Jan and Mike's plans
I think Jan may have tried to do a practical joke on Mike. Jan didn't outgrow the practical jokes and purposely gave Mike the Yogi Bear poster on the Cincinnati trip.
shareI doubt that. The tubes were exactly alike and not labeled. She asked if she could use one. She just didn't want it to get wrinkled and torn before she got home. Mike accidentally got the tubes mixed up.
shareMost people would have waited until the last minute to buy something like that or at least until they were heading to the hotel instead of having to carry it around all day. They though wouldn't have had that Brady moment otherwise.
I do agree that it wasn't on purpose. She had learned her lesson with the mouse loose in the house.
That's what an adult would think, icing. Jan and Marcia were adolescents and would have thought transporting the poster through. Their future-time orientation would not have been developed at that point.
shareI knew not to do it when I was a kid. The ones who did had to carry their own. Marcia and Jan were teens by that time and not small children.
Anyway, it was written the way it was so the containers could be mixed up. Many adults, myself included, would have checked to see if she had the one she was supposed to have before they again parted ways. It was for the television moment.