idk if i ever made a post about this but i wanted to say my theory

based on journal 3 i think its actually really likely that fiddleford’s wife had already left him by the time ford called fiddleford and invited him to oregon

i think this because of a couple of reasons (also this got really long so im putting it below a readmore)

fiddleford never wears a ring. never. not even in the flashbacks when he’s at home in his garage fiddleford packs up and leaves in a matter of days; if he was leaving a family you’d think it would take a bit more time to make accommodations like how to take care of the child if no one is home the only time he ever mentions his (immediate) family is when he’s staring longingly at a photograph of them; could be interpreted as he still missed his family // feels guilty about what happened he only says that “thinking of them keeps [me] grounded”. this can be interpreted in a lot of ways but based on his attitude in the journal i took it to mean that he can’t shoot too high; he thinks that having a family is ambitious enough and that settling down isn’t really settling because it’s difficult

plus he only mentions his family once; everything else is inferred by ford. he never mentions phone calls or writing or even vacations or visits back home at one point he and ford come across a massive pterosaur skeleton and fiddleford acts strangely uncomfortable around it. i think this is because he is remembering the giant homicidal pterodactyl he supposedly built after his wife left him when he quits working for ford, he doesn’t go back to california; he stays in gravity falls. why wouldn’t he just go back to live with his family? because his wife already left him

i know it’s mostly interpretive but the reason i bring it up is because i think it’s just as likely that he didn’t have a family as it is that he did so ahhhhh