Mornin’ Children!
Of late, I’ve been having difficulty sleeping through the nights, so what do I do?? Fight it and try forcing myself back to sleep in anticipation of the next workday? I think not. I go to my livingroom sofa, get into a comfy position with my favorite blankie and turn on the TV to AMC on Demand! Isn’t Cable awesome!?
From there, I can access the earlier/earliest Mad Men episodes, and watch all ”re-runs” of my favorite 60’s crew with relish! This early morning’s episode (2am to be exact): “The Hobo Code” episode #108. This is the episode where our protagonist, Don Draper, nee Dick Whitman, finds himself constantly haunted and tormented by pieces of his secretive and depressing childhood.
Remember the young woman artist who lived in Greenwich Village with whom he was having an affair? She was quite, for that era, independent, but fond of our boy Don nonetheless. As the story goes, Don had just recently received a $2500.00 bonus [considrable by today's standards, but a King's ransom back in the 1960's!] from The Cooper of Sterling & Cooper, for his unique and one-of-a-kind Don-like performance at the agency.
He then promtly goes to his lover’s apartment where he is unceremoniously undermined and barraged for his status, by her jobless hippie-friends; Don, not to be diminished by their jealousies, manages to handle himself quite well without being unduly defensive – he then wags the fruits of his labors, the $2500 check, beneath her nose, tells her to “… pack a bag – we’re going to Paris!” Given her independent spirit.. she declines his offer!! At the time, I know I certainlywas left wondering why she’d decided to turn him down. Now all this time, mind you, we still have no idea what his real life is about.
As it turns out, Our Don decides to hang out with his girl and her rude scrubs, and partakes in some marijuana. After having indulged and crashed a bit, he goes into the bathroom, examines his imagine in the mirror to the point of re-living that dreaded flashback portion of his life during the Depression with his step-mother and father on a rundown farm. He has already been branded as a “whorechild”, a product of his father’s indiscretion and endures this moniker/scurge throught his life. As the flashback unwinds, we begins to seen shadowy snatches of what makes Don, well…Don. We only know that sympathy plays a large part in how we feel about this particular episode. Afterall, it’s regarding an innocent child.
Once Our Don recovers from his weed-induced flashback, he finally leaves his lover’s apartment, amidst a domestic quarrel from her neighbors across the hall where the police arrive. One of his lover’s condescending friends tells Don “You can’t go out there”, because of the police presence, Don blithely and confidently retorts, as he points his hat at him…. “YOU can’t.”, as he very smoothly opens the door, places his hat on his head and walks past the police as though this were an everyday occurrence for him! The thing that really did it for me was when Don signed over that $2500 check to his lover, and placed it in her bosom after having been informed by a photo he took while he was still experiencing his weed-high, that she was actually in love with one of the men at her apartment; Don’s very discerning eye observed the reality for what it was — his time to make his exit. DAMN! $2500 bucks just for her being his distraction! I should have been such a man’s distraction in my entire life of relationships! Of course you know, that endeared me to him even more!
I actually said to the TV, as Don walked out of her apartment….. “MY MAN DON — Go ‘head on, with ya bad ass!!” I tell you folks, there’s NOTHING, at least for a woman like myself, like a confident man. Then…. the Matt Weiner twist comes:
I see this same man, who, just a minute ago left the shadows of a Greenwich Village apartment, drugs and police… emerge into a totally different, suburban scene; complete with a home large enough to contain his lover’s entire apartment; a little son, and daughter and what!! A Beautiful Grace Kelly-esque wife!! “What’s going on here?” .. was my response when I first viewed this episode. What a character! I was totally hooked from the word jump. So, now you all know what a Mad Man Fan does when she cannot sleep. Of course, I was finally lulled into a light doze, then making my way back to my bedroom. Don…. what an effective sleep-aid!
~Robin~
