Ever wondered how the suburban scandals of "Knots Landing" could school us in the fine art of fiscal finesse and family dynamics? Buckle up, because that's precisely what we're about to explore. With my sassy commentary turned up to eleven, we're dissecting the "Courageous Convictions" episode, where Richard's financial floundering and Diana's love life complications serve us a hearty slice of drama pie. As we scrutinize the generational divide of aspirations and the silent battles of the heart, prepare to chuckle and gasp in equal measure.
Hold onto your hats – and perhaps your wallets – as we navigate through the choppy waters of monetary deception and relational tension that could give any telenovela a run for its money. From Terry's bargain car-fix to Diana's rose-colored glasses, we break down the episode's juiciest moments with humor and a dash of empathy. We also ruminate on the life lessons served up by Laura's and Richard's marital tiff over the family checkbook, all while keeping you entertained with our play-by-play analysis of their every misstep.
As we wrap up our suburban saga, I'll share some generational wisdom, inspired by Strauss and Howe's "Generations," that could just save your bank account from a fate worse than a soap opera cliffhanger. We'll contrast Laura's "Great Generation" loyalty with Diana's boomer-esque bravado, and Sid's Silent Generation stability, all while sprinkling in some tips for living frugally without scrimping on fun. So pour yourself a glass of your favorite beverage, and let's toast to financial literacy with a twist of soap-style storytelling!
Ever wondered how the suburban scandals of "Knots Landing" could school us in the fine art of fiscal finesse and family dynamics? Buckle up, because that's precisely what we're about to explore. With my sassy commentary turned up to eleven, we're dissecting the "Courageous Convictions" episode, where Richard's financial floundering and Diana's love life complications serve us a hearty slice of drama pie. As we scrutinize the generational divide of aspirations and the silent battles of the heart, prepare to chuckle and gasp in equal measure.
Hold onto your hats – and perhaps your wallets – as we navigate through the choppy waters of monetary deception and relational tension that could give any telenovela a run for its money. From Terry's bargain car-fix to Diana's rose-colored glasses, we break down the episode's juiciest moments with humor and a dash of empathy. We also ruminate on the life lessons served up by Laura's and Richard's marital tiff over the family checkbook, all while keeping you entertained with our play-by-play analysis of their every misstep.
As we wrap up our suburban saga, I'll share some generational wisdom, inspired by Strauss and Howe's "Generations," that could just save your bank account from a fate worse than a soap opera cliffhanger. We'll contrast Laura's "Great Generation" loyalty with Diana's boomer-esque bravado, and Sid's Silent Generation stability, all while sprinkling in some tips for living frugally without scrimping on fun. So pour yourself a glass of your favorite beverage, and let's toast to financial literacy with a twist of soap-style storytelling!
I mean you're gonna sell push-up bras and thongs when my kid's in the ghetto? Yeah, I mean it's that, or we can eat out of a trash can. What do you want to do, homeboy? Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome, or welcome back to SoFloor, the official gathering place for newbies, novices and all you OG diehard fans of the golden age of primetime. I'm your host, jett, and today we're viewing and reviewing one of the sophiest, suddiest spin-offs of all time. It's a not-slanding takeover. So, whether you're new to this or true to this, sit back and enjoy. Tell the kids it's time to play outside or out of sight They'll obey. No questions, suggestions or concerns in the next 25 to 35 minutes. Everyone else on air shot. You can be cool, you can be quiet or you can be kicked out to the curb because shh, I'm watching my story. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is Soap Lure. Hello, gorgeous, welcome back, party people to another fun filled edition of Soap Lure. I'm your host, chet.
Speaker 1:We're jumping into season one, episode 11, called Courageous Convictions, although I feel like that's a really bad title for this one. I told you last time that Dallas and Naslany don't really care what they call their shows, as long as the check clears, as long as it airs. That's all I cared about. I hope your day is going great. I hope you were mindful that you need to have grace for yourself and take a little time off, kick your feet up a little bit, even if you're at work. Who cares? I won't tell anybody. I'm going to talk about our stories, watching the. Watching the stories today. Per the usual, I'll recap the show on the retro rundown, I'll give you the full synopsis and then we'll go back and talk about a few particulars.
Speaker 1:Today. Those particulars are not limited to the kite, the wind, the anchor, why every relationship needs a mom, fathers and daughters. Do daddy's girls grow up to be pushovers or juggernauts crushing everything underfoot? The scammer friend you know the one, the friend who's always a couple bucks short at brunch, but they always have money for bar hopping and expensive, cheap-looking jewelry, fake Fendi wear, money talks. Whether you call it scratch, scrilla or green, it all spins the same and if you don't manage it, it will ruin your life. And boomer banter. Do we owe the boomers an apology? Do they rough it in the days of ago or are they parroting their parents' woes? All this and much more on this episode of Soap Lore.
Speaker 1:This episode has been one of my favorites to review so far, for two reasons. Number one, I get to talk trash about Richard the entire time. I get to put Papa Smurf in his place the entire time. He doesn't look like Papa Smurf. He does look like a Smurf, which I don't think is a bad thing. He actually looks like the guy who was the bad guy to the Smurfs, whose name completely escapes me at the moment, but you know the one. Think about it and then look at him. I bet you'll think the same thing. And number two, I get to talk about my Roman empire. That is, the cost of living. Comparisons of 2024 and the days of ago. Oh, finally, finally, finally. All right, girl, pull it together, let's get into it. This episode is called Courageous Convictions. Again, don't think it's a great title, but that's beside the point.
Speaker 1:The show opens up with a gang playing, I'm assuming, a game of poker at Karen and Sid's house. I don't know what they're playing because I don't play cards Total blind spot in my adult life that has to be remedied at some point. Anyway, Laura's father is also in town. Whatever that ailment was that he had a few weeks ago when Richard decided to have that affair with Sid's ex-wife, susan. Dad seems to be fine now. He's on the mend. He is in Knott's Landing visiting his family and he happens to be good at this card game.
Speaker 1:It's pretty obvious right away that Richard is a little bit miffed. You can't quite go on. But there's something going on in his mind. He seems distracted and frustrated. The phone rings. Karen answers it and she's like oh, richard, it's for you. He asked her if he can take the phone call upstairs and he of course says he gets upstairs. He goes to sit in Karen's bedroom. He sits on the bed and he's like just give it to me straight.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, downstairs, diana, the pain in the butt shows up with this real cute little boy. They're like okay, they're all kissy, boo, boo, hand in hand. They're not kissing. Diana has been raised right. She starts introducing her new little friend to all the adults in the room. Hey, y'all, this is whoever. I forget his name right now. This is my friend, this is my friend. Blah, blah, blah. Then they retreat upstairs.
Speaker 1:Now everyone in the house except the Farragate is shook. Oh, diana and her friend are going to her bedroom. Yeah, karen and sid are cool with it. We trust our daughter, it's fine. It's the 80s. Immediately the men in the room start to tease sid a little bit. They're like oh, that's so progressive of you, you don't mind your sweet little daughter.
Speaker 1:Upstairs with that smart, well-mann, good-looking boy all alone in her room Two teenagers. The implication is quite clear. But you know, sid, he don't want no smoke, he just squirms in his seat and sure enough, upstairs they are indeed making out. But it doesn't go any further than that, because Diana is not ready. She wants her first time to be wonderful and she's kind of put off by the fact that her parents are in the house and there's a bunch of people downstairs. This just isn't the time or the place. And plus, if I'm going to break their trust, I can't break it in my bedroom, right. So later on that night the couples go home and the pillow talk begins. Laura wants to know from Richard hey, what was that phone call about? He blows her off. He's huffy, puffy, he gets in the bed.
Speaker 1:Sid and Karen are talking about their daughter's new little boyfriend. Sid admits he likes him, but he doesn't like him. He hates that. He likes him right, there's really nothing to dislike but he hates that his daughter likes him so much. I didn't want to bring this scene up because I didn't think it was important, but it is Only because Sid casually mentions that he's missing a $100 bill and Karen's like you lost $100? What happened? So I don't know. I cashed my check today. I had five crisp $100 bills and one's missing. They were all in my wallet. I think they don't really make too much of it. They're like OK, you know well, it'll turn up, we'll just, we'll look for it, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1:So the next morning, over at Laura and Richard's dad's in town. He's sitting at the breakfast nook with the baby Karen. I cannot call Laura. Laura always want to call her Karen. Laura is in the kitchen frantically making a meal. Richard comes huffing in. He's still in a bad mood. He's still got an attitude. He went to bed, woke up mad. The dad is just kind of watching all of this from the side, but he's mostly keeping his eyes on his daughter. He wants to see how his daughter handles a situation. Richard storms out saying he has to go to work and the dad just can't help himself. He asked oh wow, you have to work on a Saturday. That's really that's a lot of work, richard, yeah, yeah, yeah, never dull moment, blah, blah, blah. He leaves, but the dad is looking out the side of his eye like mm-hmm, mm-hmm, something ain't right here, but I'm going to keep it. You know, I'm going to let them work out their own problems.
Speaker 1:Turns out that Richard does not have to go to work. He needs to go down to the Knott's Landing golf course and talk with some people he's had a few dealings with Now, some people he's had a few dealings with Now. One of the guys is casually playing golf and he's, like you know, rich. These things happen, I'm sorry. Apparently, richard had invested $20,000. For those of you counting in 2024, it'd be right about $80,000, which is like $79,000 and change. So he's freaking out.
Speaker 1:This is a large, huge, hefty sum of money, but his partner, or this guy he's had the dealings with, is like Richard, don't worry about it, nobody's going to drag you off to jail, just file for bankruptcy. So it's like he borrowed the money to give to someone, or he owes. I don't know, I don't know how that works, but he owes somebody, not just like a business. He owes someone $20,000. They're going to want that money quickly. He doesn't want to file for bankruptcy. He says if he files for bankruptcy, everyone in his law firm is going to know about it and he could get fired. He'll never climb the corporate ladder. As he's saying this, I'm wondering to myself how would they even know? Surely he's smart enough. If you're a lawyer and you've been in school for umpteen years, you've practiced law Surely you wouldn't file for bankruptcy at your own law firm. It isn't like they have the internet. I digress as he's running this. You know having this conversation at the golf course. He then decides he needs to hurry up and get to his accountant to see if he can squeeze a couple bucks out of some other investments that he has or some other assets.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, the ladies are all out shopping. They're having a good old time, they're picking out dresses, they're trying on clothes and there's a very busy and very disturbed looking cashier who was on the phone with a credit card company and she unfortunately has to deliver the news to Laura that her card has been declined. Now Laura's embarrassed Like dang, you embarrassed me in front of all my friends. Okay, don't worry about it. Um, thank you. Now the ladies see that she's a little upset and they're like girl do you want to put it on my card? Don't worry about it. She doesn't want to do that. She tells him don't. No, no, I couldn't. I'll just talk to Richard when I get home.
Speaker 1:Richard has made his way to the accountant's office and the accountant is like dude, you're tapped all the way out. Matter of fact, you've been tapped out for a while. File for bankruptcy. It's the second time he heard it today. He's like no, I'm definitely not going to file for bankruptcy. I will never advance in my career if I file for bankruptcy. So the accountant says well, what are you going to do? I don't see that you have any other option. Richard says I do. I will beg, borrow and or steal if I have to.
Speaker 1:So Karen is timidly shuffling through her kitchen and Richard is continuing his reign as an a-hole while he's pouring over all these bills. She tells them about the bank card and how it was declined and he goes oh, that was a mistake. She goes no, I don't think it was. I talked to the bank and they said you hadn't paid the bill in like several months. Now we're over the limit. After he's like I paid that bill, they're lying, but we're $20,000 in debt. So she's like wait what? Those are two totally opposite things. Did you pay it or are we in debt? It's like we're $20,000 in debt. Now deal with it. He's freaking out, he's frantic, he's not listening to me. She immediately steps in. I'm like, okay, well, I'll just get a job. No big deal, I'll get a job, I'll start working and then we can sell this house. If we need to, we can work. This is fine, richard, don't worry about it. He doesn't like that. You are stripping him of his power. No, no, no, karen, no, not Karen, damn it, laura. We're not selling anything, we're not doing anything. You're definitely not going to work. He feels like she's embarrassing him now. Now, it's her fault. Right Meanwhile, over at Karen and Sid's house, diana and her beau has secretly kind of set the date to do the do quietly.
Speaker 1:She's sitting around at breakfast with her family. Karen instead want to know how serious all this dating business is with Diana and her new boyfriend, terry. Now she implies that they are in the truest, realist, richest form of love. There's never been a couple more in love than she and he. It is so deep and serious. Stan immediately shuts down. He doesn't want to press any further, and this is when Karen starts to realize that, oh crap, I probably should have had the birds and the bees talk with her. It's a little bit too late now, but I gotta figure out if they are, you know, if they're already doing.
Speaker 1:To do flashback to Richard and Karen, richard and Laura's house Richard strolls through the kitchen and he has this long list for a barbecue Barbecue that he and Laura will be throwing on tonight. She's like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There's like ribs. There's big meat on here. We can't afford big meat. She didn't say we can't afford big meat, but she, her eyes, say hey, we ain't got big meat money. And her dad is once again just sort of silently observing the situation. And she's Karen, oh, laura says. Laura says well, let's do like hot dogs and hamburgers. Richard's like absolutely not. I need you to buy all the liquor and I need you to buy those big meats. Baby, we're barbecuing tonight. Tell everybody to be over here by 745. Clearly there's no meal planning. That is a super impromptu sort of situation. Laura is clearly uncomfortable, but you know she obeys her husband and does what he asks.
Speaker 1:It's a Sunday afternoon and Terry, who is Diana's new boyfriend, he takes her to this auto shop, this auto body shop or auto shop how do you say that Car shop, auto shop? Terry Diana's new boyfriend takes her to this auto shop where his car is being repaired. This is a Sunday afternoon. The car is suddenly repaired and painted this bright buttercup yellow. The last time she was in it it had this big dent, but he picked her up on a dirt bike slash motorcycle. They go to the shop and he tells her that his boy, tony, hooked him up. His friend Tony, works at this auto repair shop and it's closed on the weekends. But Tony, in order to make a little extra money, he'll come in on the weekends and he'll do odd jobs. So he did this $300 job for Terry for $100. And we know this because we see Terry hand his homeboy Tony a crisp $100 bill. Now Diana doesn't know that her dad's missing any money at this point. So she just looks down at the money and she's amazed like wow, you're so cool, you're responsible, you have money. And they start making plans to meet at his uncle's house a little later on to do what they want to do. He also tells her that the $100 bill came from his dear old grandma.
Speaker 1:So later that night at the barbecue. Richard is chefing it up. He is Bobby Flayn, the barbecue that he can't afford. The party's going well. Richard does pull Sid aside. At some point he discreetly asked him if he can borrow ten or five thousand dollars, which is a ton of money. So it's like I don't have five thousand loose dollars lying around. Hell. I lost a hundred dollars the other day. I can't do that, and plus I've already loaned you money before. I don't think I want to keep doing this. So this is clearly a pattern that richard has. Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:Karen talks to the girls about having missed the window of opportunity to talk to her daughter about sex. Ginger is listening to all this and she thinks well, I mean, are you sure she's not already having sex? Karen's worst fears. I mean, she's probably pretty close if she hasn't. So I got to figure out how I'm going to talk to her about it. Meanwhile, diana is confirming the details of her scheduled virginity loss appointment, if you know what I'm saying. And Richard is continuing to nickel and dime his friends for money. Now Laura catches wind of this and she's embarrassed. She doesn't want to borrow money from her friends. She's like super embarrassed to find out that they don't have it.
Speaker 1:By the end of the night, though, sid has thought about it. He's got a gut full of delicious, expensive meats and fine liquor. So he says you know, richard, I might be able to come up with $5,000. Come see me here in a day or so and we'll. We'll figure this out this time. If I loan you the money, though, I'm going to have to put it on paper. We have to have some sort of contract or something. I hate to do it, but I got to do it. Standing on business Later that night, richard's still sweating bullets and he tells Laura that you know, sid said he can give me five.
Speaker 1:She goes OK, what are we going to do about the other 15? Richard has a brilliant plan. What we're going to do is you're going to march in there, laura, and you're going to ask your dad for the other $15,000. Tell him to mortgage his house and give us the money. She's immediately sick to her stomach. She doesn't want to burden her dad and besides, she points out that they're always buying stuff that they don't need Clothes, boats, all this crap they don't need. Plus, now she knows they can't afford it. Let's sell some of this crap. Let's sell this house instead, I'll get a job and we won't have to strain so hard just to survive. Now he takes offense to this. Laura sees this as straining. We don't need all this fancy crap. Let's get rid of it. Richard sees it as striving. No, baby, we are reaching. You think we're stretching. I think we're reaching. Go ask your daddy for the money, okay.
Speaker 1:The next morning, over at the fair gates during breakfast, karen casually mentions easing up on their spending this week due to the loss of the $100 bill that was going to be the family's fund money. Nosy, diana is in the kitchen and she's like wait a minute, what we lost? What her dad and mom tell her oh yeah, um, dad lost a hundred bucks. He had a hundred bucks on his wallet. It's just missing. We don't know where it went. So we're just going to kind of tighten up a little this week. We'll be fine. But diana's like that's interesting. A hundred, huh. When did this happen? He's like, oh, would have been the day we had poker night.
Speaker 1:So maybe like friday, I think sometime on friday diana puts two and two together. She can't prove it, but the dates are close enough. My dad money goes missing on friday, my boyfriend presents a crisp hundred dollar bill on sunday. He came to my house on friday the math is math thing. It's enough to make her uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:So she goes to school and she avoids cute little Terry all day. He runs up to her like hey, babe, what's going on? I've been looking for you, I waited for you after class. She makes up excuses at first, but she knows in her heart of heart that something isn't right and she's like you know what. We can't be lovers and friends without honesty. Terry, where did you get that money? He's fidgeting nervously and he says oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, my dad gave me the money. She's like oh, your dad, really, because you told me your grandma gave it to you. He goes well, yeah, I mean my grandma wrote the check, but my dad has a bank account so he cashed it. So I mean mean, they gave it to me? He's like yeah, yeah, somebody's daddy gave it to you. My daddy gave it to you. You creep, don't ever talk to me again. And she swishes her hair, jumps on her bike and she creaks out.
Speaker 1:Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it has been my policy never to lie on this show. I still won't. I am extracting the scenes, but I am definitely adding a little bit of dramatic flair for those of you who are not watching in real time. Watching in real time, she does squeak off on that old ass fight, all right. Speaking of fathers, richard decides to take his father-in-law to the park so they can play with the kid. They're having a good old time. You know. Grandpa's really enjoying all this family time. He's been peeping games so he already knows that Richard has something up his sleeve. Why else would he invite me to this park? So they're watching the play. They're watching Richard and Laura's kid play I think his name is Jason, I can't really remember and Richard starts to drop these anvil type hints, like he's Wile E Coyote trying to catch the roadrunner.
Speaker 1:He's like oh man, 1980. Oh, dang, it's expensive. The dad's like man, this is rough. Oh, look at my son out there. God, I just, I just want him to have the very best. You know what I mean, father-in-law. I want him to have the best at everything in the year of our lord 1980. It's just so hard, so difficult to make ends meet.
Speaker 1:Now the father is like you know how you make ends meet, richard. You make ends meet. You don't spend more than you make. Then he hit them with the obligatory elder man speech of back in my day I raised a family of five all by myself, worked at the mill all day, blah, blah, blah, bought my house, bought my car, bought everything I needed. I never borrowed a dime in my life. I've never been inside a bank my life other than to withdraw my money, blah, blah, blah. My life other than to withdraw my money, blah, blah, blah. And rich was like. But that was like 30 years ago. So, plus, you live in like ohio, so what's your point? He didn't say it quite like that, but that is the general gist.
Speaker 1:And the dad. Dad was like I mean, yeah, yeah, you know what it was 30 years ago, I did it 30 years ago, I did it 20 years ago, I did it 10 years ago, I did it 10 minutes ago. I have been 10 toes down since the day I was born. I've never borrowed money. Yeah, I can do it now. You make ends meet by making ends meet, even if I'm not raising a family now. I did it back then and I didn't do it with borrowed money. I balanced the hell out of my budget all by my lonesome. You can do it too. Matter of fact, richard, why don't you go ask a bank? You're young, you're healthy, you'll figure it out. This is all I mean. There's really no argument here.
Speaker 1:Richard continues to wax, poetic, though, about how he could lose his job. I can't go. I can't beg for money, I can't go in a banking house, I can't file bankruptcy. Everybody will know, and then I'll never get a better job. So the grandfather is starting to take a little bit of pity on him. He's like listen, I can give you a couple thousand. I got a couple thousand in the bank. Like I said, remember, I only go in the bank to take money, out, my money. So I can give you a couple thousand. How about that? And Richard's like no, how about you mortgage your house, old man, you got a whole house that's paid off. Hook a brother up. Needless to say, that does not go over. Well, dear old dad's fully paid house is security for his grandchildren, for the legacy that is his family. Richard is not trying to hear that. Richard insists that the mortgage money will go to Laura and their baby. So that's, I mean, still still family, right?
Speaker 1:This is when the dad just gets really, really pissed off because, mind you, he's been watching this whole little song and dance for the last few days. He already knows. He knows his daughter hasn't been able to fly out to see them. He knows that she had to twist his arm to even get that, to make that happen. So he flips. He's like no, it's not for them, it's for you and I'm not going to help you. Forget about it, richard, of course.
Speaker 1:Runs home and blames Laura for this. He's like you're just like your dad, cheap and tight. You don't ever want to help me. She's like dude, I told you I would get a job. He don't want to hear all that, he just needs someone to blame. Laura ain't having it. She wants to help. So she was going to be proactive. She went out and she got herself a job. She made sure hey, guess what, richard, I already have a job with the schedule I in a couple of days. That's what's going to happen.
Speaker 1:He gets super pissed because now I guess her being helpful he can't blame her is what it feels like. He can't continue to shove this down her throat. Plus, he says quote well, that makes a whole lot of sense. You're going to go work all day and put my child in this ghetto, daycare or, excuse me, daycare ghetto. You want to put my kid in a daycare ghetto while you go off and sell panties. She got a job at a lingerie shop. You're going to sell push-up bras and thongs while my kid's in the ghetto. Yeah, I mean, if that or we can eat out of a trash can, what do you want to do? Homeboy, it's up to you. Can you call papa smurf? Can we go live in the hobbit or the hollow at a private dinner in the kitchen?
Speaker 1:Laura's dad can't hold his tongue anymore. He hates the way that loser rager talks to his precious daughter and she confesses that he isn't always this douchey. He's just extra douchey because he's under stress. He's just a little scared, he's stressed and this makes him lash out and push away. Dear old dad wants her to make Richard take her help. Reminds her of how mean and crotchety Never heard that word before in my life Crotchety he was when his wife died, but he reminds her Laura, you busted your hump to make sure I was okay. You just became the best person in my life and darling. You are exceptional at receiving unwarranted abuse. Nobody is a better doormat than you. Baby, be a doormat, but be an aggressive one. Tell them to allow you to strain and stress over the money too. That's how you handle it.
Speaker 1:I immediately stopped liking dad at this point. He doesn't say it in so many words, but he basically says that when her mother died she stepped in. He's seen her ability to rescue people and that if she can convince her husband, richard, that to take her help, she too can rescue him. So she and dad formulate a little plan at the dinner table that she will later present to Richard. So, diana, after she had that long bike ride home, she goes to her dad and they're having this conversation, sort of I think it's at the dinner table too and she confesses to Sid that Terry took his money and she can't stand his ass anymore. I broke up with him immediately. Daddy, she can't believe that he took advantage of their relationship. That's her problem, like I feel. Like I feel used dad. He used my affection for him to come in here and steal money from us. Can you believe that Now Sid Daddy knows something he doesn't know best, but I have to, kind of, I have to understand where he's coming from.
Speaker 1:He's like baby girl. Unfortunately, betrayal is a part of life. People are going to disappoint you at different levels in your life. That just kind of comes with the territory. But you got to learn to forgive people. And then she's like oh, absolutely not. Hell, no, hell, no, she's not having it. Sid says if she's going to be that rigid in her beliefs, then she needs to be above reproach. And then he goes on to tell her that it's not right. Baby, you can't turn your back on him, even if he is a thief.
Speaker 1:Now, ok, I will admit that omitting the sex angle in this storyline or in this particular conversation makes it easier for Sid to say you should just forgive him. But Diana's coming from this in a place of like we were making plans to take my virginity and instead he took $100 too. So he was going to take a whole. He got money. So now I feel cheap because he actually took your money from our house and then was still going to take something from me. So I feel the way it is what it is.
Speaker 1:Despite her father's advice, she still breaks off the relationship. She is no longer comfortable having an intimate personal relationship with this kid in that way. Right after she breaks up with him, he whips out a hundo to give to her and she's like you know what? You didn't take that from me. If you want to make it right, go give it to the person you took from Way to go. Diana, I know I had all kinds of things to say about her last episode, but I like her. I can clearly see that this is Karen's daughter. Let's finish this out, y'all Okay.
Speaker 1:Laura and her father had made a quiet family decision that he, indeed, was going to wire her the 15K that they needed. He wasn't going to wire it to Richard, he wired it to her. She goes to the bank, she gets the cashier's check from her. She sits, she's sitting with her legs kind of gapped open, like a man. When he comes in, it's a very like dominant stance, but she uses gentle words and she says Rich, here's a deal.
Speaker 1:Daddy gave me the money, but he gave me the money, which means I'm going to be the person who pays him back. Now I will slide this check over to you if, and only if, you follow these two things. Number one I am going to remain a working woman. I'm going to take the job at the panty selling place. I'm going to sell all the push-up bras and thongs. People can stand, you hear me? Number two, I'm also going to take over the family finance. I'm going to be keeping the books. I'm going to be keeping my eyes on everything.
Speaker 1:Richard, that's how it's going to be, or I'll tear this damn check up right here. Right now he's not having it. He says, honey, $4.60 an hour. It's going to take you forever to finally pay your dad back. Okay, how about you? Let me cash this check and I'll let you remain my wife? He says he feels inadequate when he's not providing for her. It doesn't matter, in fact, that he's not really providing because he's swindling and scheming and borrowing money. So he's like babe, just, let's just forget this, let's just give it to me, no strings attached, and we'll go back to normal. She's like absolutely not. So he rips a check in half and he leaves out of the house.
Speaker 1:Now, as he's storming off, in the midst of his storming off and peeling out, he's peeling out halfway down the road and he spots this beautiful sort of metallic gold brown car. He gets out. Beautiful sort of metallic gold, brown car. He gets out, he's looking at it, he starts to write down the number so that he can buy it. And I'm thinking with what money? What money? You just ripped up a check. You don't have no money. Homie, I don't know why my voice went up 20 octaves. Long story short. He comes back to the house at the end of the night and he has this brown paper sack and inside of it is some scotch tape. Karen wants to know, laura wants to know what this is all about. He's like we're going to tape the check back together.
Speaker 1:I just have to, honey. I'm a dreamer. I need a dream. I'm ashamed that my dreams, every time I reach them, they just don't. It doesn't feel right. But I'm so glad I have you, because I need someone like you to keep me in line. So, okay, cool, you'll take the job, you'll do whatever, but you got to let me keep having these dreams, which is a very right. That's a weird sentence, because you just said you didn't like your dreams. But he wants to keep them and they agree. That's pretty much it. That's it, richard, richard, richard.
Speaker 1:I'm starting to love, to hate him a little bit. He doesn't have the same charisma as JR and he doesn't have the same just sort of complete lack of self-awareness as Blake, but he's the perfect villain for this show because he believes what he's doing is noble. He thinks I am reaching for the stars here. I had a couple seconds to think about it. At the end of the show.
Speaker 1:He was waxing poetic about how he hated his dreams. He hated getting the thing he wanted and it not being at all what he hoped it would be. But he likes chasing something which is a very good quality. But the opposite side of that coin is that you can chase things that aren't going to benefit you. Further still is a knowledge that you know these things don't satisfy you, but you will continue to chase them. So it brings up the whole the anchor, the kite and the wind.
Speaker 1:In a partnership, in a relationship, it's always good to have someone who's a little bit more slow and steady, someone who's slow to speak, who's always listening, who pays attention to the details. It helps if they're frugal. But you also need a dreamer. You need somebody with a vision. You need someone who can look at things from a totally different angle and when they're working together it works out really well. The wind, of course. It is a wind of change. When different conditions comes up. It's wonderful to have somebody who's steady, and then it's wonderful to have someone who can maybe come up and pivot with different ideas.
Speaker 1:The issue here with Richard, though, is that he is moving into these situations to A keep up an image which will make him do desperate things, and then, once he's in the trouble, he's not really doing anything to correct it, he's just making. He's using the exact same things that got him into trouble to keep him in trouble. So it's like it's this horrible cycle that continues, laura coming coming in. It's not really a power play, because ultimately, he already has money. Her having a job is. I wonder how he's going to take that in the long run. Like if she's not home to make dinner, how pissed off is he going to be about that? Because that's the thing with their relationship. You can.
Speaker 1:Every episode they make sure to show them, even if they're in the background, you get to thing with their relationship. You can. Every episode they make sure to show them, even if they're in the background, you get to see that their relationship isn't great. It's a lot of him kind of looking down on her, but then they have these moments of laughter. So Richard's kind of an anomaly. I enjoy him, I think he's. I love to hate him, but he on one hand he keeps Karen seek. God. God, her name is not Karen. I wish they had switched names. He keeps Laura's secrets, but he also wasn't above weaponizing it to get what he wants. That's the whole thing. I wonder how far they're going to push that going forward.
Speaker 1:Other part too is oh, you're running around borrowing, begging and stealing money. It really is that friend Everybody has that friend who's always going on trips, always they're all over the ground with these pictures. You know they're constantly traveling. We'll borrow stuff and you never see it again. It's like you just have to kind of charge it to the game. I understand Sid saying no, but I respect it even more that he's like hey, put it on paper so at the very least, even if he doesn't get his money back, if Richard starts talking trash one day, he's like guess what this? I have a big receipt saying that you borrowed $5,000 from me. Where's my money from it? Money, friend. It's interesting.
Speaker 1:This whole episode made me think, god, like you really have to. You have to be on top of these sorts of things. That would be a horrible burden to have to come up with that much money in a matter. I think it was a week on the show. He had to come up with the money in a week or two weeks, something like that, but he was too proud to file bankruptcy. I couldn't figure out why. Why? Maybe there was like a morality clause back in the day in a lot of places. Maybe there still is. If a lawyer or someone in that position who's representing other people who may have money issues or you know their face, they're facing something major, so you don't need a lawyer, maybe it's like a moral obligation to make sure that you have your stuff together.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I really don't know about all that, but him being, as my mom would say, a begging Benny running around buying the finest cuts of meat, the most beautiful dark liquor anyone's ever seen. How are you, sir? Why are we having tomahawk steaks and 80 euro cognac and you can't afford your bills? Don't do that. Don't do that. I think we've all learned that, especially as generations. Now We've seen it a couple times. Millennials have definitely seen it two, three, five times. If you don't know about now that it's not, you don't have to start. Let's just not. Thankfully, you can live a pretty good life with some pretty nice things that don't have to put you out on the streets.
Speaker 1:Ok, I want to talk about the fathers and daughters this episode. Obviously it was Laura and her dad and then it was Diana and Sid Interesting dynamics in both families. So the backstory for Laura is that her mother died when she was 12 years old. We remember that episode. That's the same one. We found out that Ginger had the abortion. It was where Valene, the Vidalia onion queen, got to relive her horrific childhood where her mother had run off and she was hunted down by hounds and good old boys. You remember, you remember Well, it explains her role in her marriage.
Speaker 1:She stepped in. She was the youngest of so many kids. I think he said they had five kids. The wife died. He fell into this sort of depression and 12 year old karen, laura, worked really hard to keep the family afloat. She tried to be the replacement wife. She's always trying to fix that broken wing for somebody and she sees it in richard. She said as much before, but this is where it starts to differ, because where her dad fell into a depression because his woman was gone, like the mother of his children, the person he thought he was going to spend his life with is gone. He's mourning her. Richard has always just been overly ambitious, and there's something about her pairing herself with him that makes her feel good it ain't sustainable, though it's not sustainable. So when she and her dad were sitting down having a conversation I mean he was, he was perfectly lovely, but in not so many words he told her you did it for me. Help your husband in the same way. Draw it out of him. Do not encourage her to continue this toxic behavior.
Speaker 1:And this is a different generation. I've mentioned it before. There's this book. I'm actually holding it in my hand right now. It's called Generations the History of America's Future from 1584 to 2069. It's written by William Strauss and Neil Howe and it goes through these different cycles of generations.
Speaker 1:So Laura and Richard being the silent generation, they're kind of that last. I'm not going to bore you with the details, but there are several cycles. There's like the Civil War cycle, where you see, like the Transcendentals, the Gilded, the Progressives, and then there's like the Great Power cycle with the Missionary generation, the Lost generation, the GIs, what we would call the Great Generation now, and then the silent. So Laura's father is from the GI generation or the great generation, and they would have been the people who kept their nose down. Factories are just kind of coming about. They're going to show up to work. They're going to be modest, they're going to have. They already know what their life is going to be look like. It's going to look a lot like their parents. They're not expecting a bunch of frills and thrills. So it doesn't surprise me that Laura's dad has never been into debt, because you know, he lived in a time where that was possible and wanting more than that was taboo. Like nobody is shooting for the stars at all, as were the silent generation which would be Laura and Karen and all these guys, the cast they are. They want more for their family. So they're going to be pushing and striving for a little bit more.
Speaker 1:But you can see where Karen, laura, God, whatever. Laura is heavily influenced by her father and she wants to. She wants the nice things and she thinks they're okay. But she's got that old school mentality. She's an older soul. Richard is a little bit more out there, out there. Very interesting to see that dynamic. But his encouragement for her isn't like leave your husband, it isn't uh, you need to not do anything. It's kind of middle of the road, like okay, what would I have done. I kept my nose down and I raised my kids. You do the same thing. You just keep your nose down. You go get a job, you stay quiet. You do that. You can see why she is built that way and, plus, she didn't have her mother's influence.
Speaker 1:While you look at Diana, who is Karen's daughter now, even though Karen is from the silent generation she is, she's leaning a little more into, little more into the boomers. She looks like she's on the cusp, like the boomers are more of a reactive generation. They weren't going to sit and let you tell them what to do. They'll burn this shit down, then they'll rebuild it. It's a different sort of fire, a little bit more bite. So when you look at Diana and Sid Sid being from the silent you know we don't. We want better, but we're not really out here ruffling feathers.
Speaker 1:Sid is a wonderful silent generation representative and his whole thing was like you know, people are going to let you down. He's probably thinking about his first wife. But he said people will betray you. That's not the case. People will let letting. Being let down and being betrayed is a totally different sentiment. Betrayal is like I'm making plans to do you dirty as we're letting me down. Me dang, I slipped, I made a mistake, or maybe I. You know that's more on you than it is on the person. You're disappointing it, honestly. But betrayal is all on the person who betrayed you, point blank, period. But Sid, don't? You know he doesn't want the fuss, he don't want to talk about anything. He don't want to talk about the man kissing his wife. He doesn't want to talk about his ex-wife sliding. You know he's just not confrontational. He's okay, I'm just gonna. It's not really my thing, I'm just working hard so my family can have a better life.
Speaker 1:It also mentions that the silent generation is like the first one to where the the gi or quote unquote the great generation didn't expect a whole lot of like. They didn't expect a lot more for themselves. The silent generation is the first one to like okay, we're gonna start out in just total poverty, but by the end of our lives we're gonna be damn near wealthy, just because the world has kind of flipped on its axis. We flipped into the millennial cycle where the technology and all that is going to push us forward. So his life is going good. He's like don't rock the boat. I love that.
Speaker 1:His daughter said oh, absolutely not. This man made a plan. He came into my home. He stole money from my family. I'm not going to walk in and coax him through, as where Laura's dad is like keep your hand on his back, make sure he's okay, let's make, let's walk him through this Cause he needs you. She's like hell. No, absolutely not. He took money from me. He was going to take my virginity. He is no longer in my life because I choose that.
Speaker 1:She was as as the boomer as she can be. I will burn this thing down and I'll figure it out later. But today nobody's telling me what to do. You don't get to steal money from me and then get back in my life. Not like that. She even told the kid I'll say hey to you in the hall, but that's as good as that's going to be. So proud Way to go. Diana. Love that. Diana, love that boomer. This week she's still a pain in the butt, but it's interesting. Like what kind of girls is this? Are these men raising? I think Sid would be a little happier if his daughter was a little more pleasant, a little easier to swallow. But she's not. And just because you're strong like that. She's strong because she has the freedom to be so in her household, she's able to grow up and be the woman she wants to be because she has parents who aspire to have her live that way. Very interesting, you gotta grab this book.
Speaker 1:I am a total nerd when it comes to these things, but I just thought that was just. I need to understand the perspective. There's not as many GIs that I can reach out and talk to about this, but I see that I can totally, totally see the thought process and how that would turn out, how that would affect the way you raise your children and who those people grew up to be. Another fun thing on this show was when, when Richard was outed about the not paying the bills, he was like do you have any clams? And he's any. What did he say? Clams was my favorite word. I'm like that is a wonderful word for money. So I started looking up different terms that we've used over the years, and one of them was a sawbuck. Sawbuck is like a $10 bill because it looks like something a carpenter used. I don't make it make sense, I don't know, but I was like there's scratch, skrilla, cheese, cheddar, green dinero, coint, a hundo, a rack, a C-note cream. If you are singing the song in your mind dollar, dollar bill, y'all, cash rules everything around me. If you don't think that, I don't know if I trust you. I just don't know if I trust you.
Speaker 1:Okay, my favorite thing, favorite thing this episode was, of course, comparing the generations. I've already nerded out Again. Go grab this book. It is very enjoyable. They do get a few things wrong. I think it nerded out again. Go grab this book. It is very enjoyable. They do get a few things wrong.
Speaker 1:I think it was written like in 1996. So they call Gen X, generation 13, which just didn't stick. That's a terrible name and they get a lot of things wrong about the millennials. But I mean, they were just kind of guessing. They were guessing technology was going to be quick, but not as quick as it is. So there's a whole bunch of things that they get a little bit wrong. But in this episode I immediately went to the book just to kind of get a perspective of what Laura's dad was saying when he was talking to Richard that yeah, 30 years ago I did all that. I never walked in a bank, I never needed that. Okay, cool. So if memory serves me correctly, she went to Cleveland to visit him on that one episode. I think that's right. So I did a little math First things first. So I did a little math, first things first.
Speaker 1:15k back in 1980, or, excuse me, 20k in 1980, is the equivalent of almost $80,000 today. Let's go back in time a bit. 1950 would have been 30 years previous. Laura's father grew up living in Ohio. I think the average salary was around 3000 bucks. The average home costs was $8,300. So, yeah, he probably, if you think about the, you know, compare $3,000 a year to a home that only costs $8,000. Yeah, you could probably do that pretty comfortably. Yeah, you could probably do that pretty comfortably. He's claiming he bought it in cash. So maybe he worked, you know, five years, lived with his parents and got married, bought a house and that he didn't have to think about anything after that. Fast forward to 1980, a house in Ohio probably cost and I assume they live in Cleveland, I tried to pick the most expensive city around $44,000. In California in 1950, the average income was right around the same, about $3,500 a year, and the average home cost was $9,564. Still very doable. So far, so good. Flash forward to 1980.
Speaker 1:Richard is an attorney. He said he was a low level attorney, so I picked, like he's an attorney one. Let's say he's at the very bottom of the ladder. According to him, he would be making about $25,000 now in 2024. That's around $94,000. The cost of a home in a LA area in 1980 beachside, something like that would have been around eighty four thousand dollars, which is about three hundred eighteen thousand dollars today.
Speaker 1:So the question comes up did things change so drastically from 1950 to 1980.? I'm going to lean with Richard. Yes, the math. Yeah, he's going to need a little bit more money, he's going to leave a little bit more money.
Speaker 1:But I think older generations like the boomers do it now. Not just boomers, whoever's there, just older generations tend to. They don't seem to grasp the fact that their experience is long, long, long gone. In America, I would assume, probably in Canada, probably in Great Britain too, worldwide, everybody's feeling it, but it is extremely drastic. In the US of A, those days are long, long gone where you could work for two years at an average like a low paying job and buy a house. That is not going to happen.
Speaker 1:I would argue that even in 1984, I mean 1980, they were doing fine. If he was making that money. They're doing okay, but I mean it's not as easy. It's not super far off, like 94,000 compared to 318,. Easy, it's not super far off, like $94,000 compared to $318,000. It's not super bad.
Speaker 1:If he was, you know, let's say he became a lawyer, probably didn't have student loans, he probably went to college for under $20,000. Oh God, that hurts. Probably went to college for under $20,000. He's working. He could work for five or six years and pay for the house in cash. But that's just not the world people live in today.
Speaker 1:I wasn't taking Richard's side. The dad's not totally off. It's not impossible. But you got to recognize older generations. You have to recognize that things are changing. I hope, going forward that Gen X, millennials, nz. We can't do this to people. We can't tell our kids that, well, I bought my first car for $1,500. They're not going to do that. I'm telling you that now. That is not going to happen. It's just crazy. Oh, correction, the average salary in 1950 was about $3,300, but that's still really, really good, especially if a house, a nice house, is only $8,000. All right, guys, that's enough of the history lesson for this week.
Speaker 1:I think the theme here is count your coin, live within your means I think we've all the newer generations we've done a really good job of getting creative with how we live and tiny homes and van living. Do what you can and know that things will get better. I always do. The pendulum always swings back the other way In the meantime. In between time, go clip a coupon. Let's eat at home this week. I'll buy the generic sparkling water this week. Alright, guys, until next time, keep all of your drama on TV. Bye.