The sealed car and Lynn's blinkered vision.

[dreadedcandiru2]

The end result of this disdain Lynn has for customs not to her tastes is that every so often, we are presented with stock imagery that depicts the Pattersons as living in a nightmarish world. While this will later lead the Pattersons to try to dodge fiftieth birthday parties because they fear that they'll lose their credibility or some such thing, what we have to do during weddings is look at people do something no one in recorded history has ever done: sealing a car and filling it with garbage thereby forcing the bride to seek alternate transportation. It happened to Phil and Georgia, it happened to Mike and Deanna, it probably happened to Liz and Anthony and the only reason it didn't happen to Gordon and Tracey is that their get-away car was a Ford half-ton. Lynn loves this image because she hates that custom.

The reason, I should think, is that one of the few things that remains consistent each time she tells it is that she doesn't really see the point of involving a host of hangers-on to what she views as something that should only be between the people confirming their life-long partnership. Just as she makes Farley into a punching-bag to admit that the only thing that her mother really had right is that animals in the house on purpose is a dumb idea, she makes weddings and birthdays for people over twenty into gaudy farces in order to shame the masses into abandoning customs not to her tastes. If she can't enjoy something, she's gotta make sure no one else does so she doesn't feel like a freak or a spoilsport.