The Tender Bar

Despite his mother’s wishes, Moehringer frequently searched the radio for his dad’s show to pretend he was having conversations with his father. His mother was deeply hurt and resentful about his father’s lack of financial and emotional support, and she discouraged Moehringer from listening to his dad’s shows. Moehringer explains that everyone in the household had a vice, and his vice was listening to The Voice. Because of his abiding interest in his father, Moehringer’s mother arranged a phone call between him and his father. Moehringer eagerly accepted his father’s invitation to a baseball game the next day, however, after waiting for hours in the front yard, his father never appeared. When his mother came home, he cried in her arms and realized that she was the only person he could depend on.

To escape the conflict and chaos of their household, Moehringer’s mother would take him on long drives around the wealthier neighborhoods of Manhasset in their beloved 1963 T-Bird. Moehringer was frustrated that his mother lived in poverty and that he could not provide her with the life and home he felt she deserved. Moehringer explains how the chaotic nature of everyday life led him to develop phobias, superstitions, and “neurotic” tendencies such as compulsively tidying the household (27).