The Diner of Love
3503 Angel Square Court
Llanview, PA  

"Nothin' Could Be Finer Than Some Lovin' In the Diner"
"There ain't no lovin' like some diner lovin', hey ho"

What can I get you?

Coffee's a dollar

I hope you like whip cream.

I just love the Voice of the Night. We have this special connection.

PSYCHOLOGY 101

Sigmund's Room 3

Family Ties: Dysfunction Junction?

Marcie and Al both seem to have had difficult experiences during childhood that significantly affected them psychologically.  What are these experiences and how are they reflected in their current behavior?

I've been noticing how polite Marcie is to adults and wondering if that's going to end up being part of her story. Except for Nigel and Roxy, I'm not sure I've ever heard her call an elder anything but Ms, Mrs. or Mr. even while talking about them. While most of the young people are respectful toward some adults (Dr. Reynold, Dr. McIver, Mrs. Davidson), it is rare to find one call Asa "Mr. Buchanan," or Renee "Ms. Devine," or Carlotta "Mrs. Vega" (Al also refers to her as Mrs. Vega though) or Nora "Mrs. Buchanan."

I think part of this politeness may be a result of growing up working in a diner where as a waitress you always treated customers with respect but wonder if also might be part of being the youngest in the family and seeing herself as a child in relation to most everyone else. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Also, with Marcie's brother coming to town, I'm wondering about family dynamics. I see Marcie as more emotionally neglected than outright mistreated. She was in a very male household without a mother's counter-balance, and I kind of see her somewhat taken advantage of-she had to probably do all the housework and work in the diner so her brother's could pursue sports and other things (kind of like a gender-twist Cinderella). I also pictured her as a doting aunt thinking her non-gay brothers were both married but that is apparently not the case.

Finally, I have been focusing on how good she has been for Al but Friday's episode made me realize how good he's been for her too. At the beginning of the show when she was talking to Jen and Rex, she reminded me of the old Marcie when she thinks she's responsible for fixing all of Jen's problems. Then when she met up with Al and started telling him about Rex and Jen, and he told her he didn't want to ruin his good mood by talking about Jen, she dropped it. Being Marcie, she couldn't completely quit worrying about Jen, but she did hand the problem over to Joey and ended her involvement. –-Nancy Ge

That's how I see her too, Nancy, getting that from the dorm room "tell me a story" scenes. I never got that her family were mean to her or mistreated her in any way. I got (like you've said) that she was emotionally neglected; her father didn't know how to relate to her since she a) reminded him of her mother (which caused him sadness) and b) was a girl child and he probably had no idea how to "raise" a girl child. And her brother's (minus military bro) just didn't know how to relate to her. She liked books, they related better to girls who probably spent a lot of time on "girl things" like hair, make-up and clothes.

As for the gender-twist Cinderella, I'm wondering if instead of a Cinderella thing (where "Cindy" was forced to do stuff because she wasn't good enough, in her Steps eyes, to do anything else), I was thinking maybe she was doing all the housework and working in the diner because she was the female and it's 'woman's work'--not *my* sentiment (so don't throw stones LOL) but maybe her brother & father's sentiment. The two eldest brothers (not the one she was close to) seemed to have that sexist mentality; they "thought girls should look pretty for boys and not read books.”

Now Marcie spoke of an aunt (in the diner scenes), I wonder what type of relationship she had with her/them (if there were more than one). She had to learn about being a woman *somewhere*. --Whlwtcher

I also agree about Marcie’s politeness. Marcie's politeness. What always strikes me about Marcie is her loyalty and compassion for others. I think when you grow up with a "less than perfect" image, you know what it is like to be judged and to have others be cruel to you. Marcie knows what that is like, so she goes out of her way to be caring to others. --Kammgirl

SIGMUND
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MARCAL
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