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What is the big deal?? None of us that were young at the same time died from being sent to bed with no supper or made to behave in any way. Maybe if we went back to some of that we would not have so many young people in such serious trouble!!!!!!!

Brenda, MI

I've read this strip since I was ten years old, and while I appreciate the "back to the beginning" concept, I am disappointed that there seems to be little effort to fit today's world into the strip. I can count the number of mothers who stay at home and watch soap operas on one hand...wait, I don't even need a hand. This is the world I grew up in and I recognize my mother and me. But this approach will turn off new readers and is turning off this old reader. It's not quaint, it's borderline offensive and I'm disappointed to see characters who came so far regressing even it if is the late 70's or early 80's. Irony works for Mad Men, not FBOFW.

Jennifer, Ottawa, ON

Sometimes I find myself saying things like "this was the mid-eighties, that's the way things were then." I've even posted such a sentiment in Coffee Talk. Then I got to thinking, this was the eighties, not the fifties. Most phones were push-button by then (a few rotary, but not many). ATM machines were available outside most banks (but not in grocery stores or gas stations). This was the time of the Equal Rights Amendment and women in the workplace were not only accepted but commonplace, just as Connie is. Stay-at-home moms were more common than now, but not as much as when I grew up in the fifties and sixties. I guess what I'm trying to say is that John's attitudes and utterances seem to be more rooted in the fifties than the eighties. But then again, that's what made it funny in the eighties (and now).

Jan C, Victorville, CA

Folks remember that these are redo's of strips written 20 years ago. The artwork has been redone, but not necessarily the conversations. In 1980's that was still the way it was in many households where there was one income earner and one stay at home parent with small children. Times have changed and most families have dual earners and more equality in spending patterns.

Margaret S, Richmond, VA

Oh, boy, does your strip bring it all back . . . my kids are teens and tweens now, but this week's strips brought back to me all the chaos and mess, and longing for something more -- something better --anything, even becoming a short-order cook!

Joyce, Des Plaines, IL

Just wanted to add another comment concerning Steve B.'s mention of the rotary phones a few days back. When we lived in Okinawa Japan (with the US military) less than 10 years ago, we had a rotary phone in our on-base home. My kids, who were early teens at the time, had only ever seen one other rotary phone (at my parents' home), and I actually had to show them how to use it. They thought it was the coolest thing to have something that their friends back in the States didn't have!

Janell B, SD

Glad I get the chance to tell you that I love this comic strip because it is just so down to earth! Everybody at one time or other can relate to Ellie. Glad we get to read these from the past.

Mary Ann, Hornell, NY

My younger sister and April were born in the same week and there is a strong resembalance in their actions and oddly enough in looks also.

Sarah S, Enid, OK

Is it just me who thinks this or is the little boy who Farley inadvertently rescues in the book a very young Anthony? I mean, he's about the right age and has red hair so it could be him. If so, he's got a deeper connection to the Pattersons than anyone ever guessed.

Paul J, Saint John, NB