Honey's brother, makes an inauspicious return to New Bedford. He is now totally down and out. In the six months since Joe absconded with Honey's savings - six months in which Honey has not heard from him - he has dabbled in various businesses, some legitimate and some not so legitimate, but none that has panned out. Although May helps Joe get out of the New Bedford jail after an altercation with Sergeant Stoneman, she treats him like any other hobo and wants him to leave town. However Joe has other ideas. He wants to be with family and has holed up in an empty farmhouse on the outskirts of town. He wants himself and Honey to buy the house, which only requires a $50 down payment. Although Honey doesn't trust Joe, she does buy into the dream so that she can be out from under May's control, the dream which includes getting Violet back. Honey seems to be heading into the right direction financially when she stumbles upon a home hairdressing business, if only May will let her use her kitchen as a makeshift salon. Hub and Fat also do whatever they can to raise the money to buy the house, Fat's idea which actually results in a $10 windfall. However the $10 mistakenly gets to May who, unaware that it was for Honey, donates it to a needy family at the mission. Honey, Hub and Fat realize that the money is better with the family that received it. As May realizes that she also made an error, she decides to temporarily support Honey in her hairdressing business. Meanwhile, trouble has followed Joe to New Bedford, and to escape these troubles, Joe, with Hub's assistance, secretly leaves New Bedford as quickly as he came. However Honey continues Joe's dream of saving money to possibly buy that house.
Episode 11
60 mins
Honey's birthday is approaching and the boys want to get her something special. Instead of a little knick-knack, what Hub thinks would be the best gift is a visit from Violet. This gift may prove to be difficult to get as May will not allow it. Hub, with Max's help, even drives the three hours to Hugh and Matilda's to convince them of such. Although Matilda eventually gives in, Hugh, Matilda and May obviously don't have any intention of giving Violet back to Honey beyond this visit. But for this visit, Hub and Fat need to raise some money for the round trip bus fare for Matilda and Violet. Coinciding with this event, May and her women's volunteer group are deciding on a fund-raising event for the mission. When Honey inadvertently contradicts May in front of the group, Honey is placed further in May's bad books as the group goes with Dottie Grady's idea of a bake sale rather than May's idea of a winter carnival. Although they do proceed with the bake sale idea, May goes behind the group's back to organize a winter carnival with Reverend Peterson. However, the Reverend has ideas of his own, which places May in an embarrassing and bad light: he embezzles and absconds with the mission's entire fund. Although May does replace all the embezzled moneys, she is ashamed to face the townsfolk, especially as she was the person who hired Reverend Peterson. The women, realizing they do need May's organizational and financial skills, extend a olive branch to her, which takes time for her to accept. The collective decide to combine the two ideas and have a street party. As part of this party, Fat is allowed to raise moneys, in part for the bus fare, by running a miniature snow golf course. The street party and the golf course are a success. Honey's surprise birthday party is also a success, except for the fact that Matilda, with May's approval, reneges on her agreement to bring Violet. But Grace takes matters into her own hands and does the next best thing for Honey under the circumstances.
Episode 12
60 mins
Grace receives some devastating news for her ego. Judd has decided to call off the wedding, as he is moving west to British Columbia without her. He did not feel that he and the Bailey family were a good match. But Grace, feeling humiliated, decides not to tell anyone, and even buys herself an engagement ring to continue with the façade. Honey inadvertently gives Grace an idea of how to escape her troubles. Meanwhile, Hub, still continuing with his never-ending quest to earn money for the "bring Violet home" fund, lets this single-mindedness affect all else in his life. It affects his school work the most, and he fails the 6th grade. He asks Max not to tell Honey as he wants to tell her himself; Hub ends up not doing so. Hub's latest money making venture is with a band of older boys calling themselves the Midnight Movers. The Midnight Movers, likening themselves to Robin Hood, assist people in bilking their landlord of rent money. In these times, first month is free, the second month the renter tells the landlord he is on relief and the third month, the Midnight Movers help him move just before rent is due. What Hub does not know is that many of those he has helped move are in debt to his grandmother. After the many secrets are revealed one by one and after a serious incident involving Hub, May comes to the conclusion that the way she has managed the lives of her grandsons, Honey and even Grace and Jack may have been totally misconceived.
Episode 13
60 mins
Despite May giving the boys her assurance that she will let Violet come back home, Honey and the boys continue with their preoccupation with the 'bring Violet back home' fund since they do not trust May to keep her word. In an effort to expand her hairdressing business, Honey decides to go to a 2-day course in North Bridge to get her hairdressing diploma. And Hub and Fat take more direct measures by going to speak to Mr. Walker, the bank manager, about a creative solution in buying the house. Hub's single-mindedness with getting Violet back continues as his school work still suffers, until another distraction enters his life, namely 8th grade tutor, Suzanne Nelson - Iris Barlow's niece - on who Hub has a crush. Honey also writes to Hugh and Matilda kindly thanking them for their guardianship of Violet but that she would like Violet home now. The reaction to this letter does reveal May and the Morrison's true plans, that the Morrisons want to adopt Violet and take her away to Florida, and May wants Honey around if only for her grand plans for the boys' future at the mine. Fat overhears the truth and with Suzanne's help, the boys manage to bring Violet back to New Bedford before the Morrisons can leave for Florida. This sparks an all out war between May and Honey, the latter - with all three of her children - who decides to leave May's house and life forever if possible. She turns to the only person she can, that being Max. However, Max is also on May's bad side and his future in New Bedford is uncertain. The arrival of Honey and her family on his doorstep worsens matters as scandal erupts in town. Honey is in financial straits again as Bob, in solidarity, fires her from the mine and none of her regular hairdressing customers will let her do their hair anymore in not wanting to go against May. Besides Max, the only other person in town on Honey's side is Grace, who openly defies her mother in every turn in this battle. May does whatever she can to thwart Honey's plans, and also decides to sue for custody of all three children. Before the custody hearing, Hub manages to tell his story in a straightforward and heartfelt manner to the town, which may turn the tide of public opinion toward Honey and her family.