Elizabeth: Browse The Strips

Friday, February 6, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Around this time, we did have a ceiling redone, and I marvelled at the artistry our man of the plaster was capable of. He had been doing this for over 30 years, and it was wonderful to watch him work. I have often admired the ease by which people pour cement, for example, or frame a window: cutting the wood to perfect lengths and fitting it into place with precision. So often we dismiss talent like this, but just try to do it yourself! It won't take long before you're wishing you'd made the right decision and called the guy with the skill!

Monday, February 16, 2015

Lynn's Comments: My mother often said that she wished we would go to other people's houses and make a mess there for a change. It was true. Our friends always came over to our house. Maybe it was because Mom worked at home, and was kind enough to let everyone in. Maybe she permitted herself to be the local daycare provider so she would always know where we were. Other moms were at home, too, so it always bothered her that they never took their turn. They never offered. Maybe it's because she just never asked.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I have always loved making up names on things like cereal boxes. In art school, one of the things we had to do for commercial design was to come up with an entire cereal box--from the size to the ingredients to the illustration on the cover. This meant we had to figure out how much space we needed for type (in two official languages): brand name, logos, contents, weight, nutritional value, and directions. Packaging is a whole industry of its own, so this was a really good exercise. The cereal I came up with was "Sugar Soggs." The art showed a kid eating some gruesome candy-coated gruel. It was okay, but the best design was done by one of the guys in the class; he called his cereal "Uncle Brian's Grumpies." On the cover was a grimacing caricature of the instructor, whose name was Brian, and the ingredients he made up were hilarious. In terms of funny, he had me beat by a mile. Neither of us got a good mark because we hadn't taken the project seriously. It seemed to us that despite the prof's objections, cartoons do sell!

Later, when I worked for Standard Engravers, a packaging firm in Hamilton, Ontario, I was given the opportunity to design a giveaway on a cereal box. I thought this would be neat, until I was given a space about 2 inches square on the bottom right corner. This was a real challenge--and that's good. If you give a cartoonist or graphic artist a blank page and say "draw something," they have to think for a while. Give them a tiny, awkward space, and suddenly the ideas come out of the blue. A great example of this is Sergio Aragones' "marginals"--the tiny cartoons that tumble around the page borders in Mad magazine. When he suggested he be hired to do these, he was told that he'd run out of ideas. Some 45 years later, he's still producing them, and each one is wonderfully different.

For the small corner space on the cereal box, I designed finger puppets, pencil toppers, decals, and "spinners" (a top made from paper). It was fun. I thought this could be a surprisingly satisfying career, but things went in other directions. I still get to work on cereal boxes but in a different way!

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Saying thanks was something I tried to hammer into my kids and now, my grandchildren. It's a simple word, takes no time to say and it means so much to the person who has done you a good service. Sadly it's something not heard enough. The other thing we should hear more often are the words "I'm sorry".

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Lynn's Comments: During the few times I worked as my husband's dental assistant, I was fortunate to have two wonderful parents in law, living a mere 5 minute walk away (from both the clinic and the house). Ruth and Tom's home was set up for children and the care was constant as we moved the kids from one house to the other. At the end of the day, we might stay at "Ruth's" for dinner or we'd pick up the kids and come home--exhausted. Either way, it was "mom" who put on the grub!

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Lynn's Comments: The strip was starting to realistically show a family's weaknesses as well as its strengths, which I think made it more believable. I was trying to show real life: What happened to me and to the character, Michael, happens all the time. In an ideal world, I guess someone should be there to chaperone a child at all times, but like me, Mike was a responsible kid who was capable of helping out. Sometimes we could all use an extra hand to help make ends meet!

Monday, March 23, 2015

Lynn's Comments: My mother in law made the best cookies ever. I could never make them as well, because I can't seem to stick to a recipe. First of all, I hate to measure. It means extra time and extra utensils. I like instructions which say "a dash of this or a knob of that." When it comes to dinner, I'm a fairly good cook, but when it comes to the finer things like cookies and cakes, I defer to those who follow directions. This reminds me: my grandmother, when asked how she measured molasses would say: "two golollups and a drip". I loved that expression!

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Some of the best events I got myself into were the ones for which I was "volunteered". Because I couldn't say "no", bake sales, costume sewing bees and skating festivals were all part of my time in Lynn Lake Manitoba. Some of my favourite memories are of these of bee-hives of activity in the company of other moms trying to do everything for everyone all of the time!

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This kind of teasing came from my dad who loved to twist fairy tales and embellish stories. Easter was a good time for story-telling. My brother and I looked forward to Easter as soon as Christmas was over.

We didn't have a lot of commercial decorative stuff when I was small, so we made our own. Every Easter, dad would find the right sized cardboard box. This we would decorate with crepe paper, (remember that?) drawings, ribbons and tulle. Whatever we could find went onto the box to make it attractive to the E. bunny: a nest for the goodies he'd bring! The decorated box would be left in the living room the night before and on Easter morning, it would be filled with things like big chocolate bunnies, fluffy pom-pom chicks, jelly beans and a few small toys. After we went through the bunny box, my brother and I would search the house for coloured hard-boiled eggs--and there was always one in the bathtub plug hole.

Great memories come from such simple things. This year, my granddaughter is old enough to make a bunny box--and I have one, just the right size!

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Lynn's Comments: My dad loved to invent characters and to story tell. When he read a book to us, he read like a practiced thespian. He spoke with accents, changed the pitch of his voice, and made fairy tales come alive. When I did this strip, my dad had been gone for a number of years. I was able to bring him to life again by writing and drawing short vignettes like this one. It would have been just like Dad to call and pretend to be the Easter Bunny!

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Lynn's Comments: About three months ago, I took a few days to clean out all my kitchen and studio drawers. I discovered pens, pencils, erasers, tape, scissors, glue, push pins--enough to open a small shop. I put everything away where it should be and made sure to place supplies close to the phones. Yesterday, I called a friend to ask for an address--and I couldn't find a pen!!

Monday, April 13, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Although I never saw my children trying to eat from a bowl like a dog, it was something I tried to do myself. The weird thing about this confession is that I was in my twenties when I did it!

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Everyone likes to brag about the intellectual prowess of their family pooch. Sadly, the real dog, Farley, was something of a lost cause! We took him to special dog training classes and worked hard to implement everything we were taught to do. Daily, we applied the routines, the commands and behaviours. We rewarded and we praised. Farley refused to catch on. Whatever he did learn was minimal. It was discouraging. We had imagined him walking at heel, sitting on command, and coming when called. Other dogs could master these simple skills, but Farley was consistent. He did what he felt like doing, when he felt like doing it, and he trained US to behave according to his whims.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Lynn's Comments: They told us at the kennel club (we were members of The Old English Sheepdog Association) that we needed to be persistent, authoritative, and to take charge. Having no children at the time, we had time to learn how to train a dog and considered this good practice for parenting later on!

Friday, April 17, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This was one of the exercises we were given to teach Farley to come when called. My husband and I did this endlessly, but to no avail. The trainers blamed us for Farley's lack of success. They said we were not being consistent and should try harder. We did. We believed that with enough repetition, with enough rewards, Farley would learn. He didn't.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Looking back I wonder how I managed to concentrate on such a solo job with life going on all around me. I had to divide my time carefully. I kept to a routine--depending on my daycare provider across the street and the time Aaron would be in school. My most productive hours were between 9:00 am and noon. I wouldn't be able to go back to the studio until both kids were fed and ready for bed. I often worked until midnight, then I was up by 6:00 am the next day to get breakfast prepared, lunches ready, and set out the kids' clothes for the day. It's no wonder that the drawings done in my early years were so simple!

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Lynn's Comments: For years, the lot next door to our house on Fifth Street was empty. Then it was sold and the new house seemed to take forever to be built. During the time of construction, my mom railed at the dirt, the plaster, and all the dangerous materials that were left lying about on the property. We kids had a wonderful time playing in the sand, jumping on the plywood and piling up the bricks. I clearly remember sitting on my knees shaping plaster and dirt into patties, and then tasting them to see if they had turned into cookies. I was convinced they were the real thing!

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Lynn's Comments: During the 50s, bubble gum cost two cents a piece. Two pieces would fill your mouth with a perfect wad--the best for blowing bubbles. We kids would go to the corner store, pool our money, and buy the two pieces. Then, we would share the gum! The wad had to go from mouth to mouth in good time so that the flavour was enjoyed by all. Sometimes, as many as four kids would share. We'd all see who could blow the biggest bubble. It got in our hair, on our clothes, and our mouths would sport a dirty, sticky circle of gunge as we blew and popped and blew again.

AAAAUGH! I can't believe I told you that!

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Counting to three is a joke. Really. When kids hear you count to three, they, naturally, watch to see what comes afterwards. DUHHHH--We bozo adults are then left to find some nebulous consequence. This is such a dumb thing to instigate. So, why is it that we all do it? --All of us! All the time!!!

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This was a scenario from home. My daughter, Katie, had, at the age of four, learned how to use a screwdriver, and had gone about my mother-in-law's house unscrewing things. Ruth tried to open a kitchen cupboard door and it came off in her hands along with the handle. We were both perplexed. How in the world had all the screws come loose? We looked about for Katie and found her outside in the driveway trying to take the license plates off my car!

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Over the years, I have signed petitions based on the information given by the person who asked me to sign. I confess I didn't always read the paper I was signing and could have been adding my name to a petition for, well--just about anything!