The past has a funny way of catching up with people. Sometimes, these people like to revisit old times. For others, the past is something to hide and never talk about for fear of stirring up cruel memories and disturbing secrets. For the four members of the Tyrone family, the past is an escape, but also an inevitable prison. Each character in this play longs to return to a point in the past where they were happy, but are also haunted by their respective pasts. Some Westons in Osage County are also haunted by events in the past. But unlike the Tyrones, the Westons do not welcome the past into their home at all. It forces itself into their lives and ruins what little happiness there is to have. The Tyrones, however, sit with those memories of happier times. The older generations of both families made decisions that haunted future generations and doomed not only themselves, but also their offspring. No member of either family is able to escape the events of the past unscathed. The patriarchs and matriarchs of each family made decisions that set the tone of tragedy for their children's lives. The events that occurred during the youth of this generation were the precedents by which their descendants lived. Beverly Weston and James Tyrone have both committed questionable acts in the past that affect the lives of all the other members of their families. Throughout Long Day's Journey Tyrone is reproached for being stingy; her family believes that greed is what led to Mary's addiction to morphine. This accusation plagues Tyrone, and when he and his wife begin to argue about it, he pleads with her, “Mary! For the love of God, forget the past! (O'Neill 90). ...... in the center of the paper ...... keep them. These prior events cause a ripple effect of dysfunction that touches every generation of these families. Parents' decisions in turn influence their children's lives and their children's choices. As Mary Tyrone said: “The past is the present, isn't it? It is also the future” (O’Neill 90). The quote is indicative of both families' unfortunate relationship with the past. The past always catches up with them, no matter how far they stray or how many pills they take. The Tyrones manage to escape for a short time, but it isn't forever. And the Westons' physical separation leads to an emotional isolation that is shown in Violet's final, desperate scene as she calls out for her dead husband and dead daughter. For these haunted families, the past remains both friend and demon, a relationship from which they can never truly escape.