Elizabeth: Browse The Strips

Friday, February 14, 2014

Lynn's Comments: My mom made the best cookies in the world. Her decorated sugar cookies could have won prizes for flavour and design. I haven't mastered her wonderful skill--because I just don't have the patience. Or, maybe it's just hard to see a work of art chewed up and swallowed!

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Our folks could never sneak up on us because there were so many squeaky floorboards in the hall. We, on the other hand, knew where each one was.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Lynn's Comments: The snow in Vancouver was rarely the right consistency for making snowmen, but when it was, every kid (and lots of parents) would be outside rolling and packing, and making the most of the best construction material there was. As long as a project was in progress, we were oblivious to wet knees, frozen mitts, and running noses. I remember my dad out there with a shovel making the best forts and the biggest sculptures. One week, the local paper featured a page of photographs of the most outstanding snowmen in North Vancouver -- and despite competitive efforts in every neighbourhood, the snowman that received the most comment was done by a three year old!

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Lynn's Comments: When you work with the public all day you save your rants for the folks at home. I worked at home and ranted elsewhere. Perhaps this was a good thing!

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Lynn's Comments: My mom used to put my hair into what she called "bunches." She would pull my hair so tight, my eyes watered and the elastics made my head ache. When I had a daughter, I decided I wouldn't force anything like this on her, but I did want to learn how to do French braids. Kate wouldn't let me practice. No matter how I approached the subject, she was uninterested, until I offered to PAY her to let me braid her hair. Eventually this didn't work, and I gave up. I figured that I'd never see my girl with her thick, dark tresses in a hairstyle I loved. Until one day, she appeared with a perfect set of French braids, neatly tied together with a white bow. She had done them herself!

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Our small wartime house on Fifth Street had a wood and coal furnace. Warm air was forced through grates in the floor, and these grates were used for everything from drying socks to warming up Plasticine. Plasticine was (and still is) a superb modelling material with which we played endlessly. Heating the house was costly, so our home was often quite cold. We would play on the floor near one of the floor grates, and the smell of warming Plasticine is something I can still recall. I also remember scraping the melted stuff off the floors and the grates when we'd forgotten to remove it.

In our elementary school, we had those large water-filled metal heaters, shaped like a row of packaged hot dogs. Having used the heating system at home for melting stuff, I was intrigued by the possibilities presented by these heaters! At one end, there was an L-shaped valve, which had a small indentation on the top. This tiny valve was very hot, and interestingly, a wax crayon fit into the indentation perfectly. Within a few days, the classroom heaters had a rainbow of melted wax on one end, and an APB was put out for the guilty party. Due to my already colourful reputation, I was detained posthaste and sent to the principal's office. Another memory I have is of scraping melted crayon off the heaters at school, a punishment to fit the crime!

Monday, March 3, 2014

Lynn's Comments: At the time these strips were done, I was travelling a great deal. I went on book tours, I did speaking engagements, and I attended various fairs and comic art related events. Sometimes, we went as a family, but more often, I went alone. The library convention was to allow me to use some of my experiences in the strip.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Lynn's Comments: One time when I was packing to leave for a speaking engagement, Aaron looked at me and said, "Are you turning into Lynn Johnston AGAIN?!"

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Lynn's Comments: If nothing else, travelling gave me an opportunity to get out of the house--a house in which I often felt like a prisoner.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Lynn's Comments: The breakfast in bed scenario is always shown in cartoons as a parent in bed and the kids delivering a messy meal. I wanted to turn it around and have the kids messing up their own space. I thought this was more often the case.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Another real incident--but I was the one who made the hole in the track pants and my mother was the one who couldn't imagine how it had happened!

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I was taught to sew at a very early age. As soon as I could manage a needle and thread, I was darning socks and patching trousers. One of the first "grown-up" gifts I received was a sewing box of my own--into which my mother had put all of the things I would need, including a thimble, which was just my size. I kept the sewing case until it fell apart, and up until a few years ago, I still had the tiny scissors my grandmother used for cutting thread. Sewing has always been something I've enjoyed--as long as I didn't have to follow a pattern or make something fit!

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Lynn's Comments: This comes from a remark Aaron's grade two teacher made: "Kids always know their friends are coming back if their coats are still on the hallway hanger." One of the children had been ill, but the class was sure he'd be back--simply because something of his was still there for them to see. I thought this was a significant observation!

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Lynn's Comments: My brother and I fought over trivia; my kids fought over stupid things, too. Whether it’s caused by boredom or the need to establish territory, fighting between siblings seems to be unavoidable. My mother would say, “You two are LOOKING for an excuse to fight!” And we were.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I think moms should go away once in awhile, just so the family left at home can discover for themselves what we REALLY do all day!

Friday, April 11, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I went away on business several times a year. The most exhausting trips were the book tours. Authors, at the time, were routinely sent from city to city to do as much publicity as possible. At first it's exciting and rewarding--and dangerously ego boosting as well. By the end of the tour I was tired of talking, tired of signing, and just tired of ME! Still, I was a ham--eager to please, and by the time the next book was due, I would be looking forward to the next tour.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Lynn's Comments: When I look at these drawings again, it's always from a new perspective. In this case, I wish I had drawn Elly with a happier expression. After all--a clean house is the perfect gift, no matter how it's announced!

Friday, April 18, 2014

Lynn's Comments: My mom was a talented gardener. You might think it takes little know-how to plant something and watch it grow, but coaxing a seed or a bulb to its full potential takes knowledge, experience and skill. My mother had the ability to create a productive garden--and the patience and foresight to pass it on.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Lynn's Comments: A question like this would have made my parents get out the encyclopedia and look up the answer. My mother especially enjoyed teaching us stuff about plants and animals and would easily pick up a snake or a spider to show us it was something to admire. She was responsible I'm sure for my brother's degree in biology and my years working as a medical artist!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Mrs. Baird was a background character who was meant to be put aside once Farley came into the family (her hobby was breeding Old English sheepdogs). To tie in with this, I also did a few strips about her being a friendly neighbour. I guess her short appearance struck a chord with some readers who asked to see her more often. In this Sunday page, I have her working in her greenhouse and talking to Michael--in a way that enabled me to say more about her personality and her past.

If Mrs. Baird was based on anyone at all, it would have been the ladies who lived across the street from us when I was growing up in North Vancouver. They were sisters, the "Miss Stewarts." They taught kindergarten and piano and were endlessly patient with me. I made a habit of going to their home uninvited and was rarely told that they had no time. When I needed an extra hug or another grown-up opinion, I headed for the Miss Stewarts' house and twisted the ringer on the front door to be let in.

Not long ago, I was in North Vancouver and I went for a nostalgic walk down Fifth Street. Their old wood frame house is still there, though mine is now a condo complex. A notice was on their fence to say the house and the one next door would soon be condos as well. I'm glad I got to see it one more time. There have been many unforgettable folks in my life, and these two ladies are certainly among them!