Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945)

Jackie 'Butch' Jenkins: Arnold Hanson

Photos 

Quotes 

• Selma Jacobson : We're home ma.

  Bruna Jacobson : Ring the dinner bell, and then you and Arnold go wash.

  Selma Jacobson : Alright ma.

  [They run over to the dinner bell] 

  Arnold Hanson : You should let me pull it.

  Selma Jacobson : Why?

  Arnold Hanson : Cause I'm the guest.

  Selma Jacobson : But you always pull the bell when you're here.

  Arnold Hanson : That's because I'm always the guess.

  Selma Jacobson : Oh alright.

• Selma Jacobson : [riding down a country road in Nels's car]  Mother said Ingeborg Jensen isn't quite right.

  Arnold Hanson : That's because she's crazy. That means crazy in the head. That's because her father always beats her all the time.

  Selma Jacobson : He beats Mrs. Jensen too.

  Nels Halverson : Mrs. Jensen is very sick right now, so I guess he isn't beating her. And Ingeborg isn't crazy; it's just that she's not quite as smart as we are, that's all.

  Selma Jacobson : Arnold didn't know about Ingeborg not being right until I told him.

  Nels Halverson : Maybe somebody had to tell you too, Selma, before you knew.

  Selma Jacobson : I suppose so.

  Arnold Hanson : Yeah, see?

• Arnold Hanson : [sitting around the dinner table eating pancakes for supper and talking about the Jacobson's new calf]  Sure is funny how I keep on not getting a calf.

  Bruna Jacobson : Well what Selma's pa meant was that it was just pretend her calf.

  Selma Jacobson : [looking disheartened]  But pa didn't say it was pretend - he said it was all mine.

  Bruna Jacobson : Well everything on the farm is all yours Selma, yours and ours - the things that keep us warm, the food we have - it couldn't just belong to one of us any more than... the sunshine,

  [waves her hand] 

  Bruna Jacobson : or these pesky flies. I'm sure that's what your pa meant, isn't it Martinius?

  Martinius Jacobson : Well uh, that may be what I meant to say; but I did tell her it was all hers. Well maybe your mother's right Selma. Maybe we, uh, ought to kinda figure it like she said instead of, uh, what we spoke about.

  Bruna Jacobson : Well Heaven sakes Martinus, you can't take it away from her if you gave it to her like that. Maybe it's a good thing; I think your pa's right. She needed something to take care of. She'll have work to do, just like a grownup.

  [Selma smiles and nods] 

• [first lines] 

  Selma Jacobson : [walking down a dirt road in the country]  Georgie's gonna be a farmer when he grows up, and he's gonna raise buffalo.

  Arnold Hanson : Buffalo have all been killed - I know, my father killed them all.

  Selma Jacobson : All the same, they aren't all dead. Anyway, that's what Georgie's gonna be when he grows up.

  Arnold Hanson : When I grow up I'm gonna be a soldier, and shoot all the time.

  [pretends to shoot a gun with a stick in his hand] 

  Arnold Hanson : I'll be fearless.

  Selma Jacobson : I'm gonna be a WAC and I'm gonna shoot more than you do cause I'm older.

  Arnold Hanson : No you won't, you're a girl.

  Selma Jacobson : Girls fight just as well as boys.

  Arnold Hanson : Looky!

  [points at a squirrel eating a nut on a tree stump] 

  Selma Jacobson : When I'm a WAC I'm gonna pull out my gun...

  Arnold Hanson : WAC's don't have guns.

  Selma Jacobson : I'm gonna pull out my gun and go *bang*, just like that.

  [throws a rock toward the squirrel but actually unintentionally hits it] 

  Selma Jacobson : Oh!

  Arnold Hanson : [they walk over to the squirrel]  You sure killed him, Selma. You killed him dead.

  Selma Jacobson : [sadly sniveling]  But I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to kill you little squirrel. It was just pretend.

  Arnold Hanson : Shucks, it's only a red squirrel. They're bad.

  Selma Jacobson : But he wasn't doing anything bad. He was just eating his dinner - when I picked up a rock, a-and I almost never hit where I aim, a-and...

  [Ingeborg Jensen briefly joins the children before her father Kurt sternly calls her to get back to her work. Then Nels Halverson - driving down the road - happily offers the children a ride home] 

• Arnold Hanson : [in response to Selma not letting him try out her new roller skates]  You're a big old pig.

  Selma Jacobson : I am not.

  Arnold Hanson : You're a big old pig and you eat slop.

  Selma Jacobson : [gasps in shock]  Ah! I was going to let you have a turn, but now I won't.

• Selma Jacobson : I don't believe in Santa Claus.

  Arnold Hanson : Shucks, I won't either if I don't get my electeic train.

• Arnold Hanson : Well, what'll we do now?

  Selma Jacobson : We could play school.

  Arnold Hanson : No, you're always the teacher.

• Selma Jacobson : [deciding what specific boat-themed game to play while floating in washtub outside after heavy rains]  We could be explorers.

  Arnold Hanson : I'll be Leif Erikson.

  Selma Jacobson : And I am, I am... no, I'll be Leif Erikson.

  Arnold Hanson : [annoyed]  But you're a girl.

  Selma Jacobson : But you're only five years old and I'm seven.

  Arnold Hanson : It doesn't matter how old you are, but you're still a girl.

  Selma Jacobson : But you're not old.

  Arnold Hanson : [discouraged]  I can catch up Selma, I can catch up.

  Selma Jacobson : [kindly obliging]  I'll tell you what, you be Leif Erikson.

  Arnold Hanson : [reinvigorated]  Ok.

  Selma Jacobson : And now we're going to paddle.

  Arnold Hanson : Ok.

• Arnold Hanson : You know what would happen to a fish if it was out in all that rain?

  Selma Jacobson : No, what?

  Arnold Hanson : He'd be drowned, drowned dead.

• Selma Jacobson : [pointing up at the sky]  Wild geese coming back.

  Arnold Hanson : Just like airplanes, only they don't drop bombs.

  Selma Jacobson : They're friendly planes.

  Arnold Hanson : Why do airplanes drop bombs?

  Selma Jacobson : To kill bad people.

• Selma Jacobson : I wonder what would happen to all the meadowlark if they didn't have anybody to get their nests out of the way during plowing?

  Arnold Hanson : They'd all be killed, killed dead.