This is the first episode that takes place in Walnut Grove. Charles goes into the mercantile all friendly and gregarious because he wants the Olesons to give him credit for plow and seed. In other words, he wants them to carry him for months and months. And when Nels and Harriet politely explain why this isn't possible, he gets all pissy and storms out in a huff.
No wonder Harriet didn't like him all that much.
I think Charles disagrees with your interpretation of Harriet's tone as "polite." I imagine he'd have another adjective for it. And she was using that disdainful tone (which is my adjective, probably also not Charles') before she had any real reason not to like him all that much.
shareI think she's pretty restrained compared to what she's like in later episodes. Polite for her. And Nels is certainly very polite to him. And Charles still turns his back on them and storms out.
shareI was going to say: polite for her. We know she got bitchier but in this stance, she doesn't know him from Adam and she is being honest with him. she was more or less apologetic with her reasoning and her reasoning made sense.
meanwhile, I think it is good to know that this reasoning [how people would/could ring up a huge bill and then skip out into the night] IS FROM HISTORY! the real charles ingalls actually pulled this off! more than once!
Oh God. Fortune vomits on my eiderdown once more.
I agree. Harriet sure was very mean towards the Ingalls throughout the series, but in this case she was absolutely right. The Olesons had very good reasons for not extending credit to the Ingalls as it was very common for new families to suddenly leave without paying. They had no reason to believe that they could trust the Ingalls. Charles' "I'll pay you back later" is a promise they have heard countless of times before.
Had the roles been switched I'm sure Charles would have found the Olesons greedy and arrogant for just expecting to get credit.
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I agree. Charles was rude to Nels and Harriet in this Episode. He should have understood that they can't just give credit to anyone that they don't know very well. I thought that Harriet was very polite when she explained to Charles that different farmers sometimes run up a bunch of credit at the mercantile that they can't afford to pay off and leave town in the middle of the night. Charles seemed too entitled at times. I'm not sure if he ever paid off his bill at the mercantile. He kept saying that he would pay for things with cash, but he just kept asking for more credit at the mercantile in different Episodes. He should be glad that Nels and Harriet were nice enough to keep giving him more credit.
shareCharlies was really out of bounds. Yes, he knows he'll honor his bill, but the Olesons didn't know that. Or know him at all yet! He should have seen it from their side. I know Harriet wasn't as kind as Nels, but she wasn't wrong. Charles was.
shareWhen Charles asked Nels and Harriet for credit the first time he walked into the mercantile he said that he planned to pay off the credit after his first harvest. It's a good thing the Olesons didn't go along with that proposition since Charles' first wheat crop was heavily damaged by a hailstorm. On top of that it seemed like Charles rarely had good crops. The season 4 episode The High Cost of Being Right seemed to be a rare occasion where Charles had a good crop and got a good price for it. He did have a bumper crop of wheat in the the season 2 episode The Long Road Home but he got an atrocious 7 cents a bushel.
shareGive credit to.a complete stranger? I'm not as dumb as I look!
shareIn my view, if Harriet had kept her trap shut, Nels likely could have let Charles down in a way that would have been less abrasive. Charles was dealing with Nels and then Harriet moved on in to say no and refer to the fact of people running up bills and moving out, etc. Had Nels handled it, he could have said that he'd like to, but that he couldn't do it since Charles hadn't been around long enough to establish a reputation to rely on.
I'd leave in a huff too if someone who wasn't part of it swarmed in and came close to insinuating that I wasn't an honorable person, when the person I was dealing with could have let me down in a more polite manner.
I feel compelled to mention: fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. so if they had let any schlub come in off the dusty trail and ring up a big bill only to have said schlub run out in the middle of then night... how is this business supposed to stay IN business? What good is it to have the only store in town go belly up because they were 'just too nice' and then the entire town have to pool what pennies they CAN donate to their cause. Now the entire town who barely have two pennies to rub together for themselves has to take care and carry them?
I have to say this... this scene was directly taken from what the real Charles Ingalls actually did. he DID take off in the middle of the night because he had run up a big bill at the store and couldn't get/didn't have the money to pay for it. multiple times did he make his family take off in the middle of the night.
OUR charles ingalls was a saint compared to the real life Daddy Dearest.
Oh God. Fortune vomits on my eiderdown once more.
What's that have to do with what I said?
sharewhat does what have to do? the fact that the real life charles actually left in the middle of the night -- just like Mrs Oelson said? and she said it as reasoning WHY she was denying him the loan. You can't blame her. and I thought she was a lot nicer than how you say.
they don't know him from adam and here comes in with his cash on the barrel talk but when he is denied he 'UNNASTANS' and storms out in a huff. what? what a GREAT first impression he made!!
Oh God. Fortune vomits on my eiderdown once more.
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deem_bastille (Mon Oct 17 2016 17:00:04)I see you had my legitimate response deleted you troll. No matter, you read it and obviously you knew you were wrong but couldn't take it.
what does what have to do? the fact that the real life charles actually left in the middle of the night -- just like Mrs Oelson said? and she said it as reasoning WHY she was denying him the loan. You can't blame her. and I thought she was a lot nicer than how you say.
they don't know him from adam and here comes in with his cash on the barrel talk but when he is denied he 'UNNASTANS' and storms out in a huff. what? what a GREAT first impression he made!!
I think had Nels been the one to say no it would not have resulted in Charles getting angry. I love this show and still watch it and wanted to see if anyone else mentioned this episode! 😁
I always chuckle at the end when Charles is talking to Doc and Mr. Hanson while holding the reins of his oxen and Doc tells him to take it slowly (meaning on his walk home with his girls and the oxen) and Charles replies with "That's the way the oxen like it"... Lol, the awkward silence that follows is hilarious! 😄😄