A Story of our Town

The exact date of this episode is unknown. We've filled in the date above with a placeholder. What we actually have on record is: 1949-uu-uu.

"A Story of Our Town", featuring Tom Glazer, is about a woman (Marge) who leaves her husband (Jim) because of his drinking. It includes the song "Ignorant cowboy".

In the story, Marge goes to see her mother and Jim arrives. After he leaves, he is hit by a car and killed. After her husband's death, Marge moves to another town and resumes her teaching career. Later she detects a sore, which disappears, and also notices a rash. Marge reads the book used for the school's health course and concludes that she has syphilis. Marge is reluctant to see a physician (the only one in her small community) because he is the head of the school board and Marge is concerned she will lose her teaching job. She sees another individual, who has lost his medical license, and he confirms the diagnosis. When Marge is seeing this practitioner, the sheriff conducts a raid and arrests the practitioner for practicing medicine without a license and suspicion of murder. Then Marge sees the physician/head of the school board, who assures Marge that she can be cured, that her condition will be kept confidential, and that she can keep her job.

[Description adapted from Alan J. Sofalvi, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1196133.pdf]


WNYC archives id: 70799