What happened to Wally and Beaver in the Vietnam era ?

[m-jean03]

Draft? Career military? CO? Draft Dodge? Service? Death? Hippies? Dope? Hawk, dove?

If you would, state your opinion, reasons why & maybe a word or two on what you think they are doing these days.

Where do you think Ward & June stood politically? Dem, Repub, Independent? Hawks, or Doves? Again, please state why.

Thanks in advance for your responses -- silly, serious, symbolic, I'd like them all.

[Blue-Jay]

1. Wally went to 'Nam

Beaver probably had a boil on his ass.

[m-jean03]

6. My dad

Had a boil on his ass that I inherited

[Momgonepostal]

2. Wasn't Ward a conscientious objector...

during WW2? It seems like that came up during the show, unless I've got in confused with anonther show. I think at least one of his kids would have been against the Vietnam war.

[m-jean03]

3. And if you think this is a pointless question

I can understand. But it is the Lounge.

[teach1st]

4. Here's what happened...

Wally: Dropped out of Berkely (business major) and moved to the Haight, where he became successful managing a band and eventually concerts. Currently retired and living in Sausolito with his 25 year old fourth wife.

Beaver: Acid disaster, homeless, under the bridge, Santa Cruz.

Ward: Stalwart Republican booster; his campaign contributions resulted in a consultancy with a Conservative Washington think tank, which ended when he was caught in the act in his office with his 15-year-old boyfriend. Currently semi-active as a senior member of the Log Cabin Republicans and personal mentor to new members.

June: After she divorced Ward, June moved to Hawai'i, where she met Hank, a grizzled old hippie/surfer, opened a macrobiotic/vegetarian restaurant and made macrame pearls and heels. She currently writes children's books and is gaining fame ont the talk show circuit as a specialist in raising children.

Eddie: Father's construction business got him into officer training in the Marines. Unfortunately, his unit shipped out to Vietnam and after an attempted fragging by the grunts in his unit, he disappeared. Rumored to be active in the Heroin trade in Asia.

Lumpy: Heart attack, age 25.

Whitey: Head of a militia, Idaho.

[m-jean03]

5. LOL --

You got me with the Ward, Log Cabin Republican part.

Now that's just irreverent! Shame on you!

The June bio is believable, however.

[m-jean03]

7. My feeling -- I think there may have been a rift in the family

over the Vietnam issue. I think Wally may have been career military, but he went AWOL to Canada during his first R&R in 1966. He took up with a rock and roll crowd and experimented with drugs, though he now teaches English at a university in British Columbia. He is married to a counselor, Annie and they are both peace activists.

I think that when Beaver got drafted in 1970, Ward put a lot of pressure on him to make up for his brother's actions and do his patriotic duty. Although his brother pleaded with him to come live in Canada, Theodore Cleaver, then 19 years old, reluctantly put on the uniform and went to Vietnam. He was killed by a land mine two weeks after arriving in country. Ward, though outwardly still a supporter of the war, never forgave himself and Wally never really forgave Ward. They hardly ever spoke for many years after, though Wally remains close with his mother, who opposed the war in her heart but did not feel she could speak up against it. She has visited him regularly in Canada. Ever the diplomat, she tried her best to normalize relations between Wally and his father, before Ward Cleaver passed away last year at the age of 86. Mrs. Cleaver, 80 years old, is still active and enjoys gardening. She attended a protest against the Iraq invasion last year with Wally. Beaver remains an ache in their hearts to this day, gone but NEVER forgotten.

[Spirochete]

8. Wally got a law degree

passed the bar, and took on helping Beaver avoid the draft as his first case.

I seem to remember from the show, Ward talking about having been in the Seabees. That ring a bell?

[Kat45]

10. Yes, he was in the Seabees, whatever that is. n/t

[jmowreader]

12. The Seabees are Navy combat engineers

Their motto is "We Build, We Fight." One of the toughest outfits in the entire military.

[mlawson]

9. My parents were very much like Ward and June.

I was about two years younger than the Beaver, and I grew up in a household like that, except there was no Wally. But plenty of Eddie Haskells!!! x(

But, my Dad was a Roosevelt-Truman-Kennedy lifelong Democrat! Mother converted to Dem with Jimmy Carter. I won't try to guess which party June and Ward belonged to. They were actors, after all.

[david_vincent]

11. Well, in real life

Jerry Mathers had a band called Beaver & the Trappers, who recorded one of the best 60s punk-garage songs ever, "Happiness Is".
The atonal Beaver/Mathers describes the various forms in which happiness manifests itself, revolving around cars, chicks, and having your own pad, with various drug-oriented innuendos. Then at the end, he adds "Happiness is..." "Well, you guessed it!" and finally calls out "Come on baby, spread a little happiness my way!"