Chapter 19 - Like Father

Pointing to Eleanor Thomas as the Major earthly influence to Oliver's Genius is easy. She did intend to develop a child genius and she did have a genius child. Still, the amount of direct contact between Eleanor and Oliver is almost insignificant in comparison to the time spent with his father, John. Oliver's love for so-called higher culture is due almost exclusively to his mother's care but there is also a near certainty that Oliver's superior understanding of lower popular culture, and perhaps the genetic capacity for intelligence (if such a thing exists) came exclusively from his father, John.

John was a second generation television programming executive. His father George Thomas had been mildly successful developing the early situation comedies. John himself was most famous for helping make Saturday morning cartoons a cultural phenomenon.

He Married Eleanor when they were both 27 and Oliver was born just before his 32nd birthday. The idea of being a father was a great excitement to John. Upon learning that his wife was pregnant, he immediately, began to assemble an archive of all of the greats in children's programming that he kept locked up for a time when the new son or daughter would be able to appreciate television, and also perhaps to hide it from Eleanor who might not have understood.

By the time the archive came out, Oliver was eight years old. Every evening when the homework was done and the dishes were clean, John and Oliver would watch an hour of classic television together then the two would discuss what they had watched over dessert.

The discussions always began with John asking the same two questions. First, 'did you like the program?' and second, 'why?' The greatest sin in the two-man household was to say that one liked or disliked something 'just because.' There had to be a reason backing every opinion. This wasn't often a problem for young Oliver who had inherited his fathers propensity for considering many aspects of an idea. Often, if Oliver could not say right away why he felt a certain way he could make a hypothesis and intuitively find his way to something that rang true. John was very patient and encouraging and the evening conversations did much to foster a love of both logic and opinions that was a defining part of Oliver's character.