Elly: Browse The Strips

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Lynn's Comments: My kids liked most vegetables, so eating wasn't a problem. A cartoonist who draws on family stuff for gags, however, needs the gag reflex of unpalatable foods--and the thing about peas is, they're funny! Squash is funny because of the name, and of course the goofy shapes it can come in. A head of lettuce can be funny, I guess, but peas are made for comedy. They are hard to get on a fork, look like frog parts, and roll onto the floor easily. They are easy to spit, mash, or fling off a spoon. They can be bright or bilious green depending on how "left over" they are, and dogs, for the most part, hate them. Anything a dog won't eat is usually spurned by kids.

I have done several gags about this maligned dicotyledon, and the surprising result is that I have had no complaints. I thought there was a reader out there for every complaint possible, but so far I have heard nothing from pea fanciers, associations, or "protect the pea" movements, and I'm curious; now that I have mentioned this lack of interest, will I finally hear from these people?

Monday, August 18, 2014

Lynn's Comments: My mother was a wonderful seamstress. She could make anything, which was a blessing because we couldn't afford to buy much in the way of clothing. One year, she found several good quality raincoats at the Salvation Army store. She washed and ironed them, took them apart, and remade them into coats for my brother and me. They were attractive, stylish and beautifully finished. Nobody could tell they had been made from second hand fabric. Even though it looked good on me, I refused to wear mine--not because it was second hand, but because it wasn't what the other kids were wearing. My mom was near tears but said nothing as I put on my blue cardigan. I never did wear that coat. This is one of the many nasty little things I did that I still regret. Guilt. Sometimes, it can last forever!

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Lynn's Comments: My granddaughter is, at the time of this writing, two and a half years old. She is active and curious and constantly on the go. Her mom, dad and I read to her, play with her, and try to answer all her questions. She is a joy, but still, we look forward to the day she'll be able to go to kindergarten. Not because she is too much to handle; she is just so ready to learn!

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Lynn's Comments: It was never my intention to have Connie and Lawrence move away. It just happened! Once Connie's relationship with Ted soured and Uncle Phil met Georgia, Connie's personal life was on hold. An opportunity for her to take a good job in another town seemed like a positive step, so the story took this turn. What the move did was give me another challenge to deal with and a new family to welcome. This helped to keep the story interesting.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Lynn's Comments: When we moved to the North Bay area, people confused it with Thunder Bay. I was hoping that readers would go to a map and see where Thunder Bay is--and they did! The next time you see a beautiful piece of amethyst, such as crystals in a large geode, it might have come from this area. Aside from its nice hotels and good restaurants (something to look forward to when you travel the trans Canada highway) Thunder Bay is famous for its amethyst.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I wanted to explore the sense of loss we all share when a good friend moves away. I think this must be harder for children to deal with. In our case, we were the ones who left and Aaron's friends were sad to see him go. It wasn't until we had settled in our new house and the excitement of moving was over, that he began to feel the loss as well.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Katie was starting grade two when we moved to North Bay. (The children in the strip were three years younger than Katie and Aaron). The little school she attended was about a mile and a half down the road, next to a hobby farm. At lunchtime she and the other children could watch the animals through the fence; a donkey, chickens, and some rabbits. On occasion, the farmer would take the kids for rides on his donkey, which I thought was charming. I said to her, "Katie isn't this a great place to have a school?! This is something you'll remember for the rest of your life!" and she replied, "Yeah, I will --'cause it stinks!"

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Aaron's grade two teacher in Lynn Lake told me that little kids felt good about seeing their classmates coats on the hooks outside their rooms because it meant that their friends were there. If a coat was missing, they noticed right away and were worried. Sheena had some wonderful observations about the kids in her charge and I said to her, "If you ever write a book, I'll illustrate it." Sheena Baker wrote, "There's A Worm in my Apple," which I did illustrate. It's out of print now, but it was a sweet and funny read. It was released in 1985 by Stoddart Publishing and the ISBN number is: 0-7737-5029-0. Maybe you can find it online somewhere. I still laugh when I read it!

Friday, August 29, 2014

Lynn's Comments: In Lynn Lake, we would walk the kids to school. When we moved to rural Ontario, even though Kate's school was close by, the bus would pick her up and drop her off at our mailbox everyday. Aaron, too, caught the school bus, and because he went to a different school, he had to transfer to another bus in town. For both of them, it was a whole new experience, in a very different place.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Lynn's Comments: There were times when well meaning friends, knowing I was at home, would drop in during the day. I would come up from the studio, long enough to be polite--sometimes I'd put on the coffee, but I was on a deadline and every minute spent away from the drafting table was time I'd have to make up later on. One woman was very unhappy when I told her I had to work. Having two kids of her own, she looked at me angrily and snapped "So do I!" When I look back at all the comics I did while juggling family, food, chores, business trips, volunteer stuff and just plain living, I wonder how I managed to do it all.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Listening to Katie talking to her dollies, I realized I was hearing myself. Her choice of words, her phrases, inflections, and body language, had all been learned from me. I'm sure I was parroting my mother when I directed my children, and now that I'm a grandmother, I'm waiting to hear if my granddaughter will talk the way HER mother does!

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I once admitted to a male friend (not a partner) that I had told a best friend some very intimate personal things--and he said that guys often tell their best friends intimate personal stuff too. I guess it depends on who the people are, what the information is, and why it had to be shared. I refuse to feel guilty about spilling my guts to a trusted friend. Sometimes, when the dam is about to break--you go to someone with a life raft!

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Lynn's Comments: When I was about 10, I watched as a family moved into one of the houses where we lived on 5th Street. My friend Evelyn's father was watching too and when he saw the big assortment of tools the new guy had, he said "I don't know this guy, but I like him already!" Both men were mechanics--who looked after their stuff.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Lynn's Comments: This strip received some nice mail. Folks expected to read a sarcastic punch line. Growing up in North Vancouver, we were always playing with and studying next to kids from China, Japan, and other Asian countries. In fact, it was hard to learn French as a second language when we were more familiar with Mandarin and Japanese. I wanted to draw an Asian family, and the Enjos stepped in.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Lynn's Comments: The name "Enjo" was for my grade six home economics teacher. Miss Enjo was a sweet and lovely lady and must have been in her twenties at the time. My dad guessed that her last name had been longer and had been shortened when her family immigrated to Canada. The family I made up was based on the Masuda family--who had known my in-laws in Lynn Lake, Manitoba. They had also moved to North Bay, which was a nice coincidence: We had friends here to make us feel at home.

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Lynn's Comments: My folks used to take us to farms in the Fraser Delta for fresh strawberries. Both Alan and I were too young to enjoy picking, but we sure liked eating them. One day when our family was standing at the checkout with our baskets of strawberries, the man at the till looked at my brother with a curious smile. Alan was covered from his mouth to his navel in red juice. The man picked him up, put him on a big metal scale, and announced that he had to charge for the extra weight of the berries inside. He was kidding, but Dad paid him a little extra anyway.

Every summer we went as a family to get fresh fruit in season. In the Okanagan, we got peaches, plums, and apricots. It was a long drive but worth it. Mom canned everything, so we had the luxury of fruit preserves all winter long. Nothing tasted like the fresh stuff, though, and on one trip, Dad said we kids could eat whatever we wanted--so we did! As I said, it was a long drive home. With two kids full of fresh fruit, it's easy to imagine the results. We used the "roadside" washroom many times, with Mom hiding us behind her skirt as Dad looked madly around for paper!

Monday, September 8, 2014

Lynn's Comments: The Enjos provided both Elizabeth and Michael with friends to play with--I wanted the whole family to integrate with the Pattersons. This is always the hope when new folks move into the neighbourhood, and I could make it happen in the strip!

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Lynn's Comments: These ornate dolls were based on a collection in Louise Masuda's house. Children in Japan often receive these lovely figures as gifts. They form a large retinue of characters with different levels of importance, so after many years, you can have a sizeable number--arranged in order of their station. They are heirlooms not toys, and eventually a showcase is needed to display them in. I thought this was a wonderful idea and so I included them here.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Lynn's Comments: After this strip ran, I had all kinds of letters from folks with similar backgrounds wondering where our family had originated and if there was any connection. I wished at the time we could have met some long-lost cousins, but sadly, that didn't happen.