they are best friends, Iola and Thelma do have their share of disagreements as well, most of which are instigated by outside forces. After Buzz and Sonja move out of the house for parts unknown and Fran dies in 1986, Thelma is joined by her other grandson, Bubba, Eunice and Ed's son. Her relationship with him is vastly different from the one she had with Buzz. Bubba is his mother's son, and while not as contentious and selfish as Eunice was, he is just as headstrong and stubborn, although he matured as the series progressed. He makes no fan of his Uncle Vint and Aunt Naomi when he is given Fran's old bedroom, meaning their bedroom will remain in the basement. Thelma did this because she wanted his bedroom to be next to hers, enabling her to keep better watch over him. However, with Bubba's parents having left him in Raytown while moving to Florida without telling him, Vint and Naomi were not about to begrudge him a bedroom. Thelma has a very strong aversion to her grandchildren drinking to excess. In one instance, when Bubba comes home drunk after several beers, she punished him harshly. At first, nobody in her family understands why, considering that she regularly drinks beer, until Iola tells everyone about a terrible situation with Bubba's mother, Eunice. During a Mother-Daughter banquet several years before, presumably in the 1950s, Eunice showed up quite intoxicated. Then, during a song, Eunice and Thelma started having a violent argument on stage, during which Mama revealed to everyone present the circumstances under which Eunice was conceived. (Mama: "If your daddy hadn't gotten me as drunk as you are now, you never would have been!") Such a statement might explain the rancor between Thelma and Eunice. Taking the story to heart, Bubba makes a tearful and heartfelt apology to Thelma, swearing off beer from that point forward, and Thelma, seeing how remorseful Bubba was for the incident, gladly forgives him and lifts his punishment. Thelma's embattled relationship with Eunice was not unlike the somewhat contentious relationship she had with her own mother. In her mind, Thelma's mother had no liking for anything Thelma did. In an episode where she deals with her own austere mother who haunts her for entertaining the idea of selling her brooch, Thelma calls her the same epithet that Eunice sometimes uses on her: "Old lady". At