Hi Greytone,

Here's what I wrote on this subject in another post...

As for Don feeling the cool grass...I think he was just have a sensual experience watching the teacher and the only thing he could do to "consummate" the moment was to feel the the cool grass under his fingers.

To add to that, I believe he was just feeling transported at that moment and just kind of wanted to disappear into his own head....

I have a fear of flying (I'll do it, but I'm in agony) and went to a hypnotherapist to help deal with it, and one of the things she taught me was to touch my index finger and thumb together, or tap my forhead to deal with the stress and anxiety. It somehow takes your focus off the fear, and redirects it, also slows your breathing. Phobias are supposedly narcissism to the max, so the touching takes you out of the self-absorbed loop you get into. I (and a few other posters) think Don has been in a mental institution (long story; it's been discussed on some threads during the summer), so I think he was having some sort of anxiety attack and the "touching" was a way to get himself calmed down and back to reality. As you said, Greytone, like the story he told Betty about being on the beach.

I think every man has lustful thoughts about every attractive woman, but it doesn't really mean he's contemplating a way to sleep with every one of them...sometimes beauty is just that--young, happy, sexy and lustful, but no big deal either.

I agree with Katie.

Greytone, here are my thoughts from the open thread:

I think the traditional folk music we've been hearing is Don referencing some old flame, perhaps his "first" and that we'll see there's a connection to "My Old Kentucky Home" in a future eppy. The maypole dancing teacher will be featured in a soft drink ad, but his ideas usually come from his own life experiences, yes? The Irish/Scottish music swells very noticeably while he's fondling the "green green grass of home".

Just a thught, all the observations here are realy good . I felt that Don is feeling the pull of California and the beginning of transformation of the 60's. He mentions to the Madison Square Gardens Exec that "New York is in Decay" and California everything is new"(or something like that). The teacher looks really "hippiesque" too so perhaps that ties into the Patio Cola commercial going in a different direction then the Ann Margaret sex kitten idea.

I don't know whether Don was having "lustful" thoughts about the teacher, but I do know this much: In 1963, if my parents saw my teacher dancing around a maypole with a halo of flowers in her hair and bare feet, they would have thought she was certifiable. We were east coast transplants to California and I can just imagine my father : " I TOLD you they were all nutz out here! That's it. Tomorrow they are getting enrolled in St. Mary's. I'm pretty sure Sister Pat won't be dancing around any maypoles in her bare feet!" I wasn't sure if I was still watching an episode of "Mad Men" or if an informercial for Time-Life's "Greatest Woodstock Hits" broke in. It was a weird scene and seemed out of sync with the era.

The public Don and the private Don are very different people.
My take on touching the grass was a sort of "this is real" moment...In fact, I can hear him pushing that idea on a client: "We touch the earth, the blade of grass....and this...is REAL."

As far as anxiety, if I had to sit in the schoolyard with my witch-y wife and kooky father in law; I wouldn't be touching grass. I would be pulling out clumps of it to dig a hole for myself!

Did ANY spectator seem to be enjoying the May Day Festival? Boring today/boring in 1963!

I think Don had as much romantic, lustful thoughts for the teacher as most of the men did on seeing Ann Margret singing and dancing "Bye, Bye Birdie." Remember what he says about A.M.'s appeal in that movie: youthful, innocent, fresh, etc. So we have that connection.

And then we have the theme of the episode: the idea of the fresh, new, future replacing the old, decaying world. This teacher is not only young and fresh herself, but leading the "future" (kids) in a rite of spring (youth, innocence, freshness). But she also looks very hippie-like, and I don't think that's a coincidence. The hippies aren't around yet, but they are the future, and in a way, this teacher foreshadows the youth movement where so many kids ran around barefoot with flowers in their hair.

The baby boomers are about to take over, putting forward all kinds of radical new ideas, including the idea of connecting to nature. Also, the idea of making Love rather than War.

Which brings us to the title of the episode: "Love among the Ruins," a Robert Browning poem. It's a poem about how the ruins of a great city and empire have vanished to be replaced by green meadows. In one line there is talk about fields of grass. So the city gives way to nature. But the poem is also about the fact that the old kingdom fought wars. Now, on this meadow which has taken its place, lovers meet to make love.

I think when Don touches the grass he's trying to feel what the teacher is feeling under her feet and in doing so connect to youth, innocence, freshness and the future. Remember that Matt W. has said that "bare feet" are important to this season. My guess is that Don's touching the grass, wanting to feel what those bare feet were feeling, will become clearer as the season goes on. What we do know is that at that time, only little kids usually ran around barefoot. Adults always wore shoes, and certainly Don, member of an older generation, is unlikely to ever run around barefoot.

So the only way he can get in touch with all that is to brush his fingers over the grass.

Well, it was also a May Pole they were dancing around, and that symbolically has meaning.

And, as Thirteen pointed out, we (the viewers) are being primed for the second half of the 1960s, the time when the culture stopped being a continuatino of the 1950s and changed into something else. We know what's coming--Margaret's wedding invitation coupled with a May Pole dance mean that in about six months, the whole fabric of the culture will be torn. The WWII group of "adults" will give way to the Boomers, and society will reel and the pace and substance of the change. Some will embrace the change; some will not.

Don's trip to California last season showed viewers that Don knows (and enjoys) this "new" life, but he is also committed to the "old" life. His desire for the grass, new Spring grass, as he sits amongst the old guard on the lawn was a brilliant framing of the scene. The kids sitting on the lawn looked bored beyond belief, and the teacher seemed to exude life.

Don is going to be caught between worlds--between the desire to start over, to be young and fresh, and the desire to be part of his traditional world of breadwinner, husband, etc. Does he kick off his shoes and embrace the new culture or does he keep his shoes on and just manipulate the culture via his job in advertising, basically staying in the lawn chair and stroking the grass?

I thought Don was reminiscing in that scene. I think the flowers in the young teacher's hair, the flowing hair and long dress with the bare feet reminded Don of his childhood in the backwoods. I think touching the grass with his hand brought back memories of his own barefeet in spring time as a kid.

I don't think he was lusting after the teacher - he didn't have that look on his face, it was a happy look like he had when visiting with Anna.

Speaking of which, I wonder if Matt is going to bring Anna back? We've had 2 mentions of Don not having anyone at his and Betty's wedding, so I wonder if we being set up for a return of Anna. I hope so - love Anna.

And what is the significance of Don wearing sunglasses in that scene? I know, it was sunny, but I think his eyes were intentionally obscured so that we couldn't see exactly what he was looking at. Why?

This review was recommended in another post, but I'd like to recommend it again here: http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2009/08/24/mad-men-watch-family-entanglements/

It makes a wonderful point about how Don, who spent last season thinking about freeing himself from entanglements and re-inventing himself anew in California, has gone the other way and put down roots. He's invested in the new baby, his family, and even taken on the added entanglement of his demented father-in-law.

But we all still yearn now and again for a taste of freedom, a taste of the young-without-a-care feeling we had when we could do anything and be anything. And there-in lies that brush of fingers over the grass.

Therein also lies the appeal of Ann Margret ("Bye, Bye Birdie!"), the "hippie" looking teacher and her rite of spring, Peggy getting involved with the student yet not wanting any entanglements (no baby this time!), and Roger who really did what Don only flirted with--left wife and family and re-invented himself with a young, new wife. Roger whose daughter is trying to plan a traditional wedding, and whose former secretary, Joan, now has a husband and is planning to leave work to be a traditional wife. They're into putting down roots, even as Roger severed his.

Very insightful analysis of this episode! I highly recommend this article.

Don has always been pulled in two directions: between his perfect life with the perfect wife and perfect job; and the call to simplify and be himself -his real self, not the constuction named "Don Draper."

In season one, he impulsively suggested to his beatnik girlfriend that they chuck it all and run away together - abandoning the "Don Draper" persona. In season two, he temporarily did that in California. Remember how happy he was with Anna? The tension was gone; for the first time in years, he could be himself, Dick Whitman. It was the same when he touched the grass. He was again letting go of his construction, the stress of job and family, and simply being Dick Whitman.

I am hoping by the end of the series that Don Draper has become Dick Whitman once again, not necessarily in name (too confusing for everybody) but in essence, able to finally put his unhappy past in the past and embrace the good things he has in the here and now, whether or not Betty is there to share them (I suspect not.)

As Don ran his fingers through the grass, I was struck by the obvious conflict of his being seated up front in his grey suit, hat and sunglasses. This man has experienced a casual California frame of mind and I think that's where his thot's were... He called Ann Margaret 'pure' but the barefoot teacher w/ flowers in her hair perhaps made him re-think.
As the chaos continues at SC, the cool 1/2 mil in his bank account may tempt him to head west....

By the early 1960's psychedelic drugs have all ready been in use by the "Jet Set" for some time. Cary Grant was using in the 40's - 50's. By the early sixties especially in California the group that Don Draper met up with certainly seem the type to have "tested". Housewives like Betts(affuent) are prescribed such drugs for depression.....The dream-like quality to Don's memories and flashbacks......The age of innocence however phoney or ruined is coming to its end.

Also, On a more chidish note: Bobby's smile for the family group shot was "scarwee"....Just like the song "Bye Bye Bird Hee"!!!!!

Don's touching the grass is the same as "stopping to smell the roses..." I also think he was fantasizing about a one-on-one with the teacher...

I think the scene references the poem, Love Among the Ruins, by Robert Browning - verse 3:
And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass
Never was!
Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o'erspreads
And embeds
Every vestige of the city, guessed alone,
Stock or stone--
Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe
Long ago;
Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame
Struck them tame;
And that glory and that shame alike, the gold
Bought and sold.

It refers to the Madison Square Garden situation on the episode, representing the way of the future and what is lost in the process. The grass being a touchstone for him . . . a reminder of what was "saved" in not taking on that particular account. All symbolism.

Further to that - perhaps I don't have the exact interpretation down, but I definitely think that this scene related to the poem, and Don's life for that matter - the lust of glory glory, the shame of his childhood, the gold bought and sold in the ad agency business, etc. Does this resonate with anyone?

I love the point about him wearing sunglasses, allowing us to make our own interpretations about where he's looking. The eyes really tell a lot when emoting feelings.

I believe he is having a sort of meditative moment, listening to children giggle, seeing the teacher's bare feet, and his touching the grass. I've always felt that Don is living the life he should be living and not the one he feels he's meant to be living. He seems to be a free spirit trapped inside the ideal husband of that era. I think he touches the grass as a way to feel closer to the joy and bohemian nature of the barefoot teacher.

I an interested in the location of Don's home in this series. It appears from some of the script clues that it is near Tarrytown, and Sing Sing prison in the Hudson river valley. My guess is the writers have picked someplace near Ossining ? My interest is that I spent the earlier part of my childhood there before moving to the Midwest.

I use to enjoy Mad Men the operative word is "USE TO". I used to plan my day around this show until I saw it this evening. I found the blackface segment highly insulting. I could accept the fact that there are no black people other than servants in this program BUT....to sit in my home and watch someone actually play blackface for no particular reason except for amusement...well that's too much. I WILL NEVER WATCH THIS PROGRAM AGAIN AND I WILL TELL ALL MY FRIENDS BOTH BLACK AND WHITE TO BOYCOTT YOUR SHOW.

I bet if the writers of this show wrote anything that offended any other race there would be hell to pay.

This show is innovative, intelligent and entertaining I will miss it but I can do without it!

Dear Angryperson,

What you are not getting is that Don was the only person not amused by the blackface act; also please noet the time and place that this show takes place in. The whole point is that something that at one time was acceptable...is not longer acceptable.