Lynn's Comments: Ominous thoughts like this were derived from my own fear of falling. I don't ski or skate and friends who say, "but, Lynn! You don't know what you're missing!" don't imagine themselves in casts and crutches the way I do!
John: Browse The Strips
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Buying my own things gave me pride and independence. On the year of my twelfth birthday, I saved twelve dollars. During the fifties, this was enough to take my family to Vancouver on the bus for dinner and a movie. It was wonderful to be able to pay for everything with my own earnings. That twelve dollars made me feel like a million bucks!
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Sometimes a friend would tell me something that was so perfect for a comic strip that I couldn't wait to go home and draw it up. My friend, Loretta, was a wonderful cook. She often had friends over for dinner and was always well prepared ahead of time. In our small northern town, certain fruits and vegetables were hard to come by, so when a shipment of fresh food arrived, we all got into cooking mode.
Loretta had filled her fridge in preparation for a neighbourhood get-together but had forgotten to remind her family that the food was for company. By the time she discovered their scavenging, it was too late to replace the groceries. When she told me what had happened, I remember laughing so hard that I couldn't catch my breath. A few weeks later ... the same thing happened at MY place!
Loretta had filled her fridge in preparation for a neighbourhood get-together but had forgotten to remind her family that the food was for company. By the time she discovered their scavenging, it was too late to replace the groceries. When she told me what had happened, I remember laughing so hard that I couldn't catch my breath. A few weeks later ... the same thing happened at MY place!
Friday, June 29, 2012
Lynn's Comments: The real Farley never saw the insides of a kennel. He was always billeted with friends, and I, in turn, looked after their pets.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Lynn's Comments: The kennel you see here was based on the kennel we (much later) put our spaniel, Willy, in. Situations, which were based on reality, didn't appear in a chronological order. I relied on ideas and imagery, which came from the disorganized mess that is memory!
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Aaron wanted to take his transparent plastic space-gun with him to Winnipeg and did not want it to go out of his sight.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Lynn's Comments: This was long before the strict security measures of today. In Toronto, however, Aaron suddenly pointed the gun at a man in a uniform and we were immediately stopped, searched, and reprimanded for trying to bring a weapon onto the plane. It was funny, but we should have known better!
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Lynn's Comments: The toy gun was confiscated and Aaron hoped that some other kid would get to play with it. I'm sure this happened. Someone must take all of that "dangerous" stuff home!
Friday, July 6, 2012
Lynn's Comments: In the story, I had pity on the security guard and made him human. After all, it's a thankless job with guidelines that have to be met. The guard we encountered, however, took himself and his position a bit too seriously, and I wished I'd remembered what he looked like so I could draw a better likeness!
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Strips about littering were always well received. This one was made into a poster and was put up at a lake in Saskatchewan. It was also a limited edition print, which was given to volunteers who helped to clean up local beaches.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Lynn's Comments: This storyline came from a real life adventure, which I wanted to have fun with and share. I used photographs of my sister in law, Beth and her husband, Don in order to get a likeness and although it's not easy for me to do caricatures, I managed to draw "Uncle Danny" so well, he was once recognized on the street in Winnipeg!
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Two prominent features of the prairies are the endless flat spaces and long, straight roads. A city person might wonder why cars and trucks cruise these roads at a snail's pace, but it's all part of the job. Farmers like to drive slowly and do their "crop-watching," while searching the horizon for rain. It often seemed that crop watching was more important than getting to where you were actually planning to go!
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Lynn's Comments: I used photos of Beth and Don's house as reference, too. The older lady here is "Dan's" mother--she made few appearances after this.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Lynn's Comments: I soon learned not to look at the landscape for respite from our labour, but to look up instead. There is nothing more beautiful than a prairie sky! It goes on forever. The pink and purple sunsets, and brilliant stars in a cloudless sky made up for the featureless land around us. I soon understood why folks who live on the prairies love it so much.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Lynn's Comments: People in rural areas watched this series closely--to see if I'd "get it right". I soon got letters telling me that the bailing twine was going the wrong way in this illustration! No matter what you THINK you know, it's best to check your references!
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Lynn's Comments: I dressed fast, got my boots on, found a flashlight, and followed Don out to the barn. Don was often alone when "farrowing" took place and was glad to have the company. This was a wonderful opportunity to attend an actual birth--my own experience having been clouded by anaesthetic, excitement and pain.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Lynn's Comments: One morning, I awoke to a strange noise. I looked out the window to see the wheat field parting like the red sea. In a cloud of dust, smoke, and flying chaff, Freddy Parkinson (Don's brother-in-law and neighbour) was driving towards the house on an old snowmobile. He roared into the yard and then calmly announced that he'd come for coffee.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Beth and Don had a hired man who rarely spoke--but when he did, it was about crops and weather...and nothing else!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Lynn's Comments: During the harvest, we had to get a full meal plus cold drinks and dessert out to the fields every lunch hour. The hired men needed lots to eat, and real home cooking was expected. When I had the chance to drive the swather, tractors, trucks, or combine, I took it fast. Sitting in an air conditioned cab and going around in circles beat the hot kitchen job any time.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Lynn's Comments: One of the pleasures of living on the farm was eating fresh garden veggies. We had fresh meat, too. We knew where it was raised and where it had been butchered. This was all new to someone used to buying groceries in cellophane packages.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Farley was long gone when this was drawn. I relied on my friends' pooches for dog related input, and they were always keen to keep me up to date regarding kennels, shots, skunk encounters, and table manners. There was also a vet in the family to keep me in the know!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Lynn's Comments: I put some serious stuff into the strip trying to unravel what was going on in my own life, while poking fun at the "Pattersons." Sensitive issues were out there in the open, but when people would ask me how I could reveal so much, I'd laugh and say it was all a figment of my imagination.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Lynn's Comments: The time I remember best is when Aaron was about 4 years old. I had promised him that if he took a bath, I'd make the water blue. He got into the tub and I put a small amount of food colouring into the water. He was thrilled and played in it happily while I watched. The phone rang. Able to hear him from around the corner, I left Aaron, answered the phone, and spoke to a friend for a few minutes. When I went back into the bathroom, he had emptied all of the bottles of food colouring into the tub.
The water was a dark, muddy green. When Aaron stood up, his body was green from the waist down. I tried to wash it off with soap and scrubbing, but the dye did not come off. I laughed and said, "Well, Aaron, you're going to have a green bum for the rest of your life!" He was horrified! He was so upset that it took awhile before he calmed down, and I realized how frightened he was. I was careful, after that to make sure I didn't tease my kids about something they could take so seriously. The dye eventually wore off.
Now, before you write to tell me how negligent I was to have left a child in the tub alone, let me say that...I KNOW! Nobody's perfect...and my children survived!
The water was a dark, muddy green. When Aaron stood up, his body was green from the waist down. I tried to wash it off with soap and scrubbing, but the dye did not come off. I laughed and said, "Well, Aaron, you're going to have a green bum for the rest of your life!" He was horrified! He was so upset that it took awhile before he calmed down, and I realized how frightened he was. I was careful, after that to make sure I didn't tease my kids about something they could take so seriously. The dye eventually wore off.
Now, before you write to tell me how negligent I was to have left a child in the tub alone, let me say that...I KNOW! Nobody's perfect...and my children survived!
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Summer goes by faster in northern Ontario than it does anywhere else on the planet. Come to think of it, so does spring. As a matter of fact, it has been noted that fall (my favourite time of year) disappears faster than springtime, which means winter has several extra months to drag on. I can't say there is any scientific fact to substantiate this phenomenon, but it happens here, just the same.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
