A Summer Place Page #2

- The other bedroom is across the way.

- Beautiful.

Beautiful view.

Tres jolie, as the French would say.

I was born in this room. Right there.

Dinner is served from 6 to 8.

Would you care to join my family

at our table tonight?

Thank you, Bart.

Oh, by the way,

we usually come down at 7:30.

Thank you so very much.

We'd be terribly charmed.

I thought I would die of mortification

out there.

Ken, you take that bedroom.

Molly and I will take this one.

All right.

Molly, you had French in high school.

What'd he say to me?

He said his heart was touched

by your approval.

When the luggage comes...

...get that disinfectant bag

and clean this bathroom.

Don't forget the toilet seat.

I'm sure everything's clean, Mother.

You can never be too sure.

You'll find Pine Island's a strange place,

Mrs. Jorgenson.

We're all frightfully snobbish here

and we tend to be anti-everything.

Except ourselves.

I like to think of the island

as a perverted Garden of Eden...

...where the pines and the salt air

seem to act as an aphrodisiac.

As a what, Mr. Hunter?

Bart, shall we change the subject?

Your show.

What Bart means is that very often

the boys of Pine Island families...

...marry girls they've met here.

So there's always been a lot of joking...

...about the island being a marvelous place

for romance.

It's true.

There are caves and lonely beaches

and Moonlight Cove.

Not to mention barns and boathouses

and other nooks and crannies, eh, Ken?

It was against the rules for Pine Island girls

to have dates with the lifeguard, remember?

- Oh, I'm so sorry.

- Oh, no harm done.

That was the last of the family crystal

anyway.

Oh, please, it doesn't matter.

Mrs. Jorgenson, may I have permission

to show Molly about the grounds?

- Yes, yes, of course.

- Excuse me.

What made you decide to live out here

the year round?

Aren't the winters pretty rugged?

Yes, but living in Boston

got to be rugged too.

The hypocrisies of the social routine

year after year.

To put it bluntly, we couldn't afford it.

So we decided to move here

and get back to essentials.

I bought government pamphlets

on how to shear sheep...

...how to weave our own clothes...

...even on how to smoke fish

and grow our own potatoes.

I had bright dreams.

And then after the summer season

was over...

...I was going to abandon all convention,

go back to nature.

Take off my clothes,

walk on the beaches in the sun...

...swim once again in the moonlight.

And then? What happened?

I...

...simply woke up, I guess.

Do you and your husband often swim

in the raw, Mrs. Jorgenson?

- Good heavens, no.

- Oh, she hasn't lived, has she, Ken?

Why, there's absolutely nothing

like galloping bare-bottomed into the sea.

You don't say?

This is the old rose garden.

It's sort of gone to seed.

- The rose thorn scratched you.

- Oh, it's nothing.

Do you ever catch fireflies?

When I was young,

I used to put them in a bottle...

...and see if I could get enough

to read by.

- There used to be goldfish here.

- Did you ever catch any?

No, I wasn't supposed to.

Then, last winter, we forgot

to take them out, and they all froze solid.

That poor cupid,

he looks lost without them.

He looks like he's waiting to be kissed.

He is.

How can you tell?

Well, I can't really.

I just know how he feels.

I knew it'd be like this.

Me too.

When did you know?

When I saw you on the cliff, I guess.

Who taught you to kiss so perfectly?

A boy at Buffalo High School.

I wasn't supposed to tell you that.

Tell me what?

Mother says that Pine Island girls

all go to finishing schools...

...not plain old high schools.

But I loved going there.

Was this boy who taught you

your steady?

No, he was president of the student body.

I was only a sophomore at the time.

- We used to go up on the roof.

- On the roof?

It was one of those flat kinds

that had a stairway leading up to it.

Gee, it got hot up there.

- In the daytime you mean?

- During my lunch hours.

Lunch hours? Did you keep doing it?

Till I learned.

Just making the rounds.

Turn off that light, Todd.

Thought for a minute there

they'd added another statue to the garden.

I'd better get back.

My folks will be wondering.

This is where I live.

- Which is your room, Johnny?

- Right there.

- I think your father used to live there.

- Can I see it from my room up there?

Then I'll wave good night.

- Good night, Johnny.

- Good night.

Well, your daughter

didn't waste any time.

She's let their boy kiss and maul her,

her very first night here.

- Where were they?

- Down below me, in the garden.

If they had anything to hide, do you think

they'd do it right under your window?

- Are you defending her cheap behavior?

- Cheap?

A girl kissing a boy in the moonlight?

You know Molly's as decent

as this boy seems to be.

No decent girl lets a boy kiss and maul her

the very first night they meet.

I suppose it's your Swedish blood in her.

I've read about

how the Swedes bathe together...

...and have trial marriages and free love.

I've read all about that. Anything goes.

So now you hate the Swedes.

How many outlets for your hate

do you have, Helen?

We haven't been able to find a new house

because of your multiplicity of them.

We can't buy near a school

because you hate kids, they make noise.

And there can't be any Jews or Catholics

on the block either.

And, oh, yes, it can't be anywhere near

the Polish or Italian sections.

And, of course,

Negroes have to be avoided at all costs.

Now, let's see, no Jews, no Catholics...

...no Italians, no Poles, no children,

no Negroes.

Do I have the list right so far?

And now you've added Swedes.

And, oh, yes...

...you won't use a Chinese laundry

because you distrust Orientals.

You think the British are snobbish...

...the Russians fearful, the French immoral,

the Germans brutal...

...and all Latin Americans lazy.

What's your plan? To cut humanity out?

Are you anti-people and anti-life?

Must you suffocate every natural instinct

in our daughter too?

Must you label young lovemaking as cheap

and wanton and indecent?

Must you persist in making sex itself

a filthy word?

Fight with me if you have to, Mama,

but not Papa, please.

This is the first real vacation

he's ever had.

Let's not wreck it for him.

Look who's talking...

...after that disgusting public display

in the garden.

- It wasn't a public display.

- The night watchman caught you at it.

- We weren't doing anything wrong.

- What if he tells everybody?

Must you parade before open windows

like a strip teaser?

The way to get accepted

here on Pine Island...

...is certainly not by prancing

past open windows...

...and giving away cheap kisses

behind the inn.

Yes, Mama.

Now, don't you ever underestimate

the value of a decent reputation.

If we're to be approved

and allowed to live here...

...it'll be because

we conducted ourselves properly.

Yes, Mama.

I've got nothing against this boy.

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