Lynn's Comments: I have had a number of readers contact me to say they too had been students of Mrs. Hardacre. Isn't it amazing how well we remember these people! Then again, our teachers were as influential to many of as our parents were.
Author Archives: stripfix
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Lynn's Comments: This is a small glimpse into a day in my life. My grade three teacher kept me after school on the last day to tell me that after all the conflict we had endured together during the year, she thought I was basically a good kid. This was the attitude that most of my teachers had....and when Aaron's teachers gave him "the talk" I knew exactly where they were coming from.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Lynn's Comments: These children were part of a group of friends including Deanna Sobinski who were always in the background and never part of the story. It wasn't until the kids became teenagers that their friends took on personalities and played a role. This was a good thing, because the story was already becoming complicated with the introduction of relatives and the developing relationships with the adults' friends.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Lynn's Comments: I remember being so distraught that I could break stuff. At the end of my rope, I'd scream and cry and flop down on the floor exhausted and empty and defeated. This was last week!
Seriously, when you're too young to understand and too inexperienced to deal with life's situations, collapsing in tears is the only way to respond. We've all been there and despite the fact that you look like someone to avoid...this is usually the time when you need love and understanding more than anything else in the world!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Lynn's Comments: We rarely knew our teachers' first names and never knew where they lived. They just sort of showed up at the school and disappeared when classes were over. I once saw a teacher coming out of the washroom in a restaurant and it was hard to imagine he had been doing something we all had to do! By the same token, it was tough to make eye contact with a teacher who was pregnant, knowing she had done what had to be done to get that way. I think teachers are allowed to be human, now, and it must be a good thing.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Lynn's Comments: My folks had a jewelry store. They carried china, glassware and other gift items as well. This meant they were often asked to provide gifts for our teacher and they would ask me to help them decide what to give to whom. It was difficult to choose something for a teacher I wasn't fond of and the first thing that came to mind was to select something DUMB! I found myself, instead, choosing something beautiful, and in so doing I would rethink my feelings for the person it was for. Gift giving is such an important gesture, and for many more reasons than you'd think!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Lynn's Comments: My brothers' smoking was always a bone of contention. He was still puffing when I did this strip and I was still trying to get him to stop. I don't think he ever blew up the kiddie pool, but he did play the trumpet professionally and I wondered how his lungs held out!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Lynn's Comments: I don't think my brother ever wished I'd been a brother and my wanting a sister was set aside when I saw friends fighting with their sisters over clothes and dolls and hairpins. Aaron never said that a brother would have been preferable to Kate... so, this idea came from somewhere other than "us". Still, from listening to conversations over the years, I knew that for somebody somewhere, this thought rang true.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Lynn's Comments: Again, this is all from memory. This is my brother and me doing nasty, irritating things to each other, just to cause a rift. Perhaps it's because we were easily bored. Perhaps it's because it rained a lot and we always seemed to be indoors. For some reason, we couldn't pass up an opportunity to upset one another and this lasted until we were in our teens. No wonder our folks were so pleased when we moved out!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Lynn's Comments: This was a "game" my brother Alan and I invented. It was a subtle kind of teasing which involved eye contact - or the lack thereof. We'd stare at each other - glaring, menacing, then calmly look away when a parent came by. We would enrage each other - and it's awfully hard to plead your case when there's no evidence of wrongdoing. I'm glad my kids didn't read my stuff, because I would have had to explain what this was about and they would have done it, too!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Lynn's Comments: Like most little girls, I was fascinated by make up and wanted to try it on. My mom didn't use much and what she had was out of bounds. Had I ever gone into her cosmetics without permission, I would have been in serious doo doo. One of my mothers' friends was a sales rep for Avon. She carried a stunning assortment of tiny "trial-sized" lipsticks which she gave away when the line changed and the colours were discontinued. Mom was often the recipient of her generosity and when the tiny tubes were empty, I would retrieve them from the garbage and use a toothpick to get the last smudge of colour from the bottom. Sometimes I'd find a big tube tossed away, which was great - except that the colour was always far too red. In order to get away with wearing the stuff, I would heat the tube and mix the lipstick with Vaseline.
I managed to sneak the slightly rouged lips past my mom... until I left the tube in my pocket. This, of course went into the wash - leaving a load of laundry covered in red blobs. Too angry to speak, Mom took the ruined clothing upstairs and with a philosophical "what have I got to lose" attitude, she boiled the lot with soap powder in her big canning pot. All of the lipstick came out of the clothing! I was saved. Then it was time for the inevitable lecture about being too young and sneaking around. The next day, she came home from work with a tube of pale pink lip gloss. I had my lipstick and I could wear it openly. Nice touch! Having the "real thing" however, sort of dampened the spirit of adventure and I lost interest in make up until I was in my early teens!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Lynn's Comments: I so enjoyed my children's innocent years. The way they look at you - as if you ruled the world; as if everything you said was genius and true - makes you feel larger than life and I guess in a way, you are. Too bad it take so little time for them to discover the truth!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Lynn's Comments: Before the onset of menopause, my feet were always cold. I wore long cotton nightgowns and slept with my socks on (still do!) I don't think I pulled this trick too many times, but the idea was funny and the drawing was fun! Any opportunity to show a character hollering with a mouth wide open like this made my day!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Lynn's Comments: During my first marriage, I spent a lot of time at night listening for our car to come down the driveway. I knew instinctively the sound of the engine and the pattern the headlights made on the walls. I'd feel guilty for being mistrustful, but then again, my husband was doing things I'd never do to him and his excuses never seemed to resolve things. This scene was easy to do and it felt good to write about it.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Lynn's Comments: The good thing about having two characters together in a situation like this is that the dialogue can be much more fun. You can be more creative when there are two takes on a subject. A glowering last statement is much more effective if it's delivered to an individual and not to an empty space.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Lynn's Comments: Being at home when your spouse is with friends is usually a time to relax and enjoy the solitude. During my first marriage I was left at home too often, however, and the feeling of unrest is easy to recall. I remember wondering where he was, what he was doing and with whom he was doing it. In this strip, I turned the scenario around. Here it's the GUY who's left out and wondering if "something" is going on!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Lynn's Comments: When I did this strip I hadn't written an exam in years, but the memory of the challenge, the anxiety, and the thrill of getting it over with will never be forgotten. Having finished a difficult exam I would panic and wish I could go over it just once more. Turns out that your first answer is almost always the right one and there's danger in having time to "fix" what you thought was an error!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Lynn's Comments: Like most dogs tall enough to reach the porcelain receptacle, Farley enjoyed a "fresh" cool swig from the commode. The sound of his lapping was intensified by the shape of the bowl, so the "slorping, galooping" effects were as entertaining as he was. What I did object to was the trail of water that poured from his hairy mug when he left the bathroom.
I was more concerned about cleaning up after him than I was about his choice of water sources. I kept the biff pretty clean and besides - dogs chew on every disgusting thing they can find anyway. I tried to keep the toilet seat down, but living with men rather thwarts any success there. The trail of post-refreshment liquid really got me down, but I lived with it for the love of Farley.
The head-bashing incident belongs to a friend who told me that her three year old son decided to take matters into his own hands after hearing his mom complain about this same problem. She was shocked to find him smacking the family pooch on the noggin as he drank from the toilet. She gave her son a lecture about abusing animals and sent him to his room for a time out. Later she confessed that despite her son's unkind behaviour...the dog had been cured of a bad habit. In other words, he had "put a lid on it"!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Lynn's Comments: This is one of the "put-down" punchlines that so often got me into trouble. Readers would ask why John was so unsupportive; why I made him look so mean. My husband wouldn't say something like this...but, for some reason, I did these things without really thinking about it. Some day, maybe I'll figure it all out.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Lynn's Comments: This one was a regular scenario. My studio was in the house and the kids knew when I was so into my work that I was "gone". They were pretty good about it, but now and then, they let me know - in a way kids do - that it was time to come out of the zone and be Mom again!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Lynn's Comments: I've said before that my brother's idea of a week's worth of groceries was several cases of beer. Well, he still comes to visit me with "groceries" but now he brings a more expensive brand!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Lynn's Comments: In Lynn Lake, there were only a few meters before you hit pay dirt on the road in front of the house. Aaron carried a constant dusting of grime wherever he went and this was a good line. I wish it had been his - but it was mine!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Lynn's Comments: The line "dumper-dumpee" occurred to me when I was a single mom. I was commiserating with my friend, Adrienne, who was in the same boat. Our husbands had "dumped" us both and we wondered if WE'D ever be the ones to say "goodbye".
Monday, May 23, 2011
Lynn's Comments: I had been doing the strip long enough by now to let a punch line go in favour of a "cliff hanger". I hoped the readers would be sufficiently tuned in to the characters and their relationships to look for a continuation the next day.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Lynn's Comments: Here is a scenario that would play out many times in my housewifely career: you make easy meals which cover all the food groups, you leave them in the fridge to be accessed by the troops and without a second thought, they bypass your well organized and clearly labeled containers...and eat junk. On your return from wherever it is you went, you then find your freshly prepared grub reduced to dried, moldering leftovers - having never seen plate nor palate.
So, you say the next time you fly the coop, there will be no meal preparation in advance and the troops can fend for themselves. I tried this once and the response was "What? You didn't MAKE us anything?" You can't win - which is why the freezer is such a good invention.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Lynn's Comments: When we accept the role of mom, we become a nurse, a psychologist, a short order cook, a laundress and an alarm clock. Our day seems to belong to everyone else. Everything has its schedule and coordinating lunches, school activities and the general business of living leaves little time in the morning for extras. There's no time to spend on make up and hair spray - we are our basic selves. I was miffed one time to be told that I used to look GOOD in the morning! This is another strip that says out loud what I was thinking.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Lynn's Comments: When I read the strips which ask serious questions...I realize there were serious answers left unsaid.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Lynn's Comments: Every time my brother went off to do a show or escort a lady to dinner, I was a bit jealous, and very curious. If I had rented my garage to a stranger, I would have left well enough alone – but because this was my brother, I had to know what was going on and with whom he was going! He was pretty good-natured about my prying. I believed I was the one with no life and all the responsibility and there were times that he thought so, too.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Lynn's Comments: Aaron was just a baby when Alan became a roommate. Aaron was thrilled to have a man around; one with a sense of humor and the time to play rough and tumble with him. It was surprising to see how well they got along together and today, my son and my brother are still the best of friends.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Lynn's Comments: Smoking has always been a problem for me. Both my folks smoked and it was my job to clean the ashtrays. Because of the jewelry/gift shop, we had an ashtray on every surface, it seemed, and emptying them was a chore I hated! The ceiling above Dad's chair was yellow and the curtains always had the stale smell of smoke. I would kneel on the couch, looking out the window through the sheers and vow that in my own house, there would be no smoking. It was therefore a bone of contention between Alan and I when he moved in with his habit and his reluctance to smoke outside.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Lynn's Comments: My friend Adrienne went back to school when she was 30. She finished her grade 12 and went on to become a lab technician in the blood lab at McMaster University. She was a single mom with more courage and determination than most. She made me realize that you can do anything - at any age, if you really want to. With "Andie" in mind, I had Elly go back to school and take some of the courses she had missed.