Sugar&Spike - Volunteer Repairmen

The Chronicles of Sheldon Mayer's Sugar & Spike

Volunteer Repairmen
Sugar & Spike #18 [1958]
6 pages
Reprints: None
Dedication: Ann Charamak (age 14), Rye, NY [interestingly, Mayer settled in Rye for at least part of his retirement]

Spike gets put in the yard for playing with the window-box toy (TV), so Sugar invites him to her place (after the usual man-handling) to play with their window-box.  For some reason her mom objects to that, so they do some exploring and find a radio, which they interpret as a broken TV, since it has music but no picture, and proceed to try and fix it in the only way they know how, with Mr. Plumm's fix-it toys (tools).  Before they can act, they find Mrs. Plumm's laundry machine, and see the clothes jumping inside as another broken TV, with a picture but no music. Logic only dictates that you put the two together... And somehow for that they get put in a corner.

I did like that in the last panel the radio is still somewhat working, playing now-wobbly musical notes, but also making "glub glub" noises.  Because that's logical...

Well constructed story of the classic theme of seeing what a kid might do and figuring out what kind of baby-logic might have led them to that think their actions are perfectly justified.  

Characters: Sugar, Spike, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Plumm, Mr. Plumm
Damage: That radio might survive, but uncertain
Punishment: Initially just put in the yard, eventually into the corner
Sugar's treatment of Spike: The old trio, pushed over, stood on and dragged around by the feet.  But at least he complains about it...

"Why is it, the the cleverer we get, the angrier they get??"
"They're just jealous of our brains!"