Hey, George! George! You all right? Hey, what's the matter?
Do I paint the correct picture or do I exaggerate?Ĭlarence! Clarence! Help me, Clarence! Get me back! Get me back, I don't care what happens to me! Get me back to my wife and kids! Help me Clarence, please! Please! I wanna live again. Yes, sir, trapped into this small town and frittering his life away, playing nursemaid to a lot of garlic eaters. A young man who has to sit by and watch his friends go places because he's trapped. A young man who's been dying to get out of this small town and on his own ever since he was born. He is an intelligent, smart, ambitious, young man who hates his job, who hates the Building and Loan almost as much as I do. But George Bailey is not a common, ordinary yokel. Now, if this young man of 28 was a common, ordinary yokel, I'd say he was doing fine. A child or two comes along and you won't even be able to save the ten. Out of which, after supporting your mother and paying your bills, you're able to keep, say, ten, if you skimp. , married, making, say, $40 a week.įorty-five. Yes, well, most people say you stole all the rest. You saved the Building and Loan, I saved all the rest. You and I were the only ones that kept our heads. Now take during the Depression, for instance. In fact, you have beaten me, George, and as anyone in this county can tell you, that takes some doing. You know, also, that for a number of years I've been trying to get control of it. You know just as well as I do that I run practically everything in this town but the Bailey Building and Loan. But I don't like them either, so that makes it all even. George, I am an old man and most people hate me.
Well in my book, my father died a much richer man than you'll ever be! But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about. Do you know how long it takes a working man to save $5,000? Just remember this, Mr. Wait? Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they're so old and broken down that they. what'd you say a minute ago? They had to wait and save their money before they even ought to think of a decent home. Doesn't it make them better citizens? Doesn't it make them better customers? You. But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Isn't that right, Uncle Billy? He didn't save enough money to send Harry away to college, let alone me. why, in the 25 years since he and his brother, Uncle Billy, started this thing, he never once thought of himself. But neither you nor anyone else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I'll never know. You're right when you say my father was no businessman.