1970s: Break-ups, New Homes and a Rekindled Flame
The day after the funeral, Ken and Beth are back at Foxbury, Ken to graduate and move out, and Beth to start her second term. For Ken it's a bit emotional to be packing up and moving out, and more than a bit scary. He has a few job offers, and knows where to go, but still... He'll be on his own. At least at first.
It was supposed to be him and Elisabeth, but after the last couple of days Ken has made a decision. He cannot live with, and make a life with, someone he despises. So before their graduation ceremony, Ken takes the opportunity to pull Elisabeth aside in the common room and breaks up with her.
"It's not me, it's you. Sorry. I don't want to hurt you or anything, but I just don't like you very much."
Could he have been nicer about it? Probably. But he doesn't much care.
Right then and there, Elisabeth doesn't like him very much either.
So Ken heads off to what it still his room. The tension out in the common room is just not his vibe right now. Soon Beth joins him. She comes to check on him, but also because she's nervous. Now she's going to be all alone at the dorm.
"Come on, you'll do fine!" Ken assures her. "You're the smartest one here, and cute, guys will be lining up to just be in the same room as you."
"You think I can handle it?"
"Of course you can!" he assures her.
A few hours later, he's off, driving up the coast to Evergreen Harbor. There is a small local newspaper up there that has offered him a job covering the climate, and environment, which is really what he wants. Of course it helps that he knows his cousin Susan is moving there too after the summer. So he heads off, and finds his new apartment building.
It's not the most inspiring environment. The building may be new, but could it be more boring?
And the trash on the street isn't really a comforting site. But then he did know that Evergreen Harbor has been hard hit with the environmental issues he's been hired to cover.
As he doesn't have that many furniture to start with, he heads off to a flee market to get some cheap pieces, and then uses the buildings generous garbage room to dumpster dive for the rest. He even finds an old TV that way! Go him.
The apartment is luckily less bleak than the house. There is even top modern wood panelling on the walls of the living room.
He's barely gotten his few things in order when one of his neighbors comes knocking on the door to greet him. She's rather cute, but older and married, so Ken sticks to being polite and neighborly.
After she's left, Ken gets a start on one of the articles he's been told to write. Then he cooks and eat in front of his "new" TV. He can sort of see why it was in the trash. It doesn't really work all that well, but it's what he can afford at the moment.
After dinner, Ken explores his new community. He has to admit that apart from the giant factory that is now a night club, there isn't much going on in his neighborhood.
So he decides to go to Port Promise and see what goes on there. More, it seems like, but things are also worse. There is more trash in the world, and the air quality is dreadful.
Ken goes to the new community center that they're building and interviews some locals for the article he's been told to prepare before he starts on Monday.
While he's there, he takes the opportunity to go dumpster diving again. After all this is a new neighborhood, who knows what he'll find.
Meanwhile, in Foxbury, Beth is trying to get ahead of her studies, while still getting to know her new roommates.
And in Britechester, Cathy is trying the same thing. Unlike her sister, however, Cathy has decide it's the social aspect that really mattered, and so she's joined not one, but two, university organisations. The art-society and the spirit corps. It does mean that she keeps busy:
The result of course being that she ends up sitting late into the night doing her schoolwork.
While Beth and Cathy are working their hardest to keep on top of their studies, the news that Elvis Presley is dead spreads throughout the nation. For Betty, the news of her teen idol's death is hard to swallow. Going through her old records she finds some of her favorites and plays them over and over again, to her children's annoyance.
As a response, Susan stays in her room, packing her things. It's only days before she starts her new job, and Ken has found her an apartment in Evergreen Harbor so she'll soon join him there. "It's in a different part of town, not the worst hit, because that was really bad, but in Conifer Station which is the place where they have most high rises buildings. Susan can live with that.
For Steven, mom's sudden love for oldies music is more than annoying. After having to wait for what feels like forever, he has finally been able to save up to buy an Altari video game! He's even been allowed to install it on the family TV, but who can focus with Elvis blaring out of the stereo. Still, it's Altari, and he's loving every minute of the game when he plays it.
In his room, things are changing. It's no longer the shared room of two young boys, but a teenagers' single room, with band posters on the wall and tech clutter all over. Unlike his sister, disco is not his thing, instead he likes the new rock music that is hitting the FM-radio, things like the ELO, Bowie and some German band called Kraftwork or something like it that the station had played a few nights ago. That had been awesome! Completely different from anything he'd ever heard. Now if mum would only turn off her old stuff so he could actually listen properly.
He's dead jealous of Cindy, who has a real computer in her house! Now she doesn't really see the greatness yet, but Steven definitely does. He begs his father to get one, but Thomas has no appreciation for them.
"You mean those bulky thing that you have to build together? I wouldn't know where to begin."
"I would!" Steven argues. "I've read all about it!"
"But what would I use it for? Our typewriter hasn’t failed me yet."
"But you could calculate things, learn program, play games..."
"I just allowed you that video game, you do not need another toy. You're going to be an adult soon!"
"But uncle Arthur-"
"Is an scientist, for NASA, of course he has other needs than we do. That's the end of it!"
As community awareness of pollution and energy grows, in part due to president Carter’s new Department of Energy, Susan is set to start her new job as a Civil Designer and move to Evergreen Harbor.
The pollution in this neighborhood might be better than in the one Ken lives, but the house is definitely not all that inspiring.
But she can see the harbor itself, and the sea behind it, from her balcony, so at least that is a plus.
Getting a couple of chairs for the balcony becomes her first priority. They are the cheapest kind, and not very pretty, but she can watch the ocean from here, so who cares?
After securing her view, she moves to the living room. She hates the pale wall papers, but she cannot afford to get new one. In fact she's not even sure she's allowed to change the wall papers, so instead she tries to bring in colors in the furniture. She has her chair from her old room, and find a cheap sofa to match the color. Some plants, a few rugs, and a large bookcase and she's more or less set.
Barbara is her first visitor, and comes just as she finishes unpacking.
And soon after, Ken stops by after working all day. It's nice to see him again.
The three spend several hours just talking, but then Barbara has to return home to Abbie who is spending the day with her friends. "We'll see each other more now that you live closer," she promises.
For Susan, having visitors is nice, but she wants to explore the community. Throwing together a simple lunch for her and Ken, she asks him to show her around town after. Besides, getting out of her dreary apartment will do her good.
They start by heading out to the area, where some people have started cleaning up what could be a nice park with some work. Susan might not be overly fond of her new area, but she has to approve of the community spirit.
Ken starts interviewing the people that is working for his article.
And Susan tries her hand at a new machine that seems to be able to do something with trash. She's not sure what it does yet, though.
Taking a walk they find some abandoned railway tracks, high above the city.
"Wouldn't this be a fantastic park?" Susan asks Ken.
As for the community as a whole, Susan is not entirely comfortable with so many high rises.
Her own building looks positively small in comparison. But she figures she can make this work anyway. Transforming the neighborhood to something nicer will be a job worth doing.
Later that night, Ken takes her to the old factory nightclub.
The place is huge! But that also means plenty of space to show off some moves.
And when her feet can't take it anymore, Susan sits down in a chair and tries some bubbles for the first time. At first she doesn't notice the guy sliding up to her on the dance floor.
But when she looks she recognises Tony instantly. In spite of herself, her heart make a leap in her chest.
"What are you doing here?" she asks, not that he can really hear her over the music.
Susan is steadying herself, attempting to be cold and let him know just how evil he is, but Tony is faster, telling her how sorry he is for his actions, asking to just speak to her. She might not be able to hear the words, but she sees what he means, and grudgingly (willingly) allows him to join her, to explain himself.
Once they sit down, Tony showers her with compliments and attention. He never wanted to break up with her, the marriage was a mistake, she was so young, he wanted her to have a life - not settle in a marriage right away, then there was the pregnancy...
"You made her pregnant!"
Tony admits that he did, but swears it was a mistake, and weakness because he was longing for her so much and could not have her because of how young she was. Doesn't she remember how good they were...
And she does. That's the worst of it. She misses him, still, years later, she misses him. But that doesn't change that he's married, a father... and yet.
"I can't be condemned by one mistake..."
"One?!?"
"Stupid mistakes, well the girls are wonderful, but they should have been ours, not hers."
How can she resist that? She can't, is the answer, and as Tony kisses her she feel as if she's come home again.
"I won't be the other woman," she says as he finally lets her go.
"You won't be. I promise."
Susan doesn't know if she wishes she entirely believe him, or if she wishes she was convinced he's lying. She does know there is this part of her that wishes that she could just tell him to go away, but Tony has been her weakness since she was 15 and she doesn't know how to tell him no. All she can hope as she climb into bed that night is that he keeps his promise or just leave her alone.
The next day is Carl's birthday, and so the entire family is getting in their cars and going down to his new home in LA. Michael, Robin and Barbara are in a particularly good mood. In San Seqouia, a man named Harvey Milk has just been elected to the San Sequoia Bord of Supervisors, after a campaign that Robin in particular has been involved in. The news that a man who is openly homosexual has been elected is big news, not only in San Sequoia but in all of California. For Barbara it's especially fun as he's elected from her old hood around Celebration Square.
Carl really couldn't care less about some guy in San Sequoia, but he's happy his family is here with him to celebrate his birthday. He doesn't have much in the terms of decor in his apartment yet, but it's summer, and so he borrows the building's grill and throws a poolparty.
Unlike many of his family members, Carl still invites Cora. She helped him get his job, and the two have gotten quite close in spite of their age difference. They have similar personalities, and have found that with each other, they can be open. Cora can openly share her grief of Josephine, and Carl get help with his anxieties and fears.
The pool party goes well, and as people go home, Carl concludes he had a good birthday.
The morning after, as Susan is learning how to deal with the washing machine in her building, she gets a visit.
Storming into her life, as suddenly as he stormed out, he literary sweeps her off her feet.
"But you're wife!" Susan feebly protests.
"She knows I don't love her," Tony says, "You're the one I want," he adds, asking her to be his girlfriend.
"For real?"
"Of course."
"So you're getting a div..." But Tony doesn't let her finish. Instead he covers her in kissed.
"I'm here, aren't I? Aren't you happy about that?"
And Susan is. She's so happy she can hear her heart hammering in her chest as he kisses her, as he tells her he wants her, as he leads her into her bedroom and takes her to bed.
It's after, when Tony gets dressed to leave that things get weird. "Why don't you stay?"
"I need to be there for the girls when they go to bed," he says.
"Of course. How will you prepare them-"
"Don't worry about it. I'll deal with things in my way!"
"But when can we-"
"Don't be such a nag! I said I'll deal with it."
Susan is left feeling confused, and as if she did something to insult him.
It was supposed to be him and Elisabeth, but after the last couple of days Ken has made a decision. He cannot live with, and make a life with, someone he despises. So before their graduation ceremony, Ken takes the opportunity to pull Elisabeth aside in the common room and breaks up with her.
"It's not me, it's you. Sorry. I don't want to hurt you or anything, but I just don't like you very much."
Could he have been nicer about it? Probably. But he doesn't much care.
Right then and there, Elisabeth doesn't like him very much either.
So Ken heads off to what it still his room. The tension out in the common room is just not his vibe right now. Soon Beth joins him. She comes to check on him, but also because she's nervous. Now she's going to be all alone at the dorm.
"Come on, you'll do fine!" Ken assures her. "You're the smartest one here, and cute, guys will be lining up to just be in the same room as you."
"You think I can handle it?"
"Of course you can!" he assures her.
A few hours later, he's off, driving up the coast to Evergreen Harbor. There is a small local newspaper up there that has offered him a job covering the climate, and environment, which is really what he wants. Of course it helps that he knows his cousin Susan is moving there too after the summer. So he heads off, and finds his new apartment building.
It's not the most inspiring environment. The building may be new, but could it be more boring?
And the trash on the street isn't really a comforting site. But then he did know that Evergreen Harbor has been hard hit with the environmental issues he's been hired to cover.
As he doesn't have that many furniture to start with, he heads off to a flee market to get some cheap pieces, and then uses the buildings generous garbage room to dumpster dive for the rest. He even finds an old TV that way! Go him.
The apartment is luckily less bleak than the house. There is even top modern wood panelling on the walls of the living room.
He's barely gotten his few things in order when one of his neighbors comes knocking on the door to greet him. She's rather cute, but older and married, so Ken sticks to being polite and neighborly.
After she's left, Ken gets a start on one of the articles he's been told to write. Then he cooks and eat in front of his "new" TV. He can sort of see why it was in the trash. It doesn't really work all that well, but it's what he can afford at the moment.
After dinner, Ken explores his new community. He has to admit that apart from the giant factory that is now a night club, there isn't much going on in his neighborhood.
So he decides to go to Port Promise and see what goes on there. More, it seems like, but things are also worse. There is more trash in the world, and the air quality is dreadful.
Ken goes to the new community center that they're building and interviews some locals for the article he's been told to prepare before he starts on Monday.
While he's there, he takes the opportunity to go dumpster diving again. After all this is a new neighborhood, who knows what he'll find.
Meanwhile, in Foxbury, Beth is trying to get ahead of her studies, while still getting to know her new roommates.
And in Britechester, Cathy is trying the same thing. Unlike her sister, however, Cathy has decide it's the social aspect that really mattered, and so she's joined not one, but two, university organisations. The art-society and the spirit corps. It does mean that she keeps busy:
The result of course being that she ends up sitting late into the night doing her schoolwork.
While Beth and Cathy are working their hardest to keep on top of their studies, the news that Elvis Presley is dead spreads throughout the nation. For Betty, the news of her teen idol's death is hard to swallow. Going through her old records she finds some of her favorites and plays them over and over again, to her children's annoyance.
As a response, Susan stays in her room, packing her things. It's only days before she starts her new job, and Ken has found her an apartment in Evergreen Harbor so she'll soon join him there. "It's in a different part of town, not the worst hit, because that was really bad, but in Conifer Station which is the place where they have most high rises buildings. Susan can live with that.
For Steven, mom's sudden love for oldies music is more than annoying. After having to wait for what feels like forever, he has finally been able to save up to buy an Altari video game! He's even been allowed to install it on the family TV, but who can focus with Elvis blaring out of the stereo. Still, it's Altari, and he's loving every minute of the game when he plays it.
In his room, things are changing. It's no longer the shared room of two young boys, but a teenagers' single room, with band posters on the wall and tech clutter all over. Unlike his sister, disco is not his thing, instead he likes the new rock music that is hitting the FM-radio, things like the ELO, Bowie and some German band called Kraftwork or something like it that the station had played a few nights ago. That had been awesome! Completely different from anything he'd ever heard. Now if mum would only turn off her old stuff so he could actually listen properly.
He's dead jealous of Cindy, who has a real computer in her house! Now she doesn't really see the greatness yet, but Steven definitely does. He begs his father to get one, but Thomas has no appreciation for them.
"You mean those bulky thing that you have to build together? I wouldn't know where to begin."
"I would!" Steven argues. "I've read all about it!"
"But what would I use it for? Our typewriter hasn’t failed me yet."
"But you could calculate things, learn program, play games..."
"I just allowed you that video game, you do not need another toy. You're going to be an adult soon!"
"But uncle Arthur-"
"Is an scientist, for NASA, of course he has other needs than we do. That's the end of it!"
As community awareness of pollution and energy grows, in part due to president Carter’s new Department of Energy, Susan is set to start her new job as a Civil Designer and move to Evergreen Harbor.
The pollution in this neighborhood might be better than in the one Ken lives, but the house is definitely not all that inspiring.
But she can see the harbor itself, and the sea behind it, from her balcony, so at least that is a plus.
Getting a couple of chairs for the balcony becomes her first priority. They are the cheapest kind, and not very pretty, but she can watch the ocean from here, so who cares?
After securing her view, she moves to the living room. She hates the pale wall papers, but she cannot afford to get new one. In fact she's not even sure she's allowed to change the wall papers, so instead she tries to bring in colors in the furniture. She has her chair from her old room, and find a cheap sofa to match the color. Some plants, a few rugs, and a large bookcase and she's more or less set.
Barbara is her first visitor, and comes just as she finishes unpacking.
And soon after, Ken stops by after working all day. It's nice to see him again.
The three spend several hours just talking, but then Barbara has to return home to Abbie who is spending the day with her friends. "We'll see each other more now that you live closer," she promises.
For Susan, having visitors is nice, but she wants to explore the community. Throwing together a simple lunch for her and Ken, she asks him to show her around town after. Besides, getting out of her dreary apartment will do her good.
They start by heading out to the area, where some people have started cleaning up what could be a nice park with some work. Susan might not be overly fond of her new area, but she has to approve of the community spirit.
Ken starts interviewing the people that is working for his article.
And Susan tries her hand at a new machine that seems to be able to do something with trash. She's not sure what it does yet, though.
Taking a walk they find some abandoned railway tracks, high above the city.
"Wouldn't this be a fantastic park?" Susan asks Ken.
As for the community as a whole, Susan is not entirely comfortable with so many high rises.
Her own building looks positively small in comparison. But she figures she can make this work anyway. Transforming the neighborhood to something nicer will be a job worth doing.
Later that night, Ken takes her to the old factory nightclub.
The place is huge! But that also means plenty of space to show off some moves.
And when her feet can't take it anymore, Susan sits down in a chair and tries some bubbles for the first time. At first she doesn't notice the guy sliding up to her on the dance floor.
But when she looks she recognises Tony instantly. In spite of herself, her heart make a leap in her chest.
"What are you doing here?" she asks, not that he can really hear her over the music.
Susan is steadying herself, attempting to be cold and let him know just how evil he is, but Tony is faster, telling her how sorry he is for his actions, asking to just speak to her. She might not be able to hear the words, but she sees what he means, and grudgingly (willingly) allows him to join her, to explain himself.
Once they sit down, Tony showers her with compliments and attention. He never wanted to break up with her, the marriage was a mistake, she was so young, he wanted her to have a life - not settle in a marriage right away, then there was the pregnancy...
"You made her pregnant!"
Tony admits that he did, but swears it was a mistake, and weakness because he was longing for her so much and could not have her because of how young she was. Doesn't she remember how good they were...
And she does. That's the worst of it. She misses him, still, years later, she misses him. But that doesn't change that he's married, a father... and yet.
"I can't be condemned by one mistake..."
"One?!?"
"Stupid mistakes, well the girls are wonderful, but they should have been ours, not hers."
How can she resist that? She can't, is the answer, and as Tony kisses her she feel as if she's come home again.
"I won't be the other woman," she says as he finally lets her go.
"You won't be. I promise."
Susan doesn't know if she wishes she entirely believe him, or if she wishes she was convinced he's lying. She does know there is this part of her that wishes that she could just tell him to go away, but Tony has been her weakness since she was 15 and she doesn't know how to tell him no. All she can hope as she climb into bed that night is that he keeps his promise or just leave her alone.
The next day is Carl's birthday, and so the entire family is getting in their cars and going down to his new home in LA. Michael, Robin and Barbara are in a particularly good mood. In San Seqouia, a man named Harvey Milk has just been elected to the San Sequoia Bord of Supervisors, after a campaign that Robin in particular has been involved in. The news that a man who is openly homosexual has been elected is big news, not only in San Sequoia but in all of California. For Barbara it's especially fun as he's elected from her old hood around Celebration Square.
Carl really couldn't care less about some guy in San Sequoia, but he's happy his family is here with him to celebrate his birthday. He doesn't have much in the terms of decor in his apartment yet, but it's summer, and so he borrows the building's grill and throws a poolparty.
Unlike many of his family members, Carl still invites Cora. She helped him get his job, and the two have gotten quite close in spite of their age difference. They have similar personalities, and have found that with each other, they can be open. Cora can openly share her grief of Josephine, and Carl get help with his anxieties and fears.
The pool party goes well, and as people go home, Carl concludes he had a good birthday.
The morning after, as Susan is learning how to deal with the washing machine in her building, she gets a visit.
Storming into her life, as suddenly as he stormed out, he literary sweeps her off her feet.
"But you're wife!" Susan feebly protests.
"She knows I don't love her," Tony says, "You're the one I want," he adds, asking her to be his girlfriend.
"For real?"
"Of course."
"So you're getting a div..." But Tony doesn't let her finish. Instead he covers her in kissed.
"I'm here, aren't I? Aren't you happy about that?"
And Susan is. She's so happy she can hear her heart hammering in her chest as he kisses her, as he tells her he wants her, as he leads her into her bedroom and takes her to bed.
It's after, when Tony gets dressed to leave that things get weird. "Why don't you stay?"
"I need to be there for the girls when they go to bed," he says.
"Of course. How will you prepare them-"
"Don't worry about it. I'll deal with things in my way!"
"But when can we-"
"Don't be such a nag! I said I'll deal with it."
Susan is left feeling confused, and as if she did something to insult him.
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