Any hcs for the Losers' parents when they were kids?
You really shouldn't have asked this man, cause now yoy woke up the beast. I have tons actually. At first this wasn't going to be a huge thing, but you got me started and now this is a full on AU post of where everyone is in the WTD timeline. Enjoy my big ass info dump, it's so flipping long.
But I will only be talking about the ones we don't know anything about and not like Will or Marge cause we already know all about them. Mike's mom will also not be mentioned cause I head cannon Ronnie is Mike's mom. This is really just gonna cover Sonia, Frank, Sharon, Zach, Andrea, Donald, Elfrieda, Alvin, Arlene, Ben sr. and Wentworth.
Sonia
Long before Sonia was Sonia Kaspbrak, she was Sonia Schmalz. The oldest of four and the only female child of Paul and Anna Schmalz, who ran a pig farm on the outskirts of Derry. Sonia came from a really traditional household where boys were put on a pedestal and girls were seen as little more than background objects. Her mother spoiled and fussed over her brothers day and night, while basically ignoring Sonia even existed. Her father was always very caring to Sonia, emphasizing that she was his little girl and always in his his thoughts. This feelings only got stronger the more her mother argued with her father and they both seemed to form a mutual dislike for her, as if they were both being held to unfair standards by her compared to her perfect boys. It was only until Mr. Schmalz showed his true colors and left the family to be with a mistress he'd been seeing for years did Sonia finally understand WHY her mother was always so angry at him. Still, her father abandoning her to be with some strange woman gave her a whole heap of trauma and abandonment issues. And to make it worse, since she was the oldest kid her mother turned to Sonia to take up the mantel of being the second parent. She became adultified and expected to take care of her brothers like they were her kids too though. One day Sonia got up the nerve to ask her mom why she always fussed over her brothers but ignored her, and she just told her a mothers love for her son is stronger than anything, and she'll understand when she's older. Sonia vowed then and there that she would NEVER wind up like that.
The Schmalz family are German immigrants, they came to America sometime during world war 2 since they opposed the Nazi party. They weren't jewish or, really, any of the marginalized groups hitler was hunting down, but they still didn't like being under nazi rule.
I head cannon their last name is Schmalz because it's real German surname, but it's also the yiddish word for fat.
Sonia does not vibe with her immigrant background at all, she thinks her parents are weird and their culture sucks, especially because Sonia's mom used their families immigrant background to emotionally manipulate her. Sonia likes to pretend she's an all American girl, and this follows her into her adult hood when she never tells Eddie about where their family comes from.
Sonia was homeschooled like Mike until her dad left. Her mom basically sent them to school like it was daycare just so she didn't have to deal with them for the day.
At school Sonia was incredibly unpopular. She was dirt poor, very overweight, and had chunky glasses, this fatphobia she'd endured at school was only made worse upon realizing she lived on a pig farm, because then kids started doing pig snorts at her in the hallways.
Sonia was a fighter though, her mom had raised her to be tough and sure of herself. So she started to fight back. Smacking kids over the head with a lunch box if they called her fat. Shoving them into a locker if they came up to mock her. Kicking them in the balls if they pretended to ask her on a date. Sonia didn't take anyone's shit.
At school Sonia excelled at creative writing, she was very good at making up totally fictional stories but writing in a realistic and convincing way. She started to think about turning it into a job until her mom told her she'd be better off as a housewife instead.
Sonia hates her brothers very much, and they all mercifully left town and died before Eddie was born. One became a junkie, one died in Vietnam, and the other perished in a freak accident.
Sonia's mom is the one that taught her to be a neat freak about germs. She was often paranoid of anyone thinking they carried sickness cause they were immigrants, and she also taught Sonia it was women's job to keep the home tidy.
Sometime after Frank and her started dating Will Hanlon also became friends with Frank and Sonia and him started to fight over his attention, until Will straight up called Sonia crazy and that's where Sonia's racism started.
Most of her teachers picked on her because they figured she was stupid just by nature of being poor, her male english teacher was about the only person who treated her like she was capable of anything, and this combined with most of the other girls at school being terrible to her cause she was fat made Sonia grow to have a lot of internalized misoginy and prefer men more.
She was always fat but she was a lot less so as a kid, she just gained hella weight in her later age due to her mental decline and subsequent stress eating.
She didn't have any friends, mostly because after a while she got a reputation for being totally nuts and attacking people for "no reason". Frank was the first person who actually befriended Sonia, and of course, that made her very attached to him.
Patricia Stanton was a reoccuring bully of hers, very similar to how Henry bullied Ben, just without the knife to the stomach. One of the worst things Patty did to Sonia was when she and Frank started dating and Patty began to jokingly flirt with him to try stealing him away from Sonia just because she didn't want her to have anything good. Not only did this set Sonia off because Patty was her bully, it also reminded her of the trauma she had from her father leaving with a mistress. So she broke Patty's nose. This would later inform her view on other girls she thought were too pretty, like Bev, and how she immediately assumed they were trying to get with her son. This is also a really good parallel to Eddie/Richie/Connor's dynamic. Lord knows Eddie WISHES he could break Connor's nose.
Kind of hyper religious to cope with her shitty life.
Frank
The Kaspbrak's have been in Derry for a very long time, not since it was founded but like, a little bit after. The Kaspbrak's have basically made themselves a legacy out of living, working, and dying in Derry, and by the 1960's Issac Kaspbrak and his son are all that's left of it. They're decently poor these days, with Frank's father having to work as a psyche ward orderly just to make ends meet, and if you're wondering, yes he's just as terrible as every other Juniper Hills guard- and if you thought he'd treat his son any better, NOPE. He took out all of his anger on his boy, holding him to impossible standards and beating him day and night, to the point that once Frank had to come to school with a broken arm and lie about where he got it to avoid a cps charge. Frank's mom, similar to Sonia's father, was completely out of the picture. Dad never brought her up, Frank never dared to ask, and there were no family pictures to be found. Frank has heard a little bit about her though. I won't say much but it's someone we all know. His father met her at work cause she had a job at JH too, she was married, under the assumption she couldn't have kids and thus didn't use protection during their uh... encounter, and she managed to hide her pregnancy long enough she could go out of town to have the baby and then discreetly drop Frank off with his dad before her husband ever came back from a trip to Bangor. Nobody knows about any of this, leas of all poor Frank himself. He genuinely has not heard from this woman his entire life and doesn't even know who she is, except for the fact her and his father have the same initials apparently because he found some letters between the two in his dads closet. Frank will tell himself he's fine with not knowing. He will die of Cancer one day without ever finding the answer and he will still be lying about how totally fine he is with never knowing. It eats him up inside, almost as much as Sonia's father haunts her.
Frank is the spitting image of Eddie, like, genuinely he looks exactly like Eddie to the point you could cast Jack Dylan Grazer to play him in the show. He looks like Eddie but with a bigger nose, lighter hair, and usually covered in bruises.
Dorky ass band kid. He played the flute and he was actually really good at it all things considered.
He used to hang around with Butch Bowers, Dale Bowers, Ernest Criss, Ronald Huggins, and Wentworth Tozier as part of their little geek squad playing card games in their moms basement together until he realized Butch was a sore loser, everyone else were a bunch of idiots, and none of them were even friends aside from Him and Wentworth. Now he and Wentworth just play cards together at school and that's fine enough.
The first time he ever met Sonia was also the day he fell head over heels in love with her. He was getting bullied by Alvin Marsh like he usually did, until Sonia showed up and demanded he leave him alone. Alvin called her a fat cow and Sonia retaliated by smacking him on the back of the head with her lunchbox hard enough he thought he almost died.
From then on it became a huge thing that whenever Frank was getting bullied Sonia would protect him, and whenever Sonia wasn't there she'd make sure to treat his injuries and coddle him till he felt better. The two became very codependant, with Frank making Sonia feel needed, seen, and wanted for the first time in her life, while Sonia provided him caring and gentleness Frank lacked at home. Unfortunately this was also probably due in part to Sonia's daddy issues and Frank's mommy issues.
Frank was particularly wimpy and small, often getting singled out in gym class for being the shortest and scrawniest member of the bunch. This is probably why Frank like Sonia so much, even though she was fat, because he could relate to being picked on for his size. So in way, Frank stopped caring about how small he was cause he had a big beautiful lady who could beat up his bullies for him, while Sonia stopped caring about how big she was cause she could use it to protect her boyfriend.
When he was older he became friends with Will Hanlon until eventually Sonia convinced him to drop his friends since they were distracting him from her. Frank felt really bad about leaving Went and Will behind but Sonia was his girlfriend, and she provided him so much comfort. It's a direct inverse of Eddie standing up to sonia to go help his friends.
One time Frank got in a stupid argument with Lilly after she got out of Juniper Hills cause Lilly said it was bad in there and Frank was all "My daddy works there! Shut up!".
Also one time Alvin tried to black mail Frank into asking his dad about what happened to Lilly in JH and Frank had to tell him his dad doesn't ever talk about patients.
The Kaspbrak's in general have a really fucked up family tradition of dying young and dying tragically. Frank's dad dies after he drinks himself to death right before Eddie was born. Frank's perished in one of Derry's freak floods. Pretty much everyone in this family perished in some very weird or sad way, and Frank fulfills it by dying of Cancer later on, and Eddie fulfills it too by... well, ya know.
Zach
The Denbrough family is one of the oldest families in all of Derry's history, dating back to the towns founding when all those settlers vanished. They've gone through eras of prosperity and slumming it just as much as Derry itself has, and the 60's were a pretty good time for the Denbrough's all around. Zach's father and Bill's namesake/grandpa, William Denbrough was an electrician, just like he'd grow up to be, his mother Dorothy was your average housewife, and Zach was their perfect only child. His life was quite the inverse of his son's, whereas Bill constantly worried about being good enough for his parents but his need to protect people and search for answers always made Zach angry with him, Zach and his dad were basically two peas in a pod. Really, he has the relationship him and Georgie would have probably had if he hadn't died. Zach is basically just his dad all over again, same interests, same personality, same job, nothing has ever really gone wrong in his life and he's just fine with that. Honestly he probably would have only had one kid just like his parents did if Bill hadn't gotten hit by that car and developed a stutter. As mean is it, it always bugged Zach that Bill had that stutter, and beyond that Bill seemed so much less... cool? when he was a kid. He wanted to give it a try again just to see if it was any different, and then Georgie came and was basically everything he wanted Bill to be.
Zach was your basic popular and good looking jock type in school. He was cute, charismatic, and most of all- inoffensive. He basically had no opinions and that made his easy to get along with. Someone would ask him a question and he'd be like "uhhh, maybe. I mean yeah I see your point, but also there's a lot more to it and I get their side too" and everyone would act like he was the smartest man alive. If you asked him what he thought about desegregation he'd just respond "I'm under 18 I don't know about politics". And thus, Zach became popular with everybody except for the people who didn't fit in to the social norm- the exact opposite of Bill. Bill makes friends with Mike because he's willing to beat the shit out of Henry to save him from racist bullies, Ronnie and Will hate Zach because he's the king of fence sitting. It's not like Rich or Lilly who are just too sheltered to understand the nuances of the propaganda they've been fed about the American justice system, Zach is just willfully ignorant.
Captain of the Derry High baseball team, his fastball could knock a dudes head plum off his shoulders. Or at least that's what he told people.
Best friends with Alvin Marsh, and engages in bullying with him quite frequently (He's actually one of the kids seen running around outside Kersh's butchershop). Zach is like Victor Criss though, in that he's more conscious than other bullies and manages to have morals at times. He bullies kids just for a laugh because he never really thinks to deeply about the damage it causes. Zach's not stupid either, he's not so dumb he just doesn't know any better- he knows it hurts peoples feelings but just fails to internalize that. Most of the time he merely laughs at Alvin's antics and goes back to talking about baseball.
On rare occasions, he'll grow a conscious and intervene though. Nothing all that actually helpful, but stuff like "Come on Alvin leave him alone, we got places to be.". One time he stepped in to help Frank Kaspbrak cause Alvin was pickin on him for getting beat by his dad all the time and all he could say was "Alright that's enough." in the most gentle tone possible.
Started to crush on Sharon purely because she was pretty, proceeded to pretend like he gave a shit about piano purely so he could ask her out. He wasn't planning on courting her or anything but one date turned to three and three turned to six and six turned into a wedding.
Zach is like, the only popular kid who knows Sonia is not to be fucked with. Everyone else keeps trying to mess with her, but he knew she didn't exactly take teasing lightly. One time Alvin tried to dare Zach to ask Sonia on a date as a joke and he outright said "fuck no, she's crazy. I'm not risking a concussion just so you can tell her she's ugly.".
Ironically, he once referred to Butch's little nerd group as a Losers Club.
Despite Zach being the polar opposite of Bill, he's also where Bill gets his leadership from. He is a very good team captain and you can see where Bill gets his rallying speeches and ability to get people to follow him anywhere.
Planned on joining the Navy after highschool just like his dad, but didn't go through with it at the last second cause he was worried he might get fucked up and lose an arm. That would require Zach Denbrough to stand for a cause and do something in the name of helping someone else, lord knows he can't do that. (yes, this IS a really stupid reference to Georgie having a paper boat and getting his arm ripped off).
Sharon
If Zach was your most basic white popular dude, Sharon Hills was your most basic popular white girl. Originally from California, she followed most of the valley girl stereotypes aside from the lack of pink or dumb bimbo voice. She liked sunny beaches and going to parties and shopping at the mall with her friends, ya know, normal white teenage girl shit. She wound up in Derry after her parents, Jackson and Grace Hills, got a divorce she really couldn't give less of a shit about. Sharon's relationship with both of her parents was never all that close, really just your bog standard family unit. As long as Sharon got two christmases and her piano lessons stayed paid for she'd be fine, really, moving from California to Derry was way worse than the divorce. Sharon wasn't ready for that at ALL, but Grace had family back in Derry and she wanted to go to a nice small town after her husband left- so away Sharon went. Thankfully Derry had SOME places she could shop (although no mall yet) and a movie theater to keep her entertained, plus her father came by every once in a while to visit Sharon whenever he wasn't busy working the stock market. Her mom on the other hand didn't have a job, mostly just sat around and enjoyed her alimony checks, which was both lazy and kind of iconic lowkey. She was the new girl in school for quite a long time, just like Ben, except Sharon was skinny, well off, pretty, and from a cool and hip place like California- so she had a much easier time. The moment she came to Derry high she was on everyone's radar, boys fighting in class just to offer her a pencil or walk her to her locker. This was pretty normal for Sharon though, who'd never known what it was like to be unpopular or unwelcomes in her life- even a divorce didn't make her dad suddenly stop caring about her. Sharon was quite used to being the center of attention, and considering she was piano prodigy who'd played in front of actual crowds of people before and won awards for it, the attention would never be on anyone else. Quite ironic for a girl who would late grow up to secretly like one child more than the other.
When Sharon arrived to school and got warm welcomes from everyone in a twenty mile radius it actually brought out a bit of bitterness in Will and Sonia because, obviously, nobody treated them like that when they came to school. Damn, it's almost like if you're skinny and white people will be automatically nicer to you.
Despite the fact she was instantly popular, there was a mean nickname/rumor going around about her. A few boys started referring to Std's as "Sharon transmitted diseases" and calling her a slut, despite the fact she was virginal as all be. There were also inevitably a of puns thrown around using her name. Sharon diseases. Sharon drugs. Sharon cocks. Sharon was always rather humorless and prudish so she reacted to these jokes with vehement disgust.
Genuinely fantastic at piano, she'd been learning how to play since she could sit up straight and boy oh boy did it pay off. You should see her bedroom, it's covered in awards.
Always regarded as kind of a prude or ice queen by most boys who wanted to ask her out- Sharon always had very high standards and she wasn't exactly raised to believe she had to be shy about them- I mean who is she, Marge?
After becoming friends with the Patty cakes, Sharon began to realize she might actually not be cut out for hanging with these kinds of people. Of course she liked being popular and pretty, but from the moment she saw them bullying people she realized she might want more than the vapid and shallow world she was trapped in. She grapples with these emotions as if they are the most troubling things a person could go through, but she really does empathize with people like Ronnie, Sonia, Lilly, Rich or anyone else who doesn't fit the mold because she has to imagine it must hurt to be on the outside. She feels guilty every time she goes out with the patty cakes and remembers there's people who can't eat at all while she buys a new skirt. It's not quite like Elaine, who feels bad because Patty bullies her from the inside, Sharon doesn't get looked down on- she just knows deep down there's bad things happening and it bums her out. Still, Sharon never does anything about it. Like Zach she just kinda coasts by, but at least Sharon thinks about stuff and knows it's bad to not do anything. Think Sue Snell from Carrie, that's basically Sharon.
Although she cares about others and feels sad she can't do anything to help, Sharon does indeed think most people who go against the grain are pretty weird. She thinks hippies are lame and annoying, rock n roll is aggrivating, and enjoys most of the stuffy uppercrust interests most lame rich white people have. She likes croquet and piano and having brunch and all that other stuff. You aren't really gonna find Sharon invited to any cookouts or sneaking out of the house to go to rock concerts. She's more of the "I have a debutant ball coming up and it's gonna be held at the country club" type.
Donald
We already know about Donald's family so i'm not going i to detail there lol.
Donald, to the contrary to what most people think, is not a joyless asshole with no good in him what so ever. He actually good parts to him and has just as many reasons for being the way he is as anyone else does.
First of all, Donald doesn't just care a lot about his faith because he's Jewish and that's what he's supposed to do- he cares about it cause he's genuinely obsessed with it. It's his special interest (and yes he IS undiagnosed autistic, just like his boy.), he memorizes every aspect and has certain stories memorized by heart- his favorite of which being the story of moses. He's not some tired old bastard with a stick up his ass about following your faith to a tee, it brings him genuine comfort and joy whenever he gets to go to the synagogue. He gets bullied just as much as Stan, but unlike Stan who struggles with OCD that makes him paranoid about all the unanswered questions having faith in a higher power brings, Donald takes the fact that god chose him and his fellow jews to heart. He made him special, and he will not waste that potential.
On the outside Donald looks very perfect to everyone, his father certainly deems him as such. To him he's their golden child who can do now wrong, unlike teddy who always messes things up. Donald gets stressed out about these high expectations too though, and at times he wonders if his father knows he's not just another adult in the room. Of course Donald WANTS to be seen as an adult, but his father doesn't let him have much of a break. Which is understandable, their grandparents were kept prisoners during the holocaust, it is almost a debt they have to pay off by being the best jews they can be- but god damn, sometimes he just wants to ask his dad to chill the fuck out.
The reason Teddy hates musicals is because Donald loves them. Seriously, he thinks musical theatre is actually really cool and classy and every year for his birthday his parents give him a ticket to some big show. Donald went fucking CRAZY when Fiddler on the roof came out. Thank god Teddy died before it released or he'd go insane from having to hear Donald sing "match maker match maker make me a match~" while he worked on home work.
Donald also has his sons interest in birds, as does his father. It's quite a sweet Uris family tradition, Donald bonded with his dad over birds and then later on bonded with his son over birds.
Donald does actually care about Teddy. Yeah, he teases and torments him but hes his older brother and that's part of the job. Besides, he's in charge of watching him half of the time so he's earned the right to tease. Deep down Donald loved his brother very much.
Donald worried about Teddy more than anything, seriously, thinking about Teddy and how he was doing often made Donald feel sick at times. He really couldn't understand what plain of existence that kid was on, why he was so interested in shitty pulp comics and didn't take his faith seriously, why he didn't try to hang out with the other temple kids more. And sometimes, Donald would even wonder if Teddy secretly hated him, or worse, thought he genuinely hated Teddy.
I mention how Andrea and Donald met in Andrea's section so I won't mention it here, but Donald really loved Andrea- and their relationship stays good and healthy for a very long time. Andrea was ambitious and knew what she wanted and Donald found that sooo refreshing. Lots of girls are willowy and can't handle themselves so Donald liked that there was a girl who was both practical but not afraid of doing absolutely everything she could to get what she wanted. Their relationship probably would have just been one of convenience if they didn't turn out to actually hold a lot of the same opinions and bring out each others more sensitive side. In a weird way, because both of them were hard working and sensible, that opened the door for them both to be fun and silly from time to time. It's easier to be loose when you know someone else can hold the torch for a bit and wont fuck it up.
Donald hated Phil so fucking much. Genuinely, everytime he was over he'd be so annoyed and wouldn't even bother with it. He hates that he wears socks with sandals around his house. He hates that he eats their food. He hates that he keeps asking Teddy to go "ghost hunting" with him when it's the sabbath. He genuinely hates him and considers him a bad influence on Teddy- although he's not quite on the sonia kaspbrak level of thinking that all of his brothers problems are to be blames on his friends.
Donald isn't friends with any of the other losers or bowers gangs parents EXCEPT andrea, he strictly hangs out with the other jewish kids in town and doesn't fuck with anybody else. It's not even because he only befriends jewish people, it's just that all of his class mates at school annoy the piss out of him.
Andrea
Andrea Lowenstein is the daughter of one of Stanley Kersh's deli workers, Harold Lowenstein, and together they live above the deli shop in a shitty studio apartment Stanley is kind enough to rent to them at a discounted price. one of the few Jewish families in all of Derry, the Lowensteins could trace back most of their jewish roots to ashkenazi jews in russia, with every one of them already immigrated to america by the time the holocaust was happening, which, by all accounts, was pretty fucking lucky for them. However that luck never really felt applicable to the rest of Andrea's life, because everything else felt absolutely miserable aside from that. Andrea's mom died when she was but a toddler, and that left Andrea alone in navigating puberty and girlhood, but thankfully Harold wasn't a creep like Alvin and didn't have to worry about cops coming to put him in the electric chair like Hank, so he was actually a pretty present and wonderful father to Andrea- in spite of him being kind of shitty at communicating feelings. For the most part, Andrea and Harold were basically all alone in this world, save for Stanley and his wife who would occasionally drop in to check on them- but Andrea never really trusted either of them. Even when her dad would sing Mr. Kersh's praises for being such a nice guy who cared about their well being, Andrea didn't buy it. Mr. Kersh had told them the reason he was so nice to them was because he had Jewish family members, in fact, the last name Kersh actually has Ashkenazi origins but Andrea never fully believed that either. It wasn't long before it finally clicked for Andrea- that deep down, Mr. Kersh was only nice to him because Harold was a single father and he naturally treated all men better than women. Hid wife though? Well, Andrea couldn't figure out why Ingrid was so obsessed with her, but she took great interest in the fact her mom died when she was young and her father was all she had.
Andrea is very resilient, as she taught herself how to sew and cook through books she picked up from the library, partly because she wanted to and also because she wanted to the best future home maker she could be.
She is the oldest of all the girls, and would be the oldest of all the kids if not for her being slightly younger than Donald.
The thing about Andrea you have to understand is she ultimately very stubborn and realistic, she doesn't believe in I can't- mostly because the people who have told her she can't do anything are assholes who are just mean because she's Jewish. People have told her she will never fit in with the other girls because her hair is too curly and her nose is too big and she smells like cold cuts all the time, but she persists never the less.
Unfortunately her stubbornness also makes it hard for her to give up when it'd be better for everyone if she did. She WANTS to be a Pattycake, not like Marge does where she's agonizing over it and basically begging on her knees, Andrea is clever enough to know Patty doesn't really care about how funny you are or what you can provide to the group. No, no, no. This is an image game and she knows it, so she doesn't even waste time with all that schmoozing shit. Sure, she's not rich like the Patty cake's, she's never be able to afford the dresses they have- but she can buy knock off fabric that looks damn near identical and make that shit herself.
Why Andrea, a girl who who probably shouldn't care about what other people think of her and knows Patty is a total anti semetic bitch, would want to be a patty cake is a really good question, but it makes a lot of sense when you see it through Andrea's perspective. All her life she's been told jewish girls are ugly, green skinned, oily haired, whiney bitches who can't compare to girls like patty, and it pisses her off. She wants to prove to people that she can be just like Patty without even having to change that much about herself. People thought she couldn't be feminine if she was raised by a single father? Guess what, she can sew and bake circles around you. People think she's trashy cause she's poor? She's well mannered as can be. Patty calls her hair pubes for the third time? Well it's just gonna make it all the more delicious when Patty has to inevitably concede that a girl like Andrea is better in the Patty cakes than not at all.
Of course, this stubborness only gets her so far, and dealing with Patty is basically like talking to a brick wall. No matter how many times Andrea spends all night modifying an out of date dress to be up to date with the latest fashion trends- sewing on ribbons, buttons, and lace- Patty will never budge. There will always be more mean remarks. More jokes to crack about Andrea's features. More ways to humiliate Andrea using her faith. Even when Patty is stunned and jealous, she hides it behind an even more shitty attitude. And that drives Andrea CRAZY.
Of course Harold tried to pull the whole "You know Andy, I think you're the most beautiful girl in the world" thing all dads do and, although Andrea appreciates it, Andrea ambition is to be the girl everyone is forced to admit they find pretty and desirable so she can have the best life possible.
When Andrea met Donald Uris it was through their parents setting them up. they kinda knew each other cause they went to the same synagouge, but never actually spoke before. The arrangement happened because Harold was ecstatic to learn a local jewish boy was interested in his daughter, where as Mr. Uris just thought Andrea might make a suitable future wife for his son cause she was good at sewing and cooking.
Andrea and Donald were absolutely dreading this arranged date. Andrea was worried Donald would be a boring douchebag where as Donald was worried she'd be some stuffy broad who'd only like him cause he's jewish. Of course on the actual date they were both surprised and suddenly quite fond of each other.
Donald liked Andrea's stubborness, practicality, and ambition to become the best person she could be out of pure spite. He also found her sarcasm quite endearing- which scared the shit out of Teddy since he didn't even know his brother had a sense of humor.
Andrea on the other hand liked Donald because, although she wasn't as devoted to Judaism as he was, she liked that he took his love for studying it seriously and talked about it with such passion.
during their firs date they were all prim and proper about it cause it was at the dinner table with both of their fathers there to supervise, then the second they were allowed a moment alone together they started cracking jokes together to ease the tension.
When she's an adult and Stan marries Patty Blum she nearly has a heart attack when she hears her first name.
Stanley is also incidently named after Stanley Kersh, because Andrea and Harold both felt bad when he died- completely unaware of what he was doing when he died or any of the dark secrets he kept.
Thankfully Stan is a really swell kid all around and it makes Andrea's heart feel very full to know she raised such an exceptional kid.
Wentworth
Wentworth Tozier never really had much of a childhood, like at all. His father was rather dead set on getting him to be a dentist so he could take over the family business, and that meant good grades and no goofing off ever. His mother was quite passive, deciding to let her husband basically tell Went whatever with no intervention at all. So Wentworth started to bust his ass in the name of pleasing his dad.
Went never learned how to ride a bike or use a sling shot or tie a balloon or really anything most kids were preoccupied with at that age. It was always studying. After school activities for college applications. And spending weekends at the library, avoiding the childrens section.
This gave Went the reputation through school as being boring, sad, and pathetically dull, a reputation he both loathed and understood completely.
There was a running joke going around school that Wentworth Tozier was about as exciting as watching your fingernails grow or paint drying, and that just one conversation with him enough to register you clinically brain dead.
This hurt Went quite a lot, but again, he understood it- and perhaps the fact he understood it made it hurt even more.
He did manage to make one friend tho- Frank Kaspbrak, fellow band kid and decent cards player. Frank liked wents sardonic wit and Wentworth liked Frank stupid send of humor, together they were actually quite the dream team.
Went started dating Marge when he asked her to the school dance on a whim and she said yes, purely cause she didn't wanna go with out a date, although she did feel kinda let down that the guy who asked her was the biggest square on earth... until she got to know him of course.
Went liked how silly she was, and encouraged her to joke around and be more goofy since he didn't really know how. Went was not really shy in admitting he never really learned how to have a sense of humor or dance or really even talk to girls at all, but enjoys trying even tho he sucks at it.
Of course Marge told him not to care what anyone thinks of him, cause she used to do that and someone very special had taught her to value herself more. Went says he wants to meet that special person, he sounds nice. Marge gives a sad look that Went can instantly understand and pats her sympathetically on the shoulder. From then on, they became quick friends and eventually, sweethearts.
Even though Went wasn't nearly as fun as Rich was when he was alive, Marge and Went grew to have a really sweet relationship where she got to be silly and weird and went slowly started to feel like his actual age again. He couldn't even remember the last time he actually felt 13 and not 45.
As went grows up though and has richie, he eventually gets more in touch with the lost childhood inside him, and starts to mimic his wife and sons silly voices and encourage his son to be a total goober for as long as he can, cause you're only a kid once.
Ironically enough, Marge becomes the one who's always stressing about her kids grades and Went's gotta remind her to chill out a bit.
Alvin
Alvin Marsh is the son of one of the police officers who is always seen hanging around Clint Bowers stupid ass. You know the cop that said "my kid goes to that school" after teddy and phil died? Yeah that's his papa, Herbie Marsh. Alvin's mom, Janet, is still very much in the picture and but she's basically in a loveless marriage with Herbie and sleeps with anyone she meets. Sadly, this is where shit for the Marsh family gets really fucked up because Alvin's got himself a bit of an oedipous complex, solely because of the fact it pisses him off to know his mother is the town whore and everybody knows it. He blames his father for the fact that his mom sleeps around so much, claiming it's because he doesn't control his woman that makes her act like a floozy all the time- and how if HE was with Janet she's be obeying him. He's not quite to the "i want to actually fuck my mom" stage, but he has this unconcious desire to steal his mom from his father and show her what a real man can do- wipe that stupid fucking bimbo smirk on her face and make her stay home for once. There's a really sad aspect to this though, because for as fucked up as it is that Alvin thinks this stuff about his mom, there's a part of Alvin that aches for his mom to just stay home and pay attention to him for once. Sure, she cooks him dinner and goes to the PTA meetings and everything else, but as soon as dinner leaves she rushes out to the falcon to go get her party on and Alvin already knows what she's up to. Drinking. Flirting. Fucking. She's giving random men attention while never giving him any- so what the fuck gives? Herbie is a very uninvolved parent too so that only furthers his sons fucked up ideas about why things are the way they are- because obviously if he feels like his father isn't doing enough for him, his mother must feel the same way. And that's not how it should be, a man should keep his women in check so she only has eyes for him.
Alvin also has a sister, Beverly's aunt Peggy, who only servers to make Alvin more obsessed with women's sexuality not involving him. Peggy is a free spirited feminist hippy type who's really into the whole new age type of life style. She's a teenager and already plans on running off to Portland by the time she's 18 and it drives Alvin insane to see her leave the house in revealing clothes, nothing like the long skirts and conceiling sweaters other girls at school wear. Peggy hates men and thinks they're all a bunch of losers, but Alvin just thinks that's a sign she wants more attention badly. And unfortunately the more Alvin toes to shame Peggy the more Peggy retaliates by being even more free spirited and wild, and that only makes Alvin even more sure of his stance on women.
Again tho, i don't think Alvin is straight up sexually attracted to his mom or sister, this is all just really insane thoughts he's having due to the neglect he gets at home. Alvin is a very attention hungry child, he has some kind of underlying mental illness that has made him very starved for attention, to the point he can never get anough, and the complete lack of it at home makes him lust for it- sometimes to absolutely unhinged degrees.
There's also a degree of religious trauma ivolved, he was raised catholic like a lot of people in Derry and so the fact his mom went to church with them and never honored the thou shalt not committ adultery part makes him furious. The story of adam and eve being technically fathet and daughter and then getting married and having a bunch of kids also did not help this at all. The fact that the bible told him many contradictory things but also real life contradicted those too made Alvin a very mixed up kid.
Alvin is extremely popular, he's a 1960's bully like Henry Bowers but unlike Henry, people actually find him attractive and cool. He's got a leather jacket with his name on it, cool slicked back hair, and most importantly- Nobody knows his what kinda fucked up thoughts are going on in his head.
His primary targets for bullying are Sonia, Frank, and weirdly enough, Butch. For some reason, Alvin REALLY like to mess with Butch, probably because Butch has such a stick up his ass and is so easy to rage bait. They have a very richie and eddie dynamic but if Richie and eddie were both straight and just genuinely fucking hated each other. Alvin will say some bullshit specifically to piss Butch off and Butch will lose his shit trying to explain why it's not funny and stupid.
He's on the baseball team with Zach, and as said before, they're best friends.
Alvin is naturally very funny and charismatic, at least as a child. He cracks a lot of mean jokes and they're actually really clever and witty, which obviously gives him an ego. It fuels his need for attention, and thus that makes him even more of a bully. Dare i say, he's funnier than Richie Tozier, except he uses his powers strictly to be evil.
Racist and homophobic. He's racist because he knows his mom will sleep with anyone of any race and the idea of his white dad letting non white men fuck his mom drives him insane, while queer people of all types piss him off for various reasons. Trans people are just girls who were never taught how to mind or gay guys who want attention. Lesbians are uptight bitches who need a dick in them. Gays are just men who act like women thus are just as insufferably whorish as they are. Bisexuals are sluts. Alvin is extremely puritanical as a result of his fractured home.
When he meets Bev's mom he is drawn to her for being really religious and demure. She's a sweet and innocent as can be, nothing like most of the other sluts in school who fawn over any guy that looks their way. She's bashful with her emotions snd seems to not know a damn thing about the world, which Alvin finds so appealing, especially because it means he gets to *gags* teach her stuff while she idolizes him.
For what it's worth though, Alvin was not a bad boyfriend to Alfrieda, and he treated her very well all things considers. At times he was scolding and emotionally manipulative but for the most part he was very appreciative. Yeah he did start the relationship being attracted to how vulnerable she was, but as time we on they became more like an actual couple, but it wasn't long before Alvin became kinda obsessed with her and that created a whole nother problem. In Alvin's eyes he idolized her as the one perfect girl in the world. Not slutty. Not too masculine. Obedient. Kind. Motherly. Always smiling. He put her on this fucked up pedestal that Elfrieda lacked the ability to realize was a toxic way to view her. He literally saw her as not like other girls.
He definitely piqued in highschool. There's a reason he's a janitor and still attracted to teenagers at age 40, bro never fucking left high school mentally.
He was also shown sexually explicit images a lot as a child, which made him think about porn almost day and night until it became kinda inextricably linked with how he viewed the world. Of course there's nothing wrong with a young boy looking at nude images as he goes through puberty and develops sexual urges in puberty- that's healthy. I'm talking about his dads friends showing him videos of naked women doing things when he was like, six, cause they thought "well he's gonna see it sometime".
It's kinda sad to be honest, because if his dads friends weren't openly fucking weird around him he probably wouldn't have been exposed to a form of media he was too young to seperate from reality or have moderation for, and then he wouldn't have associated women with it and went down this huge mental spiral of thinking everyone all the time is always as sexually frustrated as and and start hyperfixating on everyone else's sexual urges to. And if his mom and dad weren't neglectful he might have known what an actual healthy family dynamic is like and never think you need to do one thing in the relationship or it wouldn't amount to shit.
And i mean obsessed, dude never stops talking about womens naked bodies to his guy friends even when hes dating alfrieda. He keeps asking people sex shit and theyre all just like "haha alvin what a jokester" and move on.
However, it's not until Alfrieda kills herself that Alvin started to have perverted feelings towards Bev, or maybe they were always there and it was only until the trauma of her suicide that he became so depraved he started to act on those feelings. Before that Alvin saw Beverly the same way he saw Alfrieda, perfect, pure, unable to do anything wrong like any of the other slutty girls in town. Then she started to age a bit and with that came interests that were more like her aunts and that planted the seeds of doubt in Alvin's mind, which only made him more angry as she started to look exactly like Elfrieda the closer she got to puberty. And then by the time Elfrieda killed herself he had totally lost his faith in Bev, and he shoved her off when she tried to hug him upon seeing her die because the idea that Bev, spoiled whore she was already turning into, had the audacity to touch him made him furious. Perfect little Elfrieda was gone, the only woman who ever really meant anything to him. And now he was left with her cheap imitation who was like her in every way except morals and sense. She looked like her, but she was NOTHING like her.
And so two sides of Alvin Marsh were created not like, DID sides, but more like... two different Alvin's that experienced different kinds of thoughts simultaneously. The same person but with two sets of emotions he felt at all times. Alvin thought Bev was his little girl. Alvin also thought Bev was a whore who made him sick wirh anger. Alvin was puritanical to others. Alvin thought about sex 24/7. Alvin hit Bev whenever she didnt mind. Alvin treated her like she was made of glass. Everything came in two sides, alvin included, and this was literally a living hell for Bev, as she came to never know what to expect everytime she came home.
Elfrieda
Elfrieda Dunleavy, daughter of Principle Dunleavy (the human ventriloquist puppet Pennywise tosses at Patty Stanton) was as sweet and sheltered as could be. With a dead mother she never knew and only a bitchy step mom and a stuffy father left to keep her company, her father spoiled her rotten- in exchange for keeping her locked up and sheltered 24/7 that is. Being the Principle's daughter already made you kind of a dweeb, but to be a the sheltered, coddled, and very immature for your age daughter who clinged to her dad like she was still a toddler? yeahhhh you might as well just wear loser written on your forehead 24/7. because of the way Elfrieda was raised she lacked the same social skills everyone else did, and she never really matured past a very young age. Her dad just kept her on a very tight leash, content to spoil her into being his big little girl forever. While other girls her age were talking about puberty and boys wanting to go steady, Elfrieda was still thinking about relationships like they were playdates because she'd never had any friendships to grow up with. She was still playing with Barbie dolls by the time she entered highschool, and her father preferred she stay like that. And just to clarify, Elfrieda was not on the spectrum or special needs in anyway- she was just never taught anything about womanhood and stayed a little girl for a little too long. Her dad didn't even teach her about periods. Principle Dunleavy at least wasn't attracted to his daughter like Alvin would be to Bev, but he did want to keep her in his pocket forever and couldn't fathom the idea of her growing up- so he sheltered her, and since most people didn't want to risk the principle getting mad at them- they avoided Elfrieda like the plague. Except for one boy that is, one boy who thought Elfrieda was so pretty and not like other girls, one boy who didn't really care about pissing off the Principle.
Alvin started courting Elfrieda behind her dads back the day school got out for the summer, and by the time they returned to school Elfrieda was writing him love notes with kisses on the envelope and writing his name in hearts on the locker.
Elfrieda's father used to jokingly call her his Princess since he was the Prince-ipal and she's his daughter, and she always felt very special everytime he used that on her- Alvin would later on steal the nickname and use it on her all the time.
Elfrieda always loooovvveed fairytales, and that was in many ways because her life felt like it replicated one. A beautiful delicate princess trapped in a tower. A father who was the ruler of the land. An evil step mother. And a rugged pauper who was really a prince in disguise here to sweep her off her feet. In fact, her favorite movie of all time was Snow White and the seven dwarves. and she's the reason Bev has a copy of the frog prince in her bedroom, it was her moms.
She knew Alvin was a bully and a trouble maker, but honestly that just made her wanna be with him more. She had a very "I can fix him! He's good deep down!" attitude, probably from the aformentioned fairytale obsession.
Elfrieda for the longest time was uber paranoid about what her dear old daddy was gonna say about her dating Alvin Marsh, a student who was frequently on his shit list for being a delinquent, but it turns out... her daddy was never gonna find out regardless. Cause he died.
She was in the gym when her dad got used as a puppet by Pennywise, and the scene was so traumatic for her she didn't even scream- just kinda stood there staring at his headless and limp corpse dumb struck. Then she got put in the deadlights and that REALLY fucked her up. By the time she came too everything was a blur, except for the fact her dad died and she saw his body.
After that, her step mom- Leena, became a lot more callous to her, until eventually she kicked her out of the house at age 18. Luckily, she could go live with Alvin cause he was living in the Grogan's old apartment at that time, but still- that was really traumatic.
The trauma of her father dying plus being in the deadlights haunted Elfrieda, and ever since that day she's had to deal with night terrors. Really awful ones about a girl who looked just like her sobbing in front of a mirror and cutting off all her hair. Or being covered in blood while she cries in a bathroom. Or dangling in the air after being put in a hypnotic trance. Really freaky stuff, and soon there after, This began to bleed into her real life and give her horrible anxiety and memory issues she couldn't make heads or tails of.
Alvin was surprisingly caring about Elfrieda's mental health, probably because he liked feeling wanted and how cute she'd get when she'd be all scared and clingy. Somedays though Elfrieda would wake up screaming about something nonsensical, lights, children in sewers, something coming to get them one day. Alvin started to wonder if Elfrieda might have dementia or something, given how easily confused and terrified she'd get anytime she went out.
It was here, in this apartment, looking after Elfrieda that he began to obsess over the idea of taking care of his women and worrying about their mental health in a very... unhealthy way. Still, Elfrieda never realized Alvin's caring tendencies weren't what she needed.
Then came her admission to Juniper Hills, and her first stay there wasn't all that bad compared to some of the really awful things that happened there. However they misdiagnosed her with schizophrenia and selective amnesia related to the trauma of her father's death, likening her to Lilly Bainbridge and the reaction she had after her father died.
This, did basically the exact opposite thing it planned to do, and it only made Elfrieda more irrational. She knew she wasn't crazy- or at least she thought she did. Everything she saw and felt felt so real and raw like she could just reach out and touch it- or like she was seeing the future unfold before her eyes. It felt inescapable, like her doom, and everyone else she held so dear, was going to die soon enough at the hands of the same evil that had killed her father for fun.
After Bev was born these feelings only got worse, because now she had a daughter and for some reason that made the nightmares she was having all the more intense and realistic, until she was driven plain mad.
Then she started to attempt. Sleeping pills didn't stop them. Therapy didn't stop them. Schizophrenia pills didn't stop them (and they also fucked up her brain quite a bit), nothing would. And nothing could stop IT, either. the thing that killed her father. The monster. It. She'd described to people as seeing in her nightmares, only to be told he was a common hallucination for schizophrenic patients admitted to JH. Nobody would stop it. Nobody would save her. Best to take yourself off the board before it came for you, or forced you to watch as it killed any more of your relatives.
There was this one lady, ingrid something or other, who constantly fed her delusions about the lights and the clown, reiterating that it was all very real and he'd be back any time soon. Yeah, that wasn't exactly good for her to hear in that state.
She ending up attempting many times, but it was ultimately hanging herself in 1988 that succeeded. And with that, the fairytale was over. Bye bye Miss Marsh.
Arlene
Arlene is actually Arlene Wagner, daughter Dr. Wagner- the Dr. That gave Lilly Bainbridge laughing gas that made her think she was floating out of her chair.
Arlene lives in a happy upper middle class suburban home with her younger sister Jean and her two parents, and all together they looked like a relatively happy family- until you took a closer look at the sisters.
Arlene was very pretty and you stereotypical feminine teenage girl. She did beauty pageants and went on dates with cute boys, ect. Ect. While her sister Jean just kind of bitterly watched from the sidelines.
Arlene wasn't exactly popular, she was definitely too normal to be popular in a place like Derry, but she was well liked and the crush of quite a few different boys.
Arlene and Jean were never close, but Arlene didn't hate Jean. Jean, however, HATED Arelwne for being smarter, prettier, kinder and just all around bettet than her.
Jean was kind of delusional lowkey, because if you asked her she was some unloved and neglected little thing in house of pompous assholes, while the Wagner family were really just your normal family.
There was some slight favoritism going on, Arlene was more girly and not so, er, loud so her mom took to signing her up for beauty pageants, as opposed to Jean- where as Arlene was very health concious and Jean smoked cigarettes and lounged around the house 24/7, much to their Doctor father's dismay. Arlene certainly seemed perfect, but that was really only cause Jean never tried to get along with anyone.
Jean's envy knew no bounds, she even spread awful rumors about her sister around school just cause she was bitter.
Arlene was a big beatles fan growing up, she basically was the origin of her sons love for biy bands- because she was FERAL for those boys.
Likewise, that also pissed Jean off a lot. "Oohhh Arlene thinks she'd good enough to date John Lennon, fuck off.".
Things got so bad that it was like no matter what Arlene did Jean complained. If she said she wanted some random thing from the store Jean would call her daddys little princess, and if she said she wanted nothing shed act like Arlene was pretending to be nice like she always did. It was never ending with her.
When Arlene left town to go see the rest of the US she ran into Ben's father and the two got married QUICK. Really it was a whirlwind relationship.
When she came back after Ben's father died, Jean was a huge bitch about it.
She really reveled in the idea that perfect Arlene's son was fat as fuck and now she had to beg her for a place to stay cause she was too broke to live alone. It felt like karma to her, although Arlene didnt do anything to warrant any of this.
Sadly, Jeans constant undermining of her made Arlene a very unsure parent and somewhat paranoid about her qualities as a mother. If Jean hated her for no reason, who's to say Ben wouldn't either. So she focused on trying to keeo him fed and sold looking as a way to cope.
Arlene's pageant background and her sisters attitude kinda turned her off the beauty industry all together. She used to look like a glittery southern belle- now she only dresses sensibly and like a low maintence girl who's got eight kids to feed. She thinks people who focus on looks are quite shallow and don't know what's really important: making sure your son never had an empty plate.
She started to get really insecure about her body in the teenage years, which is also why she is so attached to the idea of Ben being over weight- because she used to hate how much her own body fluctuated in weight, snd now she only wants to keep Ben one shape for stabilities sake- it brings her comfort to know he's never gonna be at risk of eating so little you pass out. Pageants are fucking brutal.
Benjamin Sr.
I actually don't have anything to say about Ben's dad, much like the IT book itself. Seriously, he doesn't even have a name in the book. Stephen King describes how every character farts but forgot to name one of the main characters parents. So my epic head cannon name for him shall be.... Ben. Ben's named after him. I'm so creative.
I do think he's from Tennessee tho, like Ben's actor Jeremy Ray Taylor.
Definitely from a military family, but like, a rich one.
His willingness to serve in the army is reflective of his son's unquestioning loyalty to his friends. When you love a place or a person it's not a question of if you will protect them or if you can, it's a question of when. That's the Hanscom family mantra.
Basically imagine Ben but never fat and not poor, so like, I guess Ben but just less interesting. That's Benjamin Sr.
