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Jim-Bob is teaching Elizabeth how to drive. Their Daddy comes out to see what is going on. He is concerned about her safety and young age but she argues that she needs to learn for civil defense reasons. He agrees if they practice on the back roads and that she go driving with only her brothers or sisters. Jim-Bob becomes frustrated with Elizabeth’s mistakes and she gets out and leaves him with the car.
At the store Corabeth considers some changes to the store and then abruptly reflects on her memories of growing up in Doe Hill and her mother's ornamental orange trees. Aimee and Elizabeth try to sneak away but then Corabeth takes exception to what the girls are wearing and asks her daughter to change. After she tends to a customer she advises Aimee and Elizabeth about the rites of being prepared for their debut. She then recalls painting horses on pieces of silver when she was a girl. She becomes distraught, leaves the room and pours herself an alcoholic drink she has hidden in the pantry.
At the Waltons, Elizabeth's siblings make fun of her attempts at learning to drive. Elizabeth tells her Mama about Corabeth’s erratic behavior and asks if she could be going through “the change”.
Later while Corabeth reflects in her room, Aimee comes in and Corabeth claims to be not feeling well and wants to be left alone. Aimee leaves and offers to make supper for her father. After a while Corabeth bursts out of her room with renewed energy and announces to Mr. Godsey that she is going to become a woman of means. She is going to strike out on her own and no longer be a financial burden to him. She has decided that she will become an Interior Decorator. Ike states that they are not financially able to embark on any new ventures.
The next day Ben takes Elizabeth out for more driving lessons. He wants her to go faster but they end up driving off the road when she attempts to go around a corner. At the store Corabeth leaves Jim-Bob in charge. He asks if there are anymore ginger cookies. She initially directs him to the pantry but then uses an excuse to keep him from looking in the room where she has her booze hidden. She and Aimee visit the Baldwin sisters. Corabeth initially turns down the offer of having “recipe” with her tea but then gives in to temptation. Aimee foresees trouble and waits outside. Corabeth launches her plan of becoming an interior decorator on the sisters who mistakenly believe that they should be the decorators themselves. Corabeth has an outburst for being misunderstood and demands more of the “recipe”.
Elizabeth takes another driving lesson with Jason this time which ends with her driving into the lake. She makes her way to the Baldwin house and finds Aimee waiting on the porch. Corabeth and the sisters come out the front door and are obviously intoxicated. The sisters offer to drive Elizabeth home but then let her drive when they learn that she is taking lessons. They give her plenty of poor advice as she makes her way towards her house. As she pulls into her yard she crashes their car into the garden patch. John chases after the car and is upset to see Elizabeth behind the wheel. She’s decided that she has had enough with driving for the time being.
Ike screams at Corabeth through her locked bedroom door. He is upset that she now wants to open a dance studio in Rockfish. Aimee hears then yelling from her bedroom and is obviously upset by their argument. Corabeth screams that she is “drowning in this Virginia back water” and then smashes her liquor glass at the door. Aimee buries her head into her bed.
Corabeth stops by John's mill and asks if he will install a changeroom in her new Dance Studio. John and Olivia make their way into Rockfish to Corabeth’s Dance Studio. They are surprised to see that the sign outside states that it is Corabeth Walton’s Studio instead of Godsey. Corabeth has chosen to use her maiden name because she feels that the Walton name is more respected in the community. Once again Ike and Corabeth rip into a fight when he brings up the bill he has received for a phonograph player. She redirects the argument and tasks Ike with showing John where the change rooms are to go. Corabeth hopes that Elizabeth will take ballet lessons and informs Olivia that the price will be $50 paid in 2 installments. Olivia says that they can’t afford the cost and maybe that is why she doesn’t have any students. John offers to supply the lumber for the cost of Elizabeth’s tuition and free labor for all of the favors Ike has done for them. When John and Olivia get home he asks her if she has ever known Corabeth to drink. He saw an empty bottle in the waste bin and thinks it may explain her strange behavior.
Corabeth begins teaching her classes but there are only a few students enrolled. Her demanding intolerance drives the what few students she has to quit. Between classes she drinks from a hidden bottle of booze in the bathroom. Aimee and Elizabeth find her alone in the studio with no students. Corabeth closes the studio and attempts to drive home but crashes the car off the road leaving Elizabeth to drive the car the rest of the way to the store. John who has been waiting for Corabeth and the girls at the store is fine with Elizabeth driving this particular time. Aimee however is very upset at her mother for being drunk and storms off.
Corabeth is too embarrassed to speak to her husband and Ike asks John if he will go talk to his wife. At first John doesn’t want to get involved in their family business but is finally convinced to talk to her. John enters Corabeth’s bedroom and tells her a story about a soldier he knew in the war who drank too much and almost got himself and other soldiers killed. He gets her to see that she has become an alcoholic. John then brings Corabeth out of her bedroom to reconcile with Aimee and then Ike.
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