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, Morlan says. Good families are much to all of their members, but everything to none of them. The Kettles score near perfection on this one, Morlan says. 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, he says.
Good families are hospitable.
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, he says. Good families deal squarely with disaster. Morlan found no untimely death, suicide, serious illness or divorce in the film series, but slapstick comedy isn't suited to such topics, he says. Good families prize their rituals.