If you watched last night's PBS show on the Carter Family and you didn't know the story, you learned that Sara Carter broke up her marriage to A.P. when she fell in love with A.P.'s cousin Coy Bays, then moved out on A.P., leaving him with the kids. Sara and A.P. divorced, but Bays and his family moved to California, away from Sara. Subsequently, for the money, Sara continued to perform with the other Carters -- and once, on a live radio broadcast, she dedicated a song to Bays, right in front of her ex-husband, who never stopped hoping she'd return to him. Bays decided to reunite with Sara, and the two were married weeks later.

You could say Sara was a selfish feminist, except that she was the member of the trio who really didn't want to be in show business. You could say that A.P. was the victimized pillar of the family, but he was the one who left home for weeks on end, gathering songs. He also had a violent temper.

This was the 1930s. This was before gay marriage, before Britney Spears videos, before the Supreme Court ruled on abortion and school prayer. This was, in other words, before the Fall. So why didn't the Carters embody traditional values in their personal lives?

Must have been FDR's fault.