Bringing Up Bates "One Cap, Two Gowns?"
- Carlin helps Tori pack for Bobby’s college graduation. She also lends Tori a few articles of clothing. “The people of the same size, they just have this real problem of stealing,” says Lawson. “It’s not stealing,” responds Nathan. “If clothes fit you and they’re in this house, hey, if you want them to be your clothes, you keep them somewhere else. But if you keep them in this house, it’s part of the family closet.”
- “Tori and Nathan are our two that they’re like, ‘Oh it’s in the closet, it grabs for anybody,’” says Kelly.
- Down in Florida, Alyssa and John show us a glimpse of their life with two kids. John works in his family’s air conditioning business, and both of them have a joint cleaning business on the side.
- One particular evening, John comes home to watch the girls for the evening, and Alyssa immediately runs out to clean and doesn’t return home until after 9:00. At that point, John heads out to fix an A/C unit. “We’re going to stay right at two kids for right now,” says Alyssa.
- “I think Alyssa learned a lot from cleaning big messes from this house,” says Judson, matter-of-factly.
- Tori and Josie head down to Florida for the grad party. They kick off the trip with some disk golf. Josie plays on a team with Kelton Balka, a friend of Bobby’s who lives near the Bates and knew them before they knew Bobby.
- “I was super excited to get to go with Tori to the graduation because one of my friends is actually graduating,” says Josie. “Kelton is a guy that I’m kind of talking to and getting to know, and he’s pretty great.”
- “What’s it with all these special friends?” says Gil.
- “We’re going to be seeing lots of Kelton and Bobby,” says Kelly. “Well I like them boys,” responds Gil, with a combined look of stress and joy written on his face.
- The next day, Gil and Kelly and some of the kids show up for the party. “Bobby’s house is a lot different than our house,” comments Jackson. “Theirs is actually clean. I would be surprised if they didn’t mop this house more than once a day.” Bobby’s family lives in Tampa, in a gated community that sits on a lake.
- “You’ve got nice things, we can break them,” quips Nathan.
- Bobby is graduating with a youth ministry degree and will be moving up to Tennessee at the end of the summer. Kelton graduated with a degree in finance and is going to work in his uncle’s plumbing business in Tennessee.
- During the party, Tori sneaks off with Bobby to give him his Bible. He loves it.