Sam Drucker

Sam Drucker

Sam Drucker, portrayed by actor Frank Cady, is the operator of Drucker's general store in the fictional community of Hooterville, which is seen in the television shows Petticoat Junction and Green Acres (and occasionally in The Beverly Hillbillies). Drucker is the only resident of Hooterville to be a regular character in both Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. He is a supporting character in Petticoat Junction, but more of a main character in Green Acres, where he seems to be perhaps the only truly sane person. The New York Times describes Sam Drucker as "a bit of a straight man to the colorfully zany folk" of Hooterville.^[1] However, like other Hootervillians, he sees nothing unusual in the fact that Fred and Doris Ziffel's "son" Arnold is a talking pig.

Drucker is provincial, but fairly intelligent. He earns a modest living, and he sleeps in the back room of the general store. In the Green Acres episode "Milk Machine", Mr. Haney and Fred Ziffel ask Drucker for five hundred dollars to invest in a milk making machine. When he tells them he doesn't have the money, Mr. Haney suggests getting a mortgage on the general store. Drucker tells him that he already has six mortgages on his store and is "working on a seventh." Much ado is made of Sam Drucker's baldness. In one episode, he dons a toupee for a photograph and notes that it is the first time he has worn it since high school. In another episode, he states, "We Druckers skin out early." And in the Green Acres episode "The Agricultural Student", Sam throws on his toupé and says he is "Young Sam Drucker" when a young blonde co-ed named Terry Harper needs a date for the barn dance.

Besides being the town grocer, Sam Drucker is also Hooterville's postmaster, constable, Justice of the Peace, and Superintendent of Schools. And he is the editor, publisher, and apparently sole employee of the Hooterville World-Guardian, the town's weekly newspaper. He operates a "bank", which is merely a cash box kept under the counter in his store. In addition, Drucker is a fireman with the Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department, and plays the bass drum in the Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department Band.

Drucker's Store

Drucker's is an old-fashioned small town general store, the kind where the grocer retrieves many of the items from shelves behind the counter.^[2] Sam Drucker sells food and household goods, and at times sells such oddities as nail polish that's also a bathtub sealant and dehydrated chickens: "Just add water and bones, and let it sit for a couple hours." ^[3] Customers are allowed to shop on credit, although Drucker frequently (and exasperatedly) reminds them of their outstanding bills. Drucker's Store is the closest thing Hooterville has to a social club.^[4] The locals often come in to chit-chat, or to play checkers, or to rant and rave about community issues. And, on election day, they cast their votes at Drucker's. Exterior shots of the store show a sign that says "Sam Drucker's General Store", but everyone (including Sam Drucker) mostly calls the store either "Drucker's Store" or just "Drucker's".

Drucker's Store is also the Hooterville post office. One of Sam Drucker's quirks is that he insists on putting on his official postal worker hat and standing behind a small regulation post office grille next to the register whenever his role switches from storekeeper to postmaster. Drucker takes great pride in his association with the Post Office Department, and he's also very pleased that his patrons must come to his store to get their mail. In the 1960s, post offices were often situated in stores in rural areas, and some still exist even today. The Green Acres episode "Old Mail Day" is about the day when Hootervillians gather to receive the old mail that Sam Drucker finds when he cleans his store. One such letter is from 1917. Fred Ziffel learns he has been drafted to fight in World War I.^[5] There is no Rural Free Delivery (RFD) in Hooterville. When new resident Oliver Douglas petitions his Congressman for it to be initiated, Drucker is shocked to learn that an obscure (and fictitious) postal regulation requires him to carry the entire route himself — by bicycle. (This situation is, obviously, soon corrected.)

References