"A Community"
Map created by Ross Martin
Point of Pines is a town on the Atlantic Coast in Massachusetts, home to a thriving community of individuals belonging to the demogrpahic commonly referred to as "townies" or "hometown heroes." With no reason to leave Point f Pines and the secuirty it offers its residents, the world the surrounds Point of Pines is mysterious and distant, producing feels of animosity, suspicion, and wonder for those residents. The result is a microcosmic neighborhood rife with the "small-town" characteristics. And, at the center of it all is the Point of Pines legend, Tom O'Neil, our Super-Townie.
People Places The World Beyond... Tom O'Neil O'Neil Home Ten Hills Delores O'Neil Tip of the Pine Quincy Megan O'Neil Local 27 Florida Tommy O'Neil Silverbird's Office Vinny The Point of Pines Cougars Danny Silverbird Frank Lou Mikey Sourface People
Tom O'Neil is the Super-Townie. Born and raised in Point of Pines, Tom has spent his entire life in pursuit of the American Dream, or rather his idea of the American Dream. After a relatively normal childhood and adolescence, Tom had a unique epiphany that opened the door for him to be the townie he is today. Whatever shred of normalcy and socially-accepted ambition existed prior to this experience vanished and Tom abandoned his obscure life goals and dreams, instead remodeling himself after the townies he had seen around Point of Pines for his whole life. He has never been the same since. Tom's world shrunk to include only his hometown of Point of Pines, the larger, more urban and industrial city of Quincy, Point of Pines' football rival Ten Hills, and of course the townie promised-land, Florida. He married his High School sweetheart, Delores, and Tom followed in the footsteps of every other Point of Pines resident who had no further education - he applied for and acquired a job working at Local 27, the Pine and Sapling Union based in Point of Pines. Twenty years and two children later, Tom lives the same absent-minded, self-absorbed, self-sabotaging life he began when he first had his life-changing experience. And while he seems to be the crux of every problem his family and friends incur, he somehow maintains his legendary status and draws tireless forgiveness and endearment from all those around him.
Also born and raised in Point of Pines, Delores was fell in love with Tom when they were just sophomores at Point of Pines High School. She failed to see the consequences of Tom's "townie" revelation and happily agreed to marry and start a family with him. Since then, their marriage has become embittered and hostile, intact only because neither of them see any alternative. She habitually attempts to live her life as though Tom does not exist, running errands, gallivanting with Brad, the object of her extramarital affair, being a decent mother, and spending her free time watching Real Housewives of Point of Pines and other trashy television. Despite her misery, she has found a relatively calm medium in her life, so long as Tom is not present.
Megan is Tom and Delores' oldest child. She was popular in high school but suffered constant shame as a result of her father's infamous status as a deadbeat, drunken townie in Point of Pines. She graduated with good grades and left Point of Pines to attend Quincy University, resenting her father on a daily basis for his emotional detachment and also for his financial inability to send her somewhere far more remote for college.
Tommy has been counting down the days until he turns eighteen since his earliest memories. A somewhat reserved, nerdy kid, Tommy wants so badly to leave Point of Pines and never turn back. The only thing keeping him from reaching this seemingly tangible goal is his geography class, which has become the bane of his existence. In his spare time, Tommy programs computers in solitude and once operated his father's pornographic website when he was ten years old, a business venture that enabled Tom to screw his son out of hundreds of dollars and gain the attention of Child Protective Services. Tommy hates his father with a passion and curses every day that he has to share a roof with the man.
Tom's best friend since high school, Vinny is similar in nearly every respect to Tom, with the glaring exception being that Vinny is a realist and recognizes his mundane place in society. He is a townie in every sense of the word, working with Tom at Local 27, drinking daily at Tip of the Pine, and attending the weekly Point of Pines Cougars football games. Vinny cares about Tom and is always on board to compassionately suffer the trials and tribulations of his best friend, yet he dismisses Tom's grand plans and schemes as an idealistic waste of time. In line with Vinny's contentedness with simply living in the moment, spending his time practicing the daily routine he established decades earlier, his most noticeable idiosyncrasy is his compulsion to one-up everything Tom says with a bigger and better complaint and to tell nonsensical stories littered with non-sequiturs.
One of the Point of Pines inhabitants who could have gotten out and made it big, Danny is stuck with Vinny and Tom in the endless cycle of union work, alcoholic drinking, and meandering about their odd hometown. Danny is intelligent and wise, always supplying Tom with a rational solution to his mounting trivial "problems", a solution that Tom either ignores or misunderstands, much to Danny's chagrin. There was a time in Danny's past when it appeared to everyone that he would make it out, land a respectable, well-paying job in Quincy or elsewhere, but Tom inevitably involved himself and destroyed all of Danny's hopes. The incident has long since been forgotten by most of Point of Pines, but Danny is reminded every so often of the life he could have lived had Tom O'Neil not been a part of his life.
Another of Tom's old buddies from high school, Silverbird had big dreams and grand aspirations, but he fell victim to the same townie vacuum that sucked in Tom, Danny, and Vinny, rendering him an ambulance-chasing emotional wreck, spending more time in court fighting for custody of his son than he does actually litigating. Every day that goes by is another reason for Silverbird to end his pitiful life, but there is that tiny glimmer of hope in his heart that things might one day turn around for him.
Frank has found his niche in life and in Point of Pines - he is the reserved, beloved bartender at Tip of the Pine, Tom and company's favorite haunt. Always skeptical about Tom's manipulative plans and mischievous social behavior, he tries to remain unaware of the plots unraveling before him and stick to serving Pine's Porter, the town's famously mediocre beer.
Another one of Tom's old high school buddies, Lou was also destined to relative greatness outside of Point of Pines, but as a result of one of Tom's practical jokes gone wrong he remained stuck in Point of Pines. After acquiring an associate's degree at Point of Pines Community College, Lou took a job at Local 27 and quickly rose to the position of supervisor before hitting his glass ceiling. Around the same time he joined Local 27, Tom, Vinny, and Danny were just becoming the core members of the loose-knit union crew. Fearing that his son Mikey would never amount to anything, Lou begrudgingly hired the boy when he turned eighteen and loathes every day that he has to put up with Tom's condescending mockery and his own son's mental impotence.
Another one of Tom's old high school buddies, Lou was also destined to relative greatness outside of Point of Pines, but as a result of one of Tom's practical jokes gone wrong he remained stuck in Point of Pines. After acquiring an associate's degree at Point of Pines Community College, Lou took a job at Local 27 and quickly rose to the position of supervisor before hitting his glass ceiling. Around the same time he joined Local 27, Tom, Vinny, and Danny were just becoming the core members of the loose-knit union crew. Fearing that his son Mikey would never amount to anything, Lou begrudgingly hired the boy when he turned eighteen and loathes every day that he has to put up with Tom's condescending mockery and his own son's mental impotence.
The only gay man that Point of Pines has ever had the pleasure of knowing, Sourface was once a regular on the streets of Tom's hometown, until he found that Point of Pines' rival community, Ten Hills, had a larger gay and lesbian population, leading to his decision to relocate. His real name is Darryl, but for some inexplicable reason he has picked up the nickname "Sourface" along the way. Sourface is a self-made millionaire, investing in multiple business ventures and even dabbling in innovation. His first original creation was the up-and-coming cure-all cream applicant, Myolex, and he used the profits gained from patenting the product to purchase a nice house in the woods of Ten Hills. He has become a socialite, drawn to the finer things in life like radishes and farmer's markets. All was going well until he one day ran into Tom, whom he knew vaguely from high school.
Places
Though Tom takes pride in his self-proclaimed "simple" lifestyle, his erratic and disruptive behavior has been the source of irreversible trouble for decades. As a result, the O'Neil family frequently relocates, though always staying within the town limits of Tom's beloved Point of Pines. Rarely spending more than a year or two in one house or apartment, Tom habitually fixates on his neighbors' grave violations of his privacy and rights and quickly ruins their relationship, forcing himself and his family to move elsewhere in the small town.
Owned and operated by the mellow Point of Pines resident, Frank, Tip of the Pine is the town hot spot. Complete with a jukebox full of obscure and mainstream townie music, a minuscule selection of cheap bourbon for Danny and both draught and bottled Pine's Porter for everybody else, Tip of the Pine is the essential townie bar. At the corner nearest the front door sits, every day at lunch and every evening, Vinny and Danny, always to be joined sooner or later by Tom.
In order to maintain its coniferous appearance, Point of Pines implemented long ago the occupation of "pine and sapling planters", which was a job typically held by Nauruan immigrants until the start of the twentieth century, when the Pine and Sapling Union was created, initially barring foreign-born workers, forcing the entirety of the Nauruan population in Point of Pines to flee to Ten Hills and Quincy. When the Pine and Sapling Union began, it was a small operation, but over the course of the twentieth century the organization grew and moved their headquarters to Quincy, establishing Local 27 in Point of Pines as the flagship branch. Now, many of the Point of Pines townies work for Local 27, traveling across town planting saplings and trees on the sidewalk and hammering cobblestone beds down around the trunks. Because only 3% of Tom's graduating class went on to pursue higher education, many of Tom's friends wound up at Local 27, including Vinny and Danny. Lou is the supervisor at Local 27 and reluctantly partook in nepotism when he hired his inept son Mikey into the core pine and sapling planting crew, the one consisting of Tom, Vinny, and Danny.
Unable to afford to buy himself a proper sign or billboard advertising his law firm, Silverbird rented a dilapidated office in a building already housing another law firm; Silverbird took advantage of the fact that this other firm had already paid to have the words "Law Office" posted on the facade. With access to an enormous parking lot and a skilled receptionist, Melody, one would think that Silverbird has it made. Only that hardly seems to be the case. With mounting stress, a custody battle, a long, drawn-out divorce, and basically nothing to look forward to in life, Silverbird's office serves as just another place for him to huddle up into a ball when nobody is looking and cry.
Without a single recorded victory, The Cougars are the pride and joy of Point of Pines. Their motto - "Fortitude!" - can be heard in repetition throughout the halls of Point of Pines High School and at the football games. Kyle Mermelli, the son of one of Tom's many neighbors over the years, is The Cougars quarterback and Beaver, Tommy's classmate and friend, is the kicker.
The World Beyond...
Ten Hills is the town just south of Quincy. It is, in every way, the antithesis of Point of Pines, or at least that is how Tom perceives it. With a more yuppie, culturally in-tune population, Ten Hills has farmers markets where Point of Pines has drunken barbecues; in opposition to Tip of the Pine, Ten Hills has their own hip pub, Top of the Hill. Instead of the Local 27 Pine and Sapling Union, Ten Hills has the Local 28 Tree Removal Union. Where Point of Pines has their winless high school football team The Cougars, Ten Hills has the undefeated Ten Hills Tigers, whose motto is "Courage! Rawr!" If Tom had his way, Ten Hills would be wiped off the map. But, at the same time, without Ten Hills there would be no Point of Pines.
Commonly referred to as "The Big City", Quincy is the metropolitan center of Tom O'Neil's world. In the collective viewpoint of Tom and his townie compatriots, Quincy is the object of wonder and majesty in Point of Pines. The towering buildings, some boasting double-digit floors, summon respect and awe in Tom, Vinny, and the other Point of Pines hometown heroes. To sum it all up in Tom's exact words to Silverbird, "You're the fancy lawyer, handling trials in The Big City. I'm just a simple man with a property problem." Currently, Tom's only connection to Quincy is his daughter's enrollment at Quincy University.
If Carl Jung were still alive and had the misfortune of seeing Tom as a patient, he would probably conclude that Tom's only source of existential fulfillment is his pipe dream of one day vacationing in Florida. His desire for wealth and riches stems directly from his fixation on the subtropical paradise. Tom has never been to Florida and neither have most of the residents of Point of Pines, making it seem all the more like an actual Shangri-La to the throng of townies.
