Bowen

1950's connubial bliss... sort of.

- Content warning: Pregnancy mention

Brick Blockhouse
If you could buy houses from a big-box store, this would be the cheapest available model.

Bedrooms: 1
Bathrooms: 1
House type: Ranch (midwest variant)
Max. occupancy: 2
Based on a house I used to drive by everyday when I worked for the engraving shop, the dead lawn is the result of my having levelled the lot where the Goth House usually goes and being too lazy to regrow the grass.

Archie
Archie is your classic slobbish husband. When he comes home from work, he deserves his cold one and bag of chips. He also deserves to be served a delicious supper by a loyal wife. Perhaps he "deserves" too much.

Astrological sign: Libra
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Viola
After 15 years with Archie and over 1,000 meals served promptly at 7 pm every night, Viola is getting tired of playing second-fiddle to that slob, even in her own biography! What keeps her with him is the thought that he won't be able to get along without her, which is reassuring in its own twisted way.

Astrological sign: Capricorn
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The Bowen family story begins at work. Archie Bowen was a filing clerk at Bigmark Insurance Company's Sunshine Acres branch office and Viola Casey was a mailroom temp. Archie would always try to make her laugh whenever she delivered his mail and they got along splendidly. In the carpark one day, Viola's car wouldn't start and Archie offered to drive her home; en route, Viola made some offhand comment about how she hadn't been able to eat lunch because she had accidentally dropped her sandwich while she was making it that morning and hadn't had the time to make another one before having to leave. Archie had been planning to go to Papa Pete's Pizza that night anyway and offered to take her there. This served as their first date, but since wine was not served, Viola didn't consider it official. This was remedied 2 days later when they went to Chateau au Verre for dinner and had so much wine they sort of ended up in bed together. They don't really remember much after Archie disputed the §475 bill, but they do remember getting out of the cab in front of Archie's place. They carried on dating for another several months (Archie says 6, Viola says 4) before getting married in the spring.

That was 15 years ago. Where Viola used to be a 30-year-old freespirit and doting auntie to her nieces and nephew, she is now a 45-year-old housewife and foil to the now-51-year-old Archie, who has become jaded and bitter about being passed over for promotion after promotion at Bigmark. What Viola doesn't realise, however, is that Archie is exactly where he always wanted to be. From a very young age, Archie knew that he wanted to be able to come home after a day at the office to a loyal wife who cooks him dinner while he lazes on the couch and watches mindless TV with a cold drink in one hand and a bag of salty snacks in the other. He wanted to be able to complain about a dead-end job. He wanted to amount to nothing. It was all part of his personal philosophy of "donothingism". Naturally, he never told Viola about it, but he feels that he has accomplished his life's aspiration and he intends to see it through to the end of his life.

From Viola's perspective, however, she somehow got stuck with a lazy lout whose entire personality changed when they got home from their honeymoon. However much she may feel taken advantage of, she also feels as though Archie depends on her; both her brother and sister have encouraged her to dump him before she gets too old to start again, but based on her experience, Archie would most likely die if she left. While her brother insists that this is a manipulation tactic that Archie is using to keep her as a servant, she loves him enough to worry about his health. She also likes to feel needed, and as mentioned, she feels that Archie needs her—not in a "mutual respect and admiration" kind of way, but more in the way that one's Tamagotchi will die if neglected. While Viola doesn't see Archie as her "pet", per se; there really isn't a more appropriate parallel to draw.

It's getting harder for them to ignore the passage of time, however. Archie has been diagnosed with pre-diabetes and must change his ways if he wishes to reach his 70th birthday. Viola has begun to see the signs of menopause and, even though both her siblings have children, her latent hopes of having any of her own are diminishing. This is leading them both to rethink their current situations. Archie feels like he may have to think of something to do with his life while Viola is finding it harder to ignore her siblings' calls to divorce Archie. Something needs to happen and it needs to happen soon.

Another household inspired by the Steering Committee Prototype. Well, more accurately, the house is inspired by the prototype; the sims are more or less my analogue to Bob and Betty Newbie. I always felt like Bob and Betty loved each other openly and without question, and porting this relationship to Sunshine Acres wouldn't provide any kind of jeopardy. Their relationship is based on... well, if I'm being honest about it; it's essentially a working model of the feminist radical's idea of cishet marriage—a one-way relationship where the man is so incompetent, needs the woman to be his servant. I'll admit, I used to think of cishet marriage this way as well. I'm still trying to get over it, which is where the Meecha and Fairisle families came from. The Fairisle's are happily married, they love each other very much, and they love their kids. The Meecha's still love each other and their daughter, too; but Tammy felt trapped and had to get away. It partially advances the conservative marriage agenda as well, insofar as Viola seems to think that her purpose in life is to submit to her husband. I decided that, for the purposes of the neighbourhood storyline, I needed these radicalist archetypes to exist, but I didn't want to split it up because I don't want to deal with it again. So I combined them into a single household, and we ended up with the Bowen family.

On a lighter note, their names are something of a play on "archer's bow" and "viola bow" (of course, in the latter case, you have to pronounce "viola" differently; vee-oh-la versus VY-oh-la). In fact, Viola's maiden name, Casey, is a play on "viola case". I sort of allude to this in Viola's biography: she's tired of "playing second fiddle". Despite an almost astronomical co-incidence, Archie is not actually named after the main character in The Sims' 1997 prototype.