Names of places mentioned on The Golden Girls

[TMC]

• Shady Pines
  
  St. Olaf
  
  6151 Richmond Street (next door --- Harry Weston's house)
  
  The Rusty Anchor

[Cheesecake101]

Twin Oaks (Blanche's family plantation)

Biscayne Hospital

The Community Theater

That village in Sicily (where Sophia grew up)

The Boardwalk

[bandonurse]

Hollingsworth Manor

The "Grab That Dough" studio in LA

The Bahamas, where Rose's aunt Gretchen was buried

The Grief Counselling Center where Rose worked

The Museum where Blanche worked

Brooklyn, New York

Cheesecake:

Sometimes Sophia talked about growing up "under a bridge" in a small village, and then other times, she referred to coming from Palermo, which is the capital city of Sicily. You never know what to believe with her.

[Cheesecake101]

Originally Posted by bandonurse

Cheesecake:

Sometimes Sophia talked about growing up "under a bridge" in a small village, and then other times, she referred to coming from Palermo, which is the capital city of Sicily. You never know what to believe with her.

Lol true she does seem to lie about her past often but for the most part on the show she claims to be from an unnamed impoverished Sicilian village and other characters on the show like her sister Angela claim this too so I'm pretty positive that is where her character is really from.

Also Blanche mentions that she has visited Pensacola a couple of times (I live there lol) and there has been mentions of St. Gustaf which is the neighboring town of St. Olaf.

Also there's The Hassianda (spell?) Hut where Blanche hangs out that was mentioned a couple of times.

[schmave]

The one thing I really disliked about so many of the "flashbacks" was they were obviously created for just that episode. Blanche's appearance changed so steadily through the series (as did Dorothy later, just to a much lesser extent) that saying something happened 'x' amount of time ago simply wasn't believable the vast majority of the time.
I agree with many others that Sophia was my least favorite character by a long shot. Too mean too often, and annoying like in the episode where she constantly tags along with Dorothy and her boyfriend. Wish she'd have gotten a comeuppance more often, or at all.

[bandonurse]

"like in the episode where she constantly tags along with Dorothy and her boyfriend"

I agree. And it was ridiculous that Rose even shamed Dorothy for trying to sneak out of the house for a date without Sophia going with them. Since when is it cruel to not take your mother along on a date?

[Cheesecake101]

I personally loved Sophia. She may have come across as mean and insensitive but she had a legit excuse for it (that stroke destroyed the part of her brain that censors what she says) and the thing was that most of the time she was actually right about things. She pointed out to Blanche that her gay brother and his boyfriend had just as much right to be happy as Blanche and her husband did and she pointed out to Rose that the best way to help her blind sister was to help her learn how to take care of herself. Sophia gives the best advice and while she seems to be a mean old lady she clearly has a big heart like when she befriended the guy Alvin who had alzhiemers.

[bandonurse]

You're right on everything you said, of course, Cheesecake. I agree that, along the way Sophia did, indeed, dispense sound and wise advice.

I make my comments based on how I would feel if the behavior of the characters were taking place in real life. If it were, Sophia would actually belong in at least assisted living, if not a supervised nursing home. She almost bashed Rose over the head with a heavy frying pan, imagining it would "cure her insomnia."

Caused by the stroke or not, when someone is a danger to themselves or others, they belong under some type of supervision. Not out of punishment, but to protect both her, and any innocent person she might inadvertently harm.

I also question whether everything Sophia did could be blamed on her stroke. Blurting out insults is one thing. But a pre-meditated, calculated effort to steal money from the Government, her daughter's purse, and insistence on going on her own daughter's dates with her, clearly exhibited at least early dementia. Many of her stories clearly couldn't have been factual, but she seemed to vehemently believe they really happened.

As a retired nurse, my feeling toward nursing homes is probably different than many people's. It's NOT a punishment, or something relatives resort to when they don't want to be bothered with an elderly person. Often, it's the safest thing for someone who needs round-the-clock monitoring. Years ago, my mother-in-law refused to put her elderly mother in a nursing home, despite advanced dementia. The woman didn't get turned and massaged as she needed, and developed horrible bedsores, which got infected. My mother-in-law insisted she was "doing the noble thing" and tried to care for her right up until her death. The poor woman would have been much better cared for in a nursing home with round-the-clock staff, but she imagined that she would be "abandoning" her if she did that. It was a frustrating thing to watch happen.

[Cheesecake101]

Originally Posted by bandonurse

You're right on everything you said, of course, Cheesecake. I agree that, along the way Sophia did, indeed, dispense sound and wise advice.

I make my comments based on how I would feel if the behavior of the characters were taking place in real life. If it were, Sophia would actually belong in at least assisted living, if not a supervised nursing home. She almost bashed Rose over the head with a heavy frying pan, imagining it would "cure her insomnia."

Caused by the stroke or not, when someone is a danger to themselves or others, they belong under some type of supervision. Not out of punishment, but to protect both her, and any innocent person she might inadvertently harm.

I also question whether everything Sophia did could be blamed on her stroke. Blurting out insults is one thing. But a pre-meditated, calculated effort to steal money from the Government, her daughter's purse, and insistence on going on her own daughter's dates with her, clearly exhibited at least early dementia. Many of her stories clearly couldn't have been factual, but she seemed to vehemently believe they really happened.

As a retired nurse, my feeling toward nursing homes is probably different than many people's. It's NOT a punishment, or something relatives resort to when they don't want to be bothered with an elderly person. Often, it's the safest thing for someone who needs round-the-clock monitoring. Years ago, my mother-in-law refused to put her elderly mother in a nursing home, despite advanced dementia. The woman didn't get turned and massaged as she needed, and developed horrible bedsores, which got infected. My mother-in-law insisted she was "doing the noble thing" and tried to care for her right up until her death. The poor woman would have been much better cared for in a nursing home with round-the-clock staff, but she imagined that she would be "abandoning" her if she did that. It was a frustrating thing to watch happen.

I guess I never thought of it that way... I can understand because my grandfather is in a nursing home and he suffers from alzhiemers and I remember how bad things got for him before my mama had to put him in one for his own safety. We tried to keep him at home for as long as possible and take care of him the best we could but in the end he couldn't even get out of bed and neither me nor my mama were strong enough to lift him.

I guess the show did give a misconception about nursing homes being a punishment for elderly people but they're really not. Some people really do need the assistance and care that they provide by professionals who are trained to handle the problems that old age can bring.