Dallas, Texas

"…don't be ridiculous, I love all of our sons and both of our grandchildren equally. I might have different opinions on them sometimes, but my love doesn't change; family is family. I can't be held accountable for their actions that are a disappointment to this family though; as much as I might try to guide them, I'm not them and I don't make their decisions for them, they are autonomous, I'm not a puppet master". Shaking his head and raising his voice, Jock Ewing felt his anger rising. What was wrong with his wife? Why was she always so emotional about everything, and why did she always feel the need to blame him or personally try to take responsibility for things that went wrong? On top of that, why was she even concerning herself with ancient history? Or more importantly, why was Sue Ellen? What did JR's wife have to do with anything? He hadn't been expecting any of this and quite frankly, he wasn't in the mood to deal with it either, but he had to, no way in hell was he just going to walk away from the discussion when there were questions about his decisions and accusations about his 'unequal' parenting being thrown at him.

"I tried with Gary, you know I did; when he and JR were young we were out camping and hunting all the time, and he was good at it too. Don't you go blaming me for that boy's unrealistic expectations, bad decisions and weak manner though; I can only do so much. If he had wanted to, he could have followed JR or Bobby's paths; college was right there and waiting for him when he graduated were two family businesses to choose to use his education to grow, he knew that and he did nothing with it. I knew he wasn't interested in oil, no matter how much I wanted him to be, but he squandered an interest in ranch life and an opportunity to participate and the consequences of that are all on him. He was a Ewing, he could've had any girl in the state, but he chose that girl and then deserted her when it came time to man up to his responsibilities. As far as I'm concerned, Lucy is the only good thing that came from that whole situation, and the situation itself had nothing to do with either you or I. We did what we could, heaven knows you coddled him within an inch of his life and I offered him the world; it's not like he didn't have opportunities, he just didn't want them; that's not our fault and I will not accept responsibility for that".

"Then there's JR; I don't know what or why you and Sue Ellen were discussing his childhood, but whatever the reason, my response is the same; I don't appreciate being cast as the villain. JR is our eldest son, he's the Ewing heir, he always was and he always will be; with that title and role comes a certain set of expectations and responsibilities though and naturally there is disappointment and anger when those things aren't met to the expected level. Don't pretend you weren't disgusted by his actions toward his wife last year, because you were; we dealt with 'our role' in the making of that situation though and I thought we had moved on. I never taught him boundaries with women, I understand that, but I thought it was common sense to act like a proper husband and not a bachelor anymore after marriage. We've dealt with that situation though and things are good for JR and Sue Ellen now, too good sometimes in fact if I'm quite honest; all of that vacation time must be wonderful for his family, it's not so great for Ewing Oil though. I know what you're thinking now, 'why is Ewing Oil so important'? Do you want to know why? Because it's our livelihood and our key to holding the position we do in this town. Like I said before, JR is the Ewing heir, he was always destined for the life he lived, the life we provided him. Running a business is hard work, it takes mental strength and smarts and requires long hours, and to be quite honest, out of all of our sons, JR is the one best suited for that kind of work; he's quick and he's sharp, and as the eldest son, he is in the perfect position to use those traits. I don't believe for one second that we did him some great disservice by fostering his talents, especially since in all the years I was training him to come and work at Ewing Oil I never had complaints from him about how hard we worked together or how much we focused on oil rather than other things. I never expected to hear those complaints either, he knew what was what and so did I. As for having a well-rounded childhood, like I said with Gary, we did things together all the time; you were there, we used to spend weekends out camping and hunting and the boys loved it. He has always known his place, but he's never seemed unhappy to be in that place, at least not to me, and he's a straight talker so I think I'd know if he was dissatisfied with something. Plain and simple, he's an adult, he can make his own decisions about his life and he has done; he made his own choices and mistakes, he managed to claw his way back into Sue Ellen's life, he has asserted himself in business and in his personal life and despite his supposedly unfair childhood, and he's still here with us. JR is different to Gary and both JR and Gary are different to Bobby; JR has guts, he makes things happen, Gary doesn't, conflict was never really his thing, but instead of using that to his advantage like Bobby, he ran and I don't think he's ever looked back".

"Speaking of Bobby too, if you want to discuss our involvement in our son's lives, he's the one to focus on; he received everything JR and Gary did, but unlike his brothers, he's managed to stay away from making too many mistakes, personal and in business. He's young and single and he's allowed to do everything JR was and did when he was a bachelor, and when he was married; and he's quite capable of working at Ewing Oil, but his heart lies in ranching and he's not been afraid of making that known. Like JR, he's assertive in business, and like Gary, he had his pick of careers; unlike them though, he's managed to stay away from personal drama, aside from almost getting married of course, but even then he didn't allow that to ruin his life; he didn't run away from Dallas and he didn't lash out at those closest to him. I suppose if you really want to discuss our parenting 'mistakes' we can start with why it took us three tries to finally get a son with a balanced outlook? What the hell happened to JR and Gary that made them such extremes? It's not like they didn't all have the best opportunities available to them. To be completely honest though, I find this entire conversation to be ridiculous and pointless; like I said before, we're not puppet masters, we didn't force any of our sons into anything. They're adults, they make their own decisions and mistakes and those things are on them, not us; we're not responsible for those mistakes and it's best for everyone if you stop acting like we are. We didn't force Gary to leave, or JR to cheat, or Bobby to choose to leave Ewing Oil and pursue ranching; they made their own decisions and they have to live with the consequences, it's not our fault or responsibility".

Using a hostile tone and loud voice to answer the questions he thought his wife had been asking him, Jock rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in the air as Ellie silently glared at him before stepping toward him and meeting his eye, "that's not what I meant and you know it". Hearing her tone, he knew she was angry, the problem was, despite her claiming he understood her, he really didn't have a clue why she was so angry. She had opened their conversation with some babble about a conversation with Sue Ellen regarding JR and John Ross, and then she had asked him about whether he ever thought they could have done things differently to prevent some of the mistakes their sons had made and some of the personality traits they had developed. He had thought he had answered her questions, but clearly he hadn't and clearly she was not happy with how he had responded. He wasn't a weak man though and he was not interested in walking away and taking the blame for whatever it was she was so angry about, so staring right back at her, intensifying his own glare, he spoke again, "no, I don't know it. I answered your questions and I've told you my opinion, if you want more, you're going to have to ask for it, and be more specific this time, none of this ambiguous women's talk, ask me a straight question and I'll give you a straight answer, within reason". Maintaining eye contact for a few seconds, he then turned and walked over to the drinks cart; after the conversation they had just had and the response that it wasn't good enough, he needed a strong drink, and he had a feeling he might need more than one to get him through the rest of the evening.

To be continued…