Elizabeth: Browse The Strips

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Having gone on several Medical Missions to Honduras and Peru, I am well aware of how little some people have and how much we in North America take for granted. When my kids said they were "starving," I was grateful that they had no idea what "starving" meant.

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Lynn's Comments: This was one of my father's "tricks of the trade." He had many ways to make tears disappear. He had stories and sayings and jokes and songs. He made faces, he danced and clowned--we had our own private vaudeville show complete with costumes, music, mime, and verse. He could be silly. He could delve into fantasy as easily as we could, and he saw things through our eyes, something few grown-ups have the imagination to do. Dad was like another kid who sometimes sided with us--against Mom. I remember her telling us and Dad to, "Please--GROW UP!!!"

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Some of the names used here were Katie's friends. Other were kids that had bullied her at school because of the strip, so this was a way to include the local children and show that we wanted to include everyone we could, whenever possible.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I think I was in grade three when I was cast in a school Christmas pageant as a wise person. I was told to wear my bathrobe as a costume, but my mom was so upset by its frayed condition that she hurriedly made me a new one out of striped material--much like the robes worn in Christian-Hollywood flicks. Though my behaviour wasn't particularly saintly, I wore my pageant bathrobe for years, pretending I was right out of the Bible!

Monday, December 22, 2014

Lynn's Comments: One of our traditions at Christmas was to clean out the fireplace. This was a good thing. We'd have forgotten otherwise. This is a pretty accurate illustration of our living room in Lynn Lake--complete with the crud on the rug.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Lynn's Comments: This is something that didn't happen but should have. Brought up in the Anglican Church, I endured countless hours sitting through painfully dull sermons and kneeling as the litany droned on. I would have given anything to see a kid launch a toy down the aisle--and I'm sure the adults would have appreciated it, too!

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I have always had fun with sound effects and radio broadcasts, labels and names. Jim Borecki is the name of a good friend, with whom I have lost touch. I tried to contact him by putting his name in this strip, but so far I have not been able to find him.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This is a true story. The freezer didn't break down, but it did have to be moved and therefore defrosted. I pulled out an archive of forgotten leftovers, summer fruit and fishing acquisitions, dry pie crusts, soup stock, and more. Some of this was still recognizable, so a mess of reconstituted fodder graced our plates for a week or two. People actually ate what I served--and the freezer was then refilled with the leftovers from the leftovers. We recycle.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Lynn's Comments: One thing I have tried to do as a doting Gram is to be in sync with the parents: to adhere to the same discipline, to provide the same healthy treats, and to not say anything critical of the parents in front of the children. I think I've scored an "A" on everything--but the treats.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Lynn's Comments: When my paternal grandmother came to stay with us for 6 months, I was 16 and very independent. My parents both worked, so it was my job to get the dinner on and Gram's appearance in the kitchen was "one too many cooks!" She had just lost her husband, was lonely and depressed, and my dad had invited her to stay. Having spent her adult lifetime looking after others, she naturally put herself to work--on my turf! From the day we set eyes on each other, we were rivals. Gram had my bedroom. I was sleeping in the basement in a "room" made of plywood boards and a curtain. I resented this terribly. I resented her teeth in a glass on my dresser and her clothes in my closet. I also resented being told what to do by someone other than my parents, and her criticism irritated me beyond belief.

One day I saw her fidgeting with the oven. It was a gas oven, and she wasn't familiar with the way the oven worked. When I tried to tell her how to do it, she barked at me to mind my own business, that she knew how to operate an oven, and to get out of her way. Figuring this would be a great opportunity to see what would actually happen if you lit the oven the wrong way, I crossed my arms, leaned against the doorway, and watched. First she turned on the gas. The oven door was closed. Interesting. Then she looked for a match. She found the matchbox on the wall and took out a match. She went to the stove, struck the match on one of the elements and opened the oven door. Well--Ka-BOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!! The explosion blew Granny across the room. She wound up on the opposite side--sitting on the floor with her back against the cupboard doors. Her eyebrows were gone, and all the hairs on her chin were frizzled black. The best thing of all was the look on her face. Her mouth had formed a little "o." I was thinking, "Wow! So THAT's what happens!" It took a few seconds before I reached out to help her up, and a few more for us both to realize that she could have been very seriously hurt! With grateful relief, we hugged each other, and for the rest of her stay, we held a truce.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Lynn's Comments: One of the things I love to do is sound effects. Trying to come up with the phonetic spelling for the sound a head makes as it hits a pillow, for example, is so much fun. ("FWUMPP" would do it). I think the sound effect I am most proud of is the sound of a toilet plunger. It goes: "Ka_FLOOMP-a-GUSH." Sometimes you have to decide whether to repeat a letter as in "FWAPPPP!" One "P" just won't do it. A smack with a wet towel, for example has to sting. This requires several P's.

If you are a fan of Mad magazine, you'll remember the wonderful comic art of Don Martin. His sound effects were fabulous. I think he coined "Fwoooommmm!," and "Ka-chingggg!" One of the weirdest letters I ever received was from Don Martin's wife accusing me of stealing her husband's sound effects. I didn't think I had. The sounds I wrote all came from my head. Then again, can you really lay claim to a cartoon sound? WHHHHOOOOO!!! I sure hope not!

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This story was told to me by our good friend Larry Boland. We were sitting in his living room. His wife, Marilyn, was bringing in the tea, when I looked up and admired their lovely ceiling. Marilyn smiled and said that thanks to Larry, it had just been redone. Larry described putting his foot through the plaster with such detail that I had to put the story in the strip. Things people WANTED me to include rarely made the grade. I preferred the embarrassing stuff!

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Lynn's Comments: One day, I got tired of seeing the pile of single socks and mittens that had accumulated next to the dryer, and I threw them all out. A while later, I was cleaning out the storage room, going through camping gear, old toys, and outdoor clothing, and I found a collection of single socks and mittens--mates to the ones I had thrown out. I wished I had looked through the camping gear first--but I might have tossed out all the single things only to discover their mates in the laundry.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I think I gave Larry and Marilyn the original strips for this story. It was something I liked to do when I embarrassed a friend in public!

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Aaron once actually climbed into a suitcase and asked my mom to take him to Vancouver with her. It was funny, and became a kind of game. Old suitcases, destined for the "nuisance grounds," were perfect to play with. He and his friends would slug each other around in a suitcase until the handles broke. This was before the advent of wheels--an excellent addition to unwieldy bags. Another example of obvious inventions--Why didn't I think of that?!