Raggedy Man

By Julie Denice Griffin

A resourceful single mom.  She types, and answers a telephone swichboard at the same time.  Little Henry, hides himself up a tree wearing a WW II. pilot flyer cap.  She asks her boss about a transfer - Something secretarial with regular hours. Sissy Spacek who stars as a divorced mother of two little boys, must also fight off several male predators.  The two men take it upon themselves to torment her after she willingly rejects them. 

They figure she wants the unwelcome negative advances.  And although she explained to one of the self appointed suitors that she lives at her business, politely, she bids him goodnight assertively.  He finds out later that even if she did have time to go out, he is not exactly her choice of gentleman to date. However, a sailor man out on leave is fully grateful for the hospitality she is glad to give to him. "What's a little water to a sailor?" She pours his coffee over and he promises it's just the way he likes it.  The future gunner's mate gets three more days leave.  So, he says, they don't tell them much.

She comforts her neighbor friend whose wounded husband she gets news of coming home from the war. He's dead.  She gets a little bit of everything.  And later as she sews one of her son's pants, she also admires them from the window of her work, home office.  A solo chicken bobs around the house yard.  A weaving kite signals laundry hanging time.  But the kite spends time a few seconds later wrapping itself around a telephone wire.

The boys take supper dish drying time to extend an invitation to the soldier.  After all, a big brother named Teddy who pulls wagons and flies kites and a telephone bill payer whispers he thinks it don't look so good.  She reminds her nosy neighbor that if he's getting any ideas to call Mrs. Thompson, whose always glad to hear from him at about this time of day.  Arnold calls and thinks of starting trouble since she turned his advances down - She's a divorced woman. You ought to know about them remarks his plotful friend. 

He offers to take the boys to Corpus Christy to see a picture show.  She's afraid to leave and go for a break since Mr. Rigb'd have a fit.  The beach, filled with war-time soldiers of every branch of the military, he walks the boys through the crowd with cotton candy, and they wear their sailor suits he kindly bought them to brighten up their lives a little.  She wished she wasn't so busy, and that she could've gone.  She looks at herself in the mirror on a work break, holding a nice dress up to herself without a broom.  But the night the man, Arnold and his friend decide to spy, Bailey, the sheriff won't help her at first since she's giving the sailor a place to stay while he's on leave.

The sheriff probes the platonic friendship for evidence of foul play since she's a divorced woman, which he likes to call experienced.  She nails it on the head and tells him, Oh it's because I'm divorced.  The sailor buys a gift for her too.  Despite wartime rations.  Nylons made of synthetic material.  He plays with the townspeople a little too.  He tries to make them think the worst just to get their goat and watch their facial expressions.  Her relationship with him innocent, she asks him not to tease her neighbors.  "Ya'll better get outa the way," warns her two little boys about the bullies in front of the town general store.  The grown bullies make fun of the boys anyway.

They sweep him away despite his brother's warning not to go. And buy him an orange crush.  Little Henry, pumped for information about his mom gets his rescue from the brave sailor.  "Godamn, if aint the U.S. navy."  Remarks one bully.  The sailor wields his wares and the Mexican soda fountain owner wields his when he tells the bad men called good ole boys to get outa here "pronto" with a shotgun.  She lectures the boys for gallavanting, "All over this town."  And for, "Not showing anymore sense then a rock." 

"Just scared her.  She'll get over it."  It's a frightening world though for a woman in a man's world.  And when he has to end his leave, and go back to work, the boys cry awhile, and the bad men plot.  The sad classic conversations ensue around her dinner table.  We're not staying around here like you said the older boy informs her.  She advises him to show respect for her.  Then the typical, "You made daddy leave too."  And, "You're not a mom.  You're a telephone operator."  She sends the boys to bed.  And the chickens eat real good that night. And a mysterious man shows up in right places.

"This was supposed to be a stepping stone, remember."  Her boss wants her to stay.  "I hear the wives and the daddies and the mommas crying and saying no, no, no."  "You're not frozen.  This is a company here.  I've got responsibilities."  Mr. Rigby refers to a woman in her situation.  At the end, the raggedy man saves her from the two evil men who terrorize the poor single mother of two sons.  The real hero of the story battles for her life and that of her two sons - Raggedy man goes after the bad men.

She hides behind her luggage, shocked that she survived.  Shocked that male chivalry still exists.  She lays her head across Harry, the raggedy man's lap and speaks his name whispering, he who gave his life to save hers and her two boys.  She boards the Texas Independent Bus Lines with blessings. 

According to Rotten Tomatoes, the Spacek movie, rated R, rates at about 85% on the viewer popularity poll.  "Sissy Spacek was directed by her husband Jack Fisk in 1981's Raggedy Man. Spacek plays a divorced mother of two who tries to go it alone in mid-1940s Texas. Shunned by the "respectable" townsfolk because of her marital breakup, Spacek must endure the unwanted attentions of every low-life man in the community." While this may not seem like a Valentine Day movie to some, the theme is still one of a deep love and a simple and yet perfect realistic fiction romance.

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