The Tender Bar

J.R. MoehringerNonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 2005

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Chapters 2-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 2-3 Summary

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). His concerned mother took him to see a child psychiatrist, but when his mother introduced Moehringer as “JR,” the doctor asked her what his “real name” was. Learning that this was indeed the author’s real name, the doctor simply said that this name was inadequate and the obvious cause of the author’s symptoms by way of an “identity crisis” (29). Further detailing his childhood psychological maladaptation, Moehringer describes how he grew to have a polarized view of Manhasset and the world at large, stubbornly viewing everything the opposite of something else: Irish or Italian, rich or poor, a terrible disaster or an epic triumph.

Chapters 2-3 Analysis

In his second and third chapters, Moehringer raises the issue of identity. When his mother took him to a psychiatrist, the doctor suggested that J. R.’s lack of a full, conventional first name was the cause of his symptoms. Though his mother doubted this assertion, she questioned the author about it. He could not reply. Moehringer later builds on this theme, and specifically the matter of his name, in later chapters, when he shares that he was named after his father, John Joseph Moehringer. “J. R.” is for “Junior.”

The author also explains that at seven years old he began to long for a more stable and comfortable life and, more specifically, to be able to play the role of provider for his mother. He remembers, “It made me mad that my mother didn’t have nice things, madder still that I couldn’t provide them for her” (27). In his father’s absence, Moehringer felt he had to become the man of the house, and his inability to fill that role as a seven-year-old marked the beginning of years of inner frustration.

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The author also uses descriptive language to invite readers into the scenes of his childhood. He colorfully illustrates the various quirks of his grandfather’s house, which he calls the “Shit House,” remembering “the sagging roof, the duct-taped furniture, the exploding cesspool and the bicentennial sofa” (24). He is equally skilled at describing people and does so with frequent metaphors and similes. For example, when he discusses his mother’s stoic nature, he writes that she “would slip behind her mask of feigned calm for the sake of discretion, as someone might step behind a screen when changing” (22).