Connie: Browse The Strips

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Lynn's Comments: Taking your elementary school woes home to mom was often an unrewarding experience. Grownups forget just how stressful and meaningful these first relationships can be. My mom tried to comfort and understand, but she'd often brush my worries aside, saying things like "you'll have plenty of time for"...well, whatever! Time isn't a factor when you have no concept of time. When your world is a blur of new people, new feelings and new things to learn, time is just another four letter word.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Lynn's Comments: Moms need best friends, too; someone to confide in, someone who will tell it like it is. Friends who tell you the truth with kindness and diplomacy are a gift. I am lucky to have such friends.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Lynn's Comments: Without knowing it, Connie has been taking her frustrations out on Lawrence. Desperate for companionship herself, she has unwittingly upset her son. Sensing ambivalence and insecurity in his mom, Lawrence has become worried and insecure as well. There is nothing more rewarding than telling your kids that you're not perfect, you're sorry and they are so very loved.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Lynn's Comments: Here is where I switched to another storyline. In order to keep the Connie and Ted arc going, I included this strip. I guess I should have stuck with hockey, but at the time I was into the politics of the game and not too keen on drawing the boys in the arena. What had happened was; Aaron had gone on a trip to the "playoffs" in Thompson. It was a long ride in a school bus and the team had to be billeted with families there. Because he was not one of the strongest players, he and several other boys sat on the side hardly getting to skate at all. When they returned one of the chaperones called to say that her son and Aaron had only skated for 30 seconds, during the whole time they were there! I was furious. I knew there was a tournament to win - but these were such young kids and such favouritism was so unfair. Together the other mother and I went to see the coach to find out, cordially, "what could be done". It was evident that the answer was "nothing". After that, our boys left the team, gave up their gear and skated for the fun of it. Parents worry about their kids getting hurt playing hockey. Not much is said about the emotional hurt of being left out of the game!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Lynn's Comments: The story of Connie and her unhappy relationships, again, is my story. When I was single (the first time) I went through a few frustrating relationships. I had a wonderful friend, however - a woman I'd met at the university when I worked there as a medical artist. She was a bit younger than my mom and became my mentor and confidante. I was sitting in her kitchen after a particularly confusing date...wondering aloud if I should see this man again when Marjorie said; "you have to decide: ...are you in love or in need?" Good question. The answer hurt. I moved on.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Lynn's Comments: In order to tie up the hockey scenario, I wrote this. Game over. Subject closed. There were no sidewalks in town and my kids never did roller skate. This is when the town of Milborough began to evolve. Lynn Lake, where we actually lived, was a northern mining town of about 1200 people. The next community of Leaf Rapids was 60 miles away and Thompson Manitoba was 300 miles of dirt road south from there. We were isolated. Our small Cessna aircraft was a regular every day vehicle as much as it was a luxury. We needed it for work: Rod went into the native communities one week out of every month and my work took me out of town quite often, too. We had a good airport, but the "sked" (scheduled flight) was expensive and often inconvenient. Not many people could relate to the actual life we lived, and so houses, streets, bridges, and the business district where "John Patterson" had his dental office began to take shape in my head .... and therefore, in "the strip".

Monday, March 7, 2011

Lynn's Comments: This was my abrupt way of storytelling. In the early 80's I was still learning how to make my 30 seconds a day morph into a story. I wanted there to be a rift between Connie and Ted, partly because I thought he was a schmuck, and just to keep things interesting. Had I been doing this segment today, I would have told their story in detail.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Lynn's Comments: The way I saw it...Ted lived with an overbearing mother. The arrangement worked well for him as she did his laundry, made his meals and also made most of his decisions. There would never be a woman good enough for her son and she saw to it that Connie was a reject, even before the relationship got off the ground. In my head I knew what had happened and how the breakup had taken place, but I never told the story to the readers. At the time, I thought I could get away with such instant info, but it's hard for an audience to buy into something they haven't witnessed for themselves. It was a "learn as you go" situation and I eventually became a better writer.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Lynn's Comments: When you are married and in your 30s, your intimate circle of friends tends to be married couples, too. With the complexities of cohabitation come inevitable clashes and you often find yourselves consoling and commiserating with one another. I learned the hard way to not tell a woman friend what I really thought of her husband. My friend "Alice" was married to a fellow I thought was a genuine cad! When he left her for another woman, I told her so - and said she was better off without him. Six months later, she and her husband reconciled and I was out of the picture. It's safer to console without criticism!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Lynn's Comments: This Sunday page was also done as a result of a television program. The National Film Board had started a sort of documentary on FBorFW and a crew had been sent to Lynn Lake to record the local "colour". One of the things we ladies did for fun was to attend different demonstrations in each others' homes. Small private sales events were as popular then as they are now. We went to Tupperware and candle sales, clothing shows, cooking and make up demonstrations - anything that would get us out of the house and into an adult environment. Booze was optional, but certainly helped augment the ambiance and the sales. For the sake of the Film Board, I agreed to host a makeup demonstration in my home. The process required the participants to allow their hair to be tied back so that a variety of goops and granules could be spread on our faces. This was not appreciated by some of the ladies who had never been on television and didn't want their debut to be mid toilette. After a bit of cajoling and a few drinks, we proceeded to give the NFB the inside scoop on the home facial demo...doing what we could to make this the highlight of the film. It took hours and many applications of facial stuff before we could call it quits. The ladies departed with grateful thanks from all involved and I promised them a copy of the video if it ever came to be. It did. The all-day makeup demonstration, with retakes, reasks, and redos, however, was reduced to less than two minutes of the film. In the end, no one complained. It was fun to do, but none of us really wanted to see the results. Some things are best left on the cutting room floor!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Lynn's Comments: My brother's love life, at the time, was not complicated. In fact I think he was on the loose and happy to be free! He was leaving Vancouver and moving to Ontario, which overshadowed everything else. Later, when I wrote stories for FBorFW, I mixed up all kinds of things. Memories were used as resources and characters came from both my imagination and reality. Connie did not exist. Her character was based on someone real, but had morphed considerably. Her crush on Elly's brother, Phil, was just a fun idea and good fodder for the strip. I had no plans for where this relationship would lead - I let the story go where it wanted to go. In fact, Connie's loneliness came wholly from my own experience as a single mother - everything she said came from some painful places I needed to visit again.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Elly's younger brother was a delightfully charming character whose flair for delivering a good opening line made doors open in all directions. I tried to imagine what Lawrence would think as he watched his mother flirt with uncle Phil. With his biological father out of the picture, Lawrence should have been the only man in her life. What would it be like to see his personal space invaded by someone else; someone who would be competing for his mother's affections?

Friday, May 6, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Never ask a kid a direct question unless you're prepared to hear an equally direct answer! When my grandfather read the comics page to me he would rail at the interaction between the Peanuts characters saying "Children don't talk like that! Children don't have such intellectual thoughts!" Privately, I disagreed with him. I might have been in first grade at the time, but I remember thinking "Of course we have those thoughts and ideas! We might not use the same words you do, but we're smarter than you think!"

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Lynn's Comments: When I was a single mom, I dated a man who sent my head spinning, then stopped the carousel, saying that because I was not of the same religion, I was not "forever". His family would never accept me and he was moving on. He was a serial "shiksa" man and I was number 61! In my machinations afterwards, I fantasized his return; his begging for forgiveness and his asking for another chance (fodder for a good song). This never happened to me...but in the strip, it happens to Connie. She readily accepts Phil's apology and for awhile their relationship goes on.

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.

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".

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Lynn's Comments: I moved Connie and Phil together and apart. Having been a single parent and knowing my brother so well, I imagined what their thoughts, conversations and mannerisms would be like. I was writing and drawing this from Northern Manitoba, and Alan lived in Southern Ontario. He would read the story six weeks after I'd submitted it - and, to his great credit, he never seriously objected to my taking such liberties with a character that everyone knew was "him"!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Lynn's Comments: As a newly single mom, I dated men long before I was ready to enter into another relationship. Still reeling from deceit and divorce, I'd tell my suitor details of the past - things I should have kept to myself. I figure it takes about three years for the dust to settle after a marriage break up - but when you're young, insecure and lonely you just don't have time!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Lynn's Comments: It was scenarios like this which drove my readers crazy. I learned quickly that if you annoy folks and make them wonder what in heck was going on - they'd be sure to tune in the next day!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Whenever I've needed a serious change in my life, I've changed my hair. For some reason, hair that has been fine for ages suddenly becomes ugly and HAS to be restyled. I don't know why they call it "the crowning glory"--to me, it's less of a crown and more of a barometer!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Lynn's Comments: I expected my first spouse to change after I married him. I hoped that he would have more confidence and more self-control. In retrospect, I'd now advise people to accept their prospective partners the way they are. "If your partners' quirks irritate you before you marry, I guarantee they will drive you stark raving mad afterwards!"

Monday, July 2, 2012

Lynn's Comments: My first husband, Doug, and I once left our house in the care of a friend. We were going on a road trip for a few weeks and he needed a place to stay. When we called to see if everything was ok, we could hear the sound of a party in the background. Our "friend" had let friends of his move in, and they were turning the place upside down! We cut our holiday short, came home, and threw out the lodger and his crew. Nothing was destroyed or stolen, but it took awhile to clean up. Sometimes generosity can bite you in the butt!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Lynn's Comments: When we had people over, my kids often sat quietly at the top of the stairs hoping for worthwhile gossip or a chance to sneak into the kitchen and swipe some goodies. I knew they were there. I could easily have shoved them off to bed, but as long as it wasn't a school night, I figured, out of sight, out of mind. This liberty came to an end when Aaron, after a huge ingestion of pop, decided to burp the alphabet. The hallway created the perfect amplifier. He was in bed by the time he got to "P."

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Lynn's Comments: One year, a group of us young Lynn Lake moms decided we needed a fitness class. With encouragement from an athletic girl who offered to lead the pack, eight of us met once a week at the curling club and our workouts began. Thinking this would quickly deteriorate into a social club, I went with coffee and cake in mind--but this was not to be. Our instructor took the job seriously, and under her military rule, we worked our buns off!

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Lynn's Comments: There were no sporting goods stores in town, so "work out clothes" were limited to cut-offs, tees, and cheap sneakers: the uniform of the north. Anyone wearing spandex would have immediately been branded a "southerner," a city-slicker--someone who didn't fit in. This pretty much described all of us!

Friday, January 4, 2013

Lynn's Comments: The truth of it was that we were all in pretty good shape. We walked to wherever we needed to go. We cut and piled firewood, we added to and repaired our own homes, we gardened, and in general, we worked hard. In the strip, I was imagining what it would be like to live in the city where I might have had more time to join a gym than my husband had. (Not that I would have actually joined a gym!)

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Lynn's Comments: This part of the story was right on. Our small group was put to the test. Our instructor pushed us to go past our limit as often as possible, and with each other for support, we didn't give in. It would have been too embarrassing.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Lynn's Comments: These cartoons were done after we moved from Lynn Lake to North Bay, Ontario. After being part of a regularly scheduled exercise group in a space I could walk to, I was now 20 minutes away from a gym and had no friends to work out with. In an effort to guilt myself into exercising again, I drew these and published them knowing full well I was doing nothing at all!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Lynn's Comments: There's nothing more boring in the comics than talking heads...so, in order to make this bit of dialogue more interesting, I had Elly and Connie working out at the gym. This "trick" also gave me an opportunity to get the characters out of the house and to draw them in action!