Ma & Pa Kettle,Good Family Values

Want traditional family values worth preserving, take a look at an old movie series, Ma and Pa Kettle and their brood as prime examples of what politicians today are touting as the American ideal.

The 1950s film characters headed a boisterous, poverty-stricken farm family with up to 16 children. Although they may be remembered for their chaotic household, constant bickering and rag-tag clothing, the Kettle family actually displays a full complement of "good family" traits.

The Kettles were featured in a string of 10 movies between 1947 and 1957 and first stole the show in "The Egg and I," a film featuring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray. "The Ma and Pa Kettle series was most likely the most popular movie series built entirely around a family theme from that period in film history. And that 1950s era seems to be what people mean when they refer to traditional family values.

Using the 10 "good family" criteria set forth by journalist Jane Howard in her 1978 book, "Families":

Good families have a chief, and that's Ma. Actress Marjorie Main played the role throughout the 10 films, partnered by Percy Kilbride as Pa in eight films and Parker Fennelly as Pa in the final film (Ma was alone in one film). Pa's strongest trait is his ability to avoid work.

Good families have a switchboard operator, the term Howard used for the person who keeps track of what the others are doing. Again, that's Ma.

Good families are much to all of their members, but everything to none of them. The Kettles score near perfection on this one. Family connectedness is apparent in all of the films, but all members possess individual autonomy and can leave the family circle and return safely and comfortably. Ma and Pa go on vacation, older children leave the farm and go off to college and get married, and even the younger kids have personal interests.

Good families are hospitable. Ma and Pa Kettle will help anyone in need. Even though none of the films ever show Ma or Pa gainfully employed in any way. In spite of what appears to be poverty, though, their door is always open to strangers as well as friends. It's the family's strongest trait.

Good families deal squarely with disaster. No untimely death, suicide, serious illness or divorce can be found in the film series, but slapstick comedy isn't suited to such topics. But every entry in the series produced at least one major problem facing the clan, and no circumstance was too great to be solved by the caring and nurturing of the family directed by Ma.

Good families prize their rituals. Mealtime for the Kettles fits into this category. Ma cooks three meals a day, and the family eats together at every meal. Ma's raspy and coarse call of "Come and get it" starts the ritual, followed by Pa saying a brief prayer and tipping his hat heavenward. Then the family consumes the food like a horde of termites destroying a toothpick. Other family rituals include holiday celebrations and community events such as county fairs and box suppers.

Good families are affectionate. This is the Kettle's second-strongest category, with affection among family members apparent in all of the films. Children are hugged on a regular basis, and, as bizarre as it may appear at times, Ma and Pa provide excellent role models for their children in showing visual parental affection for each other.

Good families have a sense of place. Even when Pa wins a brand-new, ultra-modern house in the first Kettle film, the family never stops yearning for the "old ramshackle farmhouse which could double for the city dump," They keep it and, in a later film, move back to the farm on a permanent basis.

Good families honor their elders. Pa is the unquestioned head of the Kettle household and all family members accord him the respect deserving of that position. Although Ma is the driving force behind the family, Pa is clearly the head of the household -- which was politically correct for that time. Ma gets equal respect from the children, and she earns every ounce of it, and the older children are respected by the younger children.