S01.E11: The Right Thing to Do

[mojito]

Quote

Anachronism of the week: Rebecca's mom changed Rebecca's drink order from Coke to Diet Coke in a scene that took place in 1979 or 1980. Diet Coke wasn't introduced until 1982.

I caught that one, too, because I remember when Diet Coke came out, remember the commercial and the jingle, and if I remember correctly, Telly Savalas might have been its first celebrity endorsement.

I thought this episode was the most uninteresting of them all, which is fine. They can't all be great. Didn't really care to go back another generation, but these people shape who "we"/"us" are.

[FairyDusted]

On 1/12/2017 at 10:05 AM, Mrs. DuRona said:

Regarding "a gallon of ice cream".  I say that all the time when I'm super stressed out.  She may not have meant it literally, but more of "I am super stressed and I need ice cream and space".  Also, I lived in Pittsburgh in the early 2000s, and there was not a Friendly's west of Danville, PA.  Were there Friendly's in Pgh in the 80s?  Growing up in New England, it was sad not having Friendly's.  Eat n Park was a nice substitute, though...

Nice to see Elizabeth Perkins!

I sweat Jack passed a Friendly's to his left. I was wondering why he didn't just run in there. Grab a watermelon on the way out! 

It's kinda funny to talk about ice cream sizes. I grew up in the 70's and we had the industrial size tubs in a freezer. With cartons of Marlboros on the side. 

[chocolatine]

46 minutes ago, FairyDusted said:

I sweat Jack passed a Friendly's to his left. I was wondering why he didn't just run in there.

He wasn't really going to get ice cream, he was going to his father's house to ask for money.

[FairyDusted]

LOL! I just figured he would stop for some on the way back to calm his wife. I know I'd be like, you did what????where the fuck is my ice cream.

[breezy424]

So, yeah it was interesting that Jack drove past a Friendly's.  Apparently, from those who are from or grew up in the area, it didn't exist.  Come on writers.  It's all in the details.  Lazy.

People in the late seventies/early eighties didn't buy a 'pint' of ice cream.  It wasn't 'the thing' at that time.  It would have been a half gallon but many would call it a gallon.  I get that.   I don't know why but it was a common thing to say.

$17000 a year seems pretty low considering Jack was 36 years old.  And he bought a house and rented an apartment without consulting his wife?  Nope, even back in the seemingly dark ages, that would not be common.  I say that because apparently the writers seem to think it was.  I lived it.  Yeah, no.  They do seem to confuse earlier decades with what actually was going on by the time the seventies and eighties happened.  It disappoints me that the writers, in flashbacks, get so into stereotypes and cliches.  Of course Rebecca's mom was going to light the cigarette.  It just gets so contrived at times.

I wish they had someone who actually lived in the Pittsburgh area during the time on staff that could verify the era.  OK.  Maybe I'm overreacting but if you're going to do a time period in a show, get it right.  It may not matter to younger people but for people who were around at the time, it's important.  For whatever reason.  Add to that, I'm still trying to figure out where in NJ Randall and Beth live that somehow Randall can get to Philly and back in an hour but Randall commutes to NYC every day. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, breezy424 said:

People in the late seventies/early eighties didn't buy a 'pint' of ice cream. 

I think if you stopped at a boutique ice cream shop like Friendly's that would've been the biggest size sold.  I think it still is.  We don't have them here but I'm guessing it's like Culver's. 

[MaryPatShelby]

On 1/11/2017 at 0:24 AM, twoods said:

Jack going to his father for a loan was a nice surprise, especially that he had to act like a loser to get it. His dad sure is something...as is Rebecca's dad. 

Refresh my memory - when did we meet Rebecca's dad and what was the context?

 

On 1/11/2017 at 11:29 AM, SunnyBeBe said:

IMO, they have written Rebecca's mom to be a very stereotypical mean mother.  (I suppose Jack's dad is that way too.)  But, with Kate's mom, it just seems like lazy writing to me.  The other characters seem so rich. Why skimp?  

I'm confused by this statement.  Kate's mom is Rebecca, who is a main character of whom we see many, many facets.  I don't see how this is skimping on the richness of her character when she's on our screen basically all the time, in one form or another.

On 1/11/2017 at 0:46 PM, luna1122 said:

Oh, and he was also drunk, the dad. Which made you wonder, of course, about Jack's drinking.

We talk about this a lot, but as far as I recall there has been one show that referenced his drinking (with Rebecca and Miguel both talking to him about it) and very few, if any, references since....other than him maybe grabbing a beer when he got home from work. Would his kids worship him and his memory so much if he'd become an alcoholic?

On 1/12/2017 at 7:07 PM, ClareWalks said:

We used to buy a gallon of ice cream all the time, we had 5 people in the household and a gallon of generic vanilla was cheap. It typically lasted the week until Mom went back to the store. It was definitely not just for birthday parties in my house, but then we might have just been pigs for ice cream ;)

OMG this was my house!  We always had a gallon of vanilla in the freezer, and had ice cream for dessert every night.  My brothers and I always asked for chocolate, and my mom's response was that chocolate was more expensive than vanilla.  Imagine my dismay when I found out that wasn't true!  I never did find out the real reason she wouldn't buy chocolate, but to this day I love vanilla more than any other flavor.

[Randomosity]

9 hours ago, breezy424 said:

So, yeah it was interesting that Jack drove past a Friendly's.  Apparently, from those who are from or grew up in the area, it didn't exist.  Come on writers.  It's all in the details.  Lazy.

No one here has confirmed one way or another whether there was a Friendly's in the Pittsburgh area in 1979. Someone who lived there in the early 2000s said there wasn't one there then. But Friendly's was already on the decline by then, even in places close to their 'home base' in Massachusetts. I grew up in the 80's and 90's going to various Friendly's all the time in upstate NY; none of them have been open for years.

I did look into the fact that Friendly's opened a plant in Ohio in 1974. Do I know they had restaurants in the Pittsburgh area five years later? No, but I'd bet money that they did.

7 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

I think if you stopped at a boutique ice cream shop like Friendly's that would've been the biggest size sold.  I think it still is.  We don't have them here but I'm guessing it's like Culver's. 

Friendly's is not boutique. It's not fancy, but it's a sit-down place, not fast-food like Culver's. You can buy pre-packed, commercial half-gallons (or the slightly under modern equivalent), individual sundae cups, or various permutations of ice cream cakes. No pre-packed pints. And you can get various sizes hand-packed. Probably including gallon tubs (and pints).

Edited January 14, 2017 by Randomosity

[ClareWalks]

12 minutes ago, MaryPatShelby said:

My brothers and I always asked for chocolate, and my mom's response was that chocolate was more expensive than vanilla.

Fortunately we also got a bottle of generic chocolate syrup, so we'd put that on, let the ice cream melt a bit, then stir it for a lovely Frosty consistency. Ah, the 1980s :)

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Randomosity said:

Friendly's is not boutique. It's not fancy, but it's a sit-down place, not fast-food like Culver's. You can buy pre-packed, commercial half-gallons (or the slightly under modern equivalent), individual sundae cups, or various permutations of ice cream cakes. No pre-packed pints. And you can get various sizes hand-packed. Probably including gallon tubs (and pints).

Thanks.  I stand corrected.  I figured they must make their ice cream and that's usually packaged smaller to command higher prices. 

[SunnyBeBe]

Correction to my post uphthread. I meant that imo, Rebecca's mom is the stereotypical character who the writers seem to have skimped on, not Kate.  My mistake. 

[mojito]

Quote

$17000 a year seems pretty low considering Jack was 36 years old. 

His age makes no difference. He was in construction and that seems like a decent salary for a construction foreman. Electrical/mechanical engineers with master's degrees in the northeast were pulling around $19K right out of school a few years before. Don't know if Jack was degreed. $17K doesn't seem out of line.

[Cardie]

16 hours ago, breezy424 said:

I wish they had someone who actually lived in the Pittsburgh area during the time on staff that could verify the era. 

The show's creator, Dan Fogelman, did live in Pittsburgh during that time, but moved away when he was a child. Thus he might not remember what it was like to be a thirty-something in the 1980s.

[meep.meep]

If he just drove past it and didn't actually go in, then it doesn't make any difference to the plot.  They just forgot to airbrush out the sign.

[buckboard]

8 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

If he just drove past it and didn't actually go in, then it doesn't make any difference to the plot.  They just forgot to airbrush out the sign.

The point of driving by Friendly's was that Jack had told his wife he was going to pick up the ice cream, but driving by showed it was an excuse to get out of the apartment and he was actually going elsewhere (which turned out to be his father's).  (Maybe he picked up the ice cream later.)

[Rosebud1970]

As a former resident of Pittsburgh (Go Steelers!), I noticed something off in the opening scene with Young Jack and his father and mother. His father used the word 'yous' for the plural of 'you' when addressing Jack and his mom.

Any true Pittsburger knows that the plural of you is 'yinz' and that residents of Pittsburgh are generally known as 'yinzers'.

That is all.  Carry on.

[Randomosity]

15 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

If he just drove past it and didn't actually go in, then it doesn't make any difference to the plot.  They just forgot to airbrush out the sign.

No, it was definitely meant to be included, as it was stylized to look like 1979. That was not a modern Friendly's.

[Kira53]

On 1/13/2017 at 8:49 AM, Mrs. DuRona said:

I may have missed this, but where was it stated that they had been married that long?  I always felt like they had only been married about a year or 2 before getting pregnant, hence Rebecca's reluctance to have children at that point in their lives.

They were talking with Miguel and his wife in the bar.  I was struck that they has been married quite a while because I assumed they were newlyweds.  Jack was a bit older  I thought that she had to have been very diligent about her birth control and really hadn't wanted children.  Maybe some can check my memory.

[ShadowFacts]

11 hours ago, MaryPatShelby said:

We talk about this a lot, but as far as I recall there has been one show that referenced his drinking (with Rebecca and Miguel both talking to him about it) and very few, if any, references since....other than him maybe grabbing a beer when he got home from work. Would his kids worship him and his memory so much if he'd become an alcoholic?

There have only been a few references, but we tend to read stuff into them, I suppose.  I think he did say he didn't put any beers in the cooler in the pool episode, or said he hadn't had a beer for awhile.   Short of being a raging alcoholic, people can become problem drinkers without hostility and abuseiveness.  If he did some heavier drinking, or died in a drunk driving accident, the kids would still love him and lots of people remember the good times more than the bad times, when someone they love is gone. 

[pennben]

1 hour ago, buckboard said:

The point of driving by Friendly's was that Jack had told his wife he was going to pick up the ice cream, but driving by showed it was an excuse to get out of the apartment and he was actually going elsewhere (which turned out to be his father's).  (Maybe he picked up the ice cream later.)

I had a slightly different interpretation.  I do believe he was initially going to go get ice cream for her.  Then he came back and saw how depressed she was.  At some point on the way to get the ice cream, he changed his mind and decided to go get them money and a house rather than a sugar high.  Having him pass the Friendly's sign was the show cluing us into the fact that we were no longer on a trip to get ice cream.

[Randomosity]

23 minutes ago, pennben said:

I had a slightly different interpretation.  I do believe he was initially going to go get ice cream for her.  Then he came back and saw how depressed she was.  At some point on the way to get the ice cream, he changed his mind and decided to go get them money and a house rather than a sugar high.  Having him pass the Friendly's sign was the show cluing us into the fact that we were no longer on a trip to get ice cream.

Exactly this.

[lilmarysunshine]

On 1/11/2017 at 2:06 AM, chocolatine said:

It sounded like the security deposit on the ill-considered walkup wiped them out. They certainly needed to have much more than that saved up before they decided to get pregnant, whether they thought they were having one baby or three. Jack was 35 and Rebecca was 29, they weren't fresh out of high school/college. Even with Jack being the only one with a steady job, construction foremen make decent money, and Jack must have been in the workforce for over a decade (his boss said Jack was his highest-paid foreman).

Pittsburgh in the late 70s was a tough place to make a living. I live in the South and we had *MANY* people move here from the Pittsburgh area looking for work.

[talktoomuch]

Have we figured out why Rebecca didn't have a job? I mean I know she was singing some at that time, but not 40 hours a week. And if a $200/month apartment was going to be a stretch for them, why would Rebecca not be working? 

[Tiger]

On 1/12/2017 at 10:01 AM, Tikichick said:

This is a hideous, ugly thing to say, but by the time Kate was talking to Toby post surgery I was hoping she would smother him.  His "sense of humor" was making me stabby.  I realize much of it was likely brought on under extreme stress, but I could hardly tolerate it as a viewer.  When I think of the character as a person IRL and consider if I knew him I would be dealing with this "sense of humor" at times I was also stressed I realize I would absolutely snap. 

This perfectly sums up my feelings on Toby.  I wanted the nurse to literally rip out his catheter just to get him to shut the fuck up.  Sure he'd be screaming out in pain but at least he wouldn't be talking.

Between Toby and Olivia being alive, and Beth only having two lines, I really didnt like this episode.   

[breezy424]

What 'was' Rebecca doing during the time before she was pregnant?  Were there conversations about her being a singer in a band or pursuing a singing career full time?  I don't remember that being clearly indicated.  It also seemed that Rebecca came from a middle or upper middle class.  I can't back that up but it seemed that was the situation or maybe just my impression.  If so, did she go to college? 

On 1/14/2017 at 2:02 PM, mojito said:

His age makes no difference. He was in construction and that seems like a decent salary for a construction foreman. Electrical/mechanical engineers with master's degrees in the northeast were pulling around $19K right out of school a few years before. Don't know if Jack was degreed. $17K doesn't seem out of line.

Please don't take this the wrong way but how do you know this?  I don't mean to be accusatory.  I'm just wondering how you concluded this.  I don't get comparing salaries of someone degreed and just out of school with Jack who was 36.  That was kind of my point.  He's 36 and that's how far he's gotten.  It just seems low to me.  Again, I don't mean to insult anyone regarding the low salary.  I'm from the Northeast.  I worked in accounting in various businesses.  It just seemed low based on my experience during the time.  I'm not saying I right.  I'm just saying what it seemed to me based on my experience.

On another note, it seemed that Jack went to a different employer at some point given the scenes in the office.  It didn't seem that the company doing the house remodel (the one he bought) would be a project taken on by the office we see him in when he worked with Miquel. 

On 1/14/2017 at 0:21 AM, Winston9-DT3 said:

I think if you stopped at a boutique ice cream shop like Friendly's that would've been the biggest size sold.  I think it still is.  We don't have them here but I'm guessing it's like Culver's. 

Friendly's is not a boutique ice cream shop.  You can buy Friendly's half gallons at the restaurants or in the supermarket in many areas where their stores are for about the same price as Breyers or Turkey Hill.  It's pretty average ice cream. 

Oh wait, it may not be a half gallon anymore.  As with so many foods today, container sizes are shrinking.  Maybe it's a 1.75 quarts. :)

On 1/14/2017 at 8:02 AM, Randomosity said:

No one here has confirmed one way or another whether there was a Friendly's in the Pittsburgh area in 1979. Someone who lived there in the early 2000s said there wasn't one there then. But Friendly's was already on the decline by then, even in places close to their 'home base' in Massachusetts. I grew up in the 80's and 90's going to various Friendly's all the time in upstate NY; none of them have been open for years.

I did look into the fact that Friendly's opened a plant in Ohio in 1974. Do I know they had restaurants in the Pittsburgh area five years later? No, but I'd bet money that they did.

Friendly's is not boutique. It's not fancy, but it's a sit-down place, not fast-food like Culver's. You can buy pre-packed, commercial half-gallons (or the slightly under modern equivalent), individual sundae cups, or various permutations of ice cream cakes. No pre-packed pints. And you can get various sizes hand-packed. Probably including gallon tubs (and pints).

I thought there were two posters.  I could be wrong.  I don't think Friendly's started to decline until the late 1980's and then there was a huge closing of many of their stores in the early 2000's.  My impression of Friendly's was that they tended to open restaurants in more suburban rather than urban areas.  Notice I said tended.  No Friendly's in NYC that I know of when growing up but when we moved to suburban NJ, there were plenty of them.  My parents loved the place.  That's where we would stop on a day or road trip.  They used to take my kids to the local one when they were little.  My dad loved Butter Crunch.

[SlackerInc]

36 minutes ago, breezy424 said:

Please don't take this the wrong way but how do you know this?  I don't mean to be accusatory.  I'm just wondering how you concluded this.  I don't get comparing salaries of someone degreed and just out of school with Jack who was 36.  That was kind of my point.  He's 36 and that's how far he's gotten.  It just seems low to me.

I suspect it sounds low to you because you aren't accounting for the high inflation of that period (which included big jumps in pay to compensate: by the mid-'80s $17,000 would not have been nearly as good).  The U.S. government's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has an inflation calculator which says that $17,000 in 1979 works out to $56,515.17 in 2016 dollars.  That translates to right about $1100 a week.  Jack did not go to college as far as we have been shown (and a college graduate would be unlikely to work as a construction foreman).  Again using BLS figures, in 2016 the median weekly pay for someone with only a high school diploma was just $700 a week.  The 75th percentile is $998 a week, and the 90th percentile is $1440 a week.  So we can extrapolate that Jack's pay (after his raise) is equivalent to an amount that's better than roughly 80 percent of non-college workers.  Not bad at any age, IMO.  And it's roughly the same as the median income for workers with a bachelor's degree, as you can see from the chart at the same link.

Edited January 15, 2017 by SlackerInc

[possibilities]

I agree with the poster who suggested Olivia's hideous wig was to show she's delusional, but I think Miguel's wig is nearly as bad, so it's also in my head that the show is bound to a terrible wigmaker. It's glaring, when they ought to have a good budget, given the ratings.

I honestly thought the Olivia story was going to end with Kevin choosing her, and the second he did so Olivia would do a 180 and viciously mock him for being stupid and easily manipulated (i.e. she didn't really want him or the role back, she was just back to prove a point and humiliate him for calling HER inauthentic). I truly did not believe for one second that she took his criticism to heart and was back to show she'd changed. I believed even less that she would thin she could walk out on the play and get the job back. She was originally supposed to be savvy about the way things work, and supposedly was annoyed with Kevin's lack of professionalism at his audition.

[HeyThere83]

Don't like the writing when it comes to Olivia/Kevin. It seems a mess and all over the place like they're not sure what to do. At first it seemed like they were going for a hate turns to love story, and eventually showing different sides of the Olivia character. Now it seems like they want her to be an evil villain out to destroy the true love between Kevin and Sloane. Weird wig and everything. BASIC.

[OtterMommy]

16 hours ago, talktoomuch said:

Have we figured out why Rebecca didn't have a job? I mean I know she was singing some at that time, but not 40 hours a week. And if a $200/month apartment was going to be a stretch for them, why would Rebecca not be working? 

I don't know of we know whether or not she was working before the babies were born--what we've seen of that period of their lives neither confirms nor negates her employment.  I can see why she didn't work afterwards (if she didn't)--the cost of childcare for 3 babies could have been more than she would have been able to make.

[mojito]

Quote

Please don't take this the wrong way but how do you know this?  I don't mean to be accusatory.  I'm just wondering how you concluded this. 

Not offended at all. I'm an  RPI grad. I know about our offering salaries.

[movingtargetgal]

Friendly's Ice Cream was a big part of my childhood.  It started when my grandfather caught me playing hookie from religion class.  Did he punish me, give me a good talking to...no he brought me to Friendly's for ice cream.  After that, he would pick me up every Monday night and drive me to "class" and we would have an ice cream "date".  My mother did not find out until I told the story at my grandfather's memorial service.  As a family we went to Friendly's to celebrate special occasions.  You could buy a half gallon "gallon of ice cream" to take home. The grocery stores only had the usual chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.  Friendly's is where you could go to get a better variety of ice cream flavors.  

[ShadowFacts]

11 minutes ago, movingtargetgal said:

Friendly's Ice Cream was a big part of my childhood.  It started when my grandfather caught me playing hookie from religion class.  Did he punish me, give me a good talking to...no he brought me to Friendly's for ice cream.  After that, he would pick me up every Monday night and drive me to "class" and we would have an ice cream "date".  My mother did not find out until I told the story at my grandfather's memorial service.  As a family we went to Friendly's to celebrate special occasions.  You could buy a half gallon "gallon of ice cream" to take home. The grocery stores only had the usual chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.  Friendly's is where you could go to get a better variety of ice cream flavors.  

That's a great story.  It has some similarities to a bit in a recent revival series about two girls in a Connecticut hamlet.  Only yours is better. 

[Guest]

I assume Rebecca's only job even before the kids was lounge singer because that's pretty typical of tv shows to give family show moms a convenient non-job that is both a bit glamorous but also allows them to almost never be shown working.  Not that we'll probably ever see a whole lot of Rebecca's pre-mom days.  But this show also wanted to portray this couple as not having much money and making parenthood of three work by the skin of their teeth and hard work and resourcefulness.

Plus I assume there will be a theme of 'what all Rebecca sacrificed for her family'.  I think they'll imply she could've been a successful singer but chose her family instead.  Maybe even Miguel will turn out to have been just a safety net choice originally.  And I assume Jack will die as a martyr.  Which I'm all ok with.  I think that's how parenthood is.  You do put your own needs way down the list and then it can be a real struggle to deal with resentment if your kids rag you about your parenting decisions later, like Randall is, and like most of us at some point do with our own parents.  

[movingtargetgal]

11 minutes ago, ShadowFacts said:

24 minutes ago, movingtargetgal said:

Friendly's Ice Cream was a big part of my childhood.  It started when my grandfather caught me playing hookie from religion class.  Did he punish me, give me a good talking to...no he brought me to Friendly's for ice cream.  After that, he would pick me up every Monday night and drive me to "class" and we would have an ice cream "date".  My mother did not find out until I told the story at my grandfather's memorial service.  As a family we went to Friendly's to celebrate special occasions.  You could buy a half gallon "gallon of ice cream" to take home. The grocery stores only had the usual chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.  Friendly's is where you could go to get a better variety of ice cream flavors.  

That's a great story.  It has some similarities to a bit in a recent revival series about two girls in a Connecticut hamlet.  Only yours is better. 

That's just because my Grampie was THE BESTEST EVER!

[chocolatine]

15 hours ago, SlackerInc said:

I suspect it sounds low to you because you aren't accounting for the high inflation of that period (which included big jumps in pay to compensate: by the mid-'80s $17,000 would not have been nearly as good).  The U.S. government's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has an inflation calculator which says that $17,000 in 1979 works out to $56,515.17 in 2016 dollars.  That translates to right about $1100 a week.  Jack did not go to college as far as we have been shown (and a college graduate would be unlikely to work as a construction foreman).  Again using BLS figures, in 2016 the median weekly pay for someone with only a high school diploma was just $700 a week.  The 75th percentile is $998 a week, and the 90th percentile is $1440 a week.  So we can extrapolate that Jack's pay (after his raise) is equivalent to an amount that's better than roughly 80 percent of non-college workers.  Not bad at any age, IMO.  And it's roughly the same as the median income for workers with a bachelor's degree, as you can see from the chart at the same link.

That was exactly my point earlier in the thread: Jack was doing pretty well in terms of 1979 money, he seems to have been working as a foreman for a while, the cost of real estate in Pittsburgh is *below* the national average, so why were Jack and Rebecca struggling, had barely any savings, and $200/month rent (i.e. less than 20% of Jack's net monthly income) was all they could afford? It doesn't make sense given what we've been shown.

Edited January 15, 2017 by chocolatine

[Love2dance]

1 hour ago, movingtargetgal said:

Friendly's Ice Cream was a big part of my childhood.  It started when my grandfather caught me playing hookie from religion class.  Did he punish me, give me a good talking to...no he brought me to Friendly's for ice cream.  After that, he would pick me up every Monday night and drive me to "class" and we would have an ice cream "date".  My mother did not find out until I told the story at my grandfather's memorial service.  As a family we went to Friendly's to celebrate special occasions.  You could buy a half gallon "gallon of ice cream" to take home. The grocery stores only had the usual chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.  Friendly's is where you could go to get a better variety of ice cream flavors.  

P

 

58 minutes ago, movingtargetgal said:

That's just because my Grampie was THE BESTEST EVER!

I love your story too. What wonderful memories. Guess you were lucky your mom didn't ask questions about religion class! ?

Edited January 15, 2017 by Love2dance

[BoogieBurns]

Guys, I feel this is very important to discuss regarding this episode and our conversations following it. I have eaten ice cream 4 days in the last week because of you suckas!

[ClareWalks]

28 minutes ago, BoogieBurns said:

Guys, I feel this is very important to discuss regarding this episode and our conversations following it. I have eaten ice cream 4 days in the last week because of you suckas!

Tell me about it, I have eaten half a box of ice cream sandwiches since yesterday! All this talk about ice cream makes me snacky.

[Tiger]

40 minutes ago, BoogieBurns said:

Guys, I feel this is very important to discuss regarding this episode and our conversations following it. I have eaten ice cream 4 days in the last week because of you suckas!

Heh, I didnt watch the episode until yesterday but all the talk in this thread made me crave Friendly's.  Growing up there were three that I knew of in town, but they all closed years ago.  It looks like the nearest one is a little over 2 hours away from my house.  I may be taking a road trip tomorrow.

[Sake614]

49 minutes ago, Tiger said:

I may be taking a road trip tomorrow

Just go to your neighborhood supermarket. You can get friendlys ice cream there lol!

[Randomosity]

17 minutes ago, Sake614 said:

Just go to your neighborhood supermarket. You can get friendlys ice cream there lol!

I can't speak for the original poster, but in my book, it's not the same. You need the whole Friendly's experience :)

[theatremouse]

On 1/12/2017 at 10:20 AM, Driad said:

Jack and Rebecca would not have to finish the whole house before they moved in. Maybe just roof, exterior walls, one bathroom, and enough of the kitchen to make do. It would be months before the babies could crawl enough to get into things. My parents and first toddler moved into a house with an unfinished second floor. By the time we kids were big enough to need rooms, they could afford to finish the second floor.

But to adopt they would need it to be not under construction, and since we know they were able to adopt Randall shortly-ish after his birth, which was the same time their bio-kids were born. So even if they were planning on making do with a not-quite-done house, for the adoption to be logical, it needs to have been actually done, and from the scenes in the first episode the house didn't look under construction...not that we saw the whole house...

[Guest]

I had the impression this adoption was practically under the table, given Rebecca's fear of William changing his mind.  

[biakbiak]

5 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

I had the impression this adoption was practically under the table, given Rebecca's fear of William changing his mind.  

I thought her fear spoke more to she was worried how having him in their lives would screw with her family not legal issues. As people have noted the 80s weren't the dark ages and he was found out a fire house and delivered to a hospital with tons of people involved, so under the table doesn't work. But I imagine we will learn more about the adoption in future episodes.

[JudyObscure]

I watched it again the other day and the house was more finished than I first noticed.  All the dry wall was up and mudded (that was the white patches)meaning ready to be painted, and the enviable crisp white molding was done all around the house, the rooms just needed to be painted. Even if the kitchen and baths still needed fitted, it shouldn't have taken too long.

14 hours ago, chocolatine said:

That was exactly my point earlier in the thread: Jack was doing pretty well in terms of 1979 money, he seems to have been working as a foreman for a while, the cost of real estate in Pittsburgh is *below* the national average, so why were Jack and Rebecca struggling, had barely any savings, and $200/month rent (i.e. less than 20% of Jack's net monthly income) was all they could afford?

 Plus, if they had put some money in savings during the late seventies, some banks were paying an awesome 18% interest, which would have made it zoom. That's why my husband had $50,000 in the bank when I met him, in 1980,  even though he  was only earning $7700 a year as an enlisted  Air Force Sgt.

[SlackerInc]

5 minutes ago, JudyObscure said:

 Plus, if they had put some money in savings during the late seventies, some banks were paying an awesome 18% interest, which would have made it zoom. That's why my husband had $50,000 in the bank when I met him, in 1980,  even though he  was only earning $7700 a year as an enlisted  Air Force Sgt.

Wow, that really underlines the point about how decent $17K would have been then.  A sergeant is (not telling you anything you don't know, but for others who may not have had military personnel in their families) kind of the military equivalent of a foreman, in terms of being a "working class" position (no college degree required) but in the upper echelon of that class and in charge of others.  Yet a year later than 1979 (which, given the huge inflation then, actually matters) he was making half what Jack did before the latter's raise!  (I hope he had free housing on the base, at least?)

[JudyObscure]

Yes, that was basic pay, not including free housing on base, or a little bit for rent if they chose to live off base.  It was more than I was making as a bank teller at the time.

ETA:  Which reminds me, one of the women I worked with in 1981 got pregnant and got fired for it.  It was against the law at the time but our bank owner didn't care (He looked and acted like Mr. Burns.)  That's why I can't picture Rebecca working with a triplet tummy.

Edited January 16, 2017 by JudyObscure

[Guest]

5 hours ago, biakbiak said:

I thought her fear spoke more to she was worried how having him in their lives would screw with her family not legal issues. As people have noted the 80s weren't the dark ages and he was found out a fire house and delivered to a hospital with tons of people involved, so under the table doesn't work. But I imagine we will learn more about the adoption in future episodes.

I hope we do learn more because I would've thought an under-the-table adoption would be impossible in that decade but I think the show implied the Piersons had reason to fear losing Randall.  I don't want to go through the transcripts but in this article, Fogelman discusses Rebecca's fears and said it was a feasible possibility that William could take Randall away from them.

http://ew.com/article/2016/11/29/this-is-us-creator-randall-rebecca-the-trip/

[Clanstarling]

3 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

some banks were paying an awesome 18% interest,

One of my biggest regrets (financially) was not setting up a CD for as long as it was possible. It was at 16.5% at the time (this was 1983).

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 1/13/2017 at 11:56 PM, breezy424 said:

And he bought a house and rented an apartment without consulting his wife?  Nope, even back in the seemingly dark ages, that would not be common. 

After the news about the triplets, when Jack was at the table looking over their finances and Rebecca asked him what he was doing, he gave her a non-specific answer. Later, when showing her the house, he told her that they had had more money than he had thought, or words to that effect.  Clearly, Rebecca had no clue as to the specifics of their finances and left it all to Jack to handle, including apartment rental and house purchase.  That was probably how her parents did it, and since Jack was the one earning the bulk of the family income, that's how they did it, too.