On a ""once in a blue moon"" Saturday, George is off work, so Alan and Nathaniel look forward to having some fun with their dad--but the adults decide ""Family Chore Day"" comes first. Well...that is until Grandpa, George, and the boys end up test driving a beautiful red Buick to Coney Island and Phyllis and Grandma play hookey at the new Danny Kaye movie with a stop for ice cream at Sid's afterward.

After his beloved fourth-grade teacher Miss McCullough announces at ""Open School"" that she is getting married and leaving for Japan with her serviceman husband, Nathaniel is not only devastated, but he refuses to adjust to his new teacher--to the point where he is sent to the principal's office.

Meanwhile, Benny's conscience bothers him after he forges a note from his mother.

Katie finally explains her feelings to Benny and eventually he and Alan resolve their differences--after he makes peace with Karen and Benny has a heart-to-heart with Grandma. Meanwhile, the rummage sale wildly achieves its goal, and Sid invites Aunt Sylvia back to the store for champagne.

Alan's reluctance to go to the Bronx High School of Science worries George enough that he has a talk with Mr. Greer about the pros and cons of Alan's attending, but when Alan finally gathers his courage and tells his mother he doesn't want to go, the confrontation hurts both of them--putting George in the middle. In the meantime, Benny seems to be reconciled to being a forest ranger, in a big way.

On the Sunday they were planning to go to the Statue of Liberty--Nathaniel has been studying it in school--it pours, so George proposes that they hold ""Rainy Day Indoor Olympics"" in the hall, but Ring-a-Lievio, hallway hockey, and Johnny-On-the-Pony seem tougher on George than they are on the boys; meanwhile, a hurt cousin Bernard awaits news of his fiancee, who was supposed to meet him on the Number 63 bus and never showed up and Phyllis and Jules try to assemble a jigsaw puzzle of the Statue of Liberty.

On Grandpa's birthday, Phyllis and George give him and Grandma a gift, a romantic weekend at the Plaza Hotel--an excursion the Bergers consider until Nathaniel contracts chicken pox. Sophie takes over his care with such vigor, overruling all of Phyllis' instructions, that Phyllis feels thrust in the background of her own child's care and her anger precipitates a quarrel between her and her mother. Meanwhile, Benny stakes out an apartment building in hopes of seeing his favorite baseball player, Duke Snider.