Halloween: Browse The Strips

Tuesday November 1, 2016

Lynn's Comments: When my son, Aaron, was about two and a half years old, I enticed him into the bath, telling him he could have any colour water he wanted. I put a box of food colouring on the edge of the tub and he chose blue. I let him put a few drops into the water, and just as his blue bath was ready, the phone rang. The kitchen phone was right around the corner. I briefly talked to a friend as I listened to Aaron playing in the bath. I couldn't, however, see what he was doing.

Wednesday November 2, 2016

Lynn's Comments: I soon returned to the bathroom. I'd left the box of dye where he could reach it, and he had emptied every bottle into the tub. My son was sitting in a dark, murky swamp happy as a clam. I lifted him out of the water, and was surprised to see that his small behind had been dyed a dark, greenish-blue like an Easter egg. I thought it was funny, but Aaron was terrified. "I've got a green BUM!" He wailed. "I got a green bum!!!!" The colour lasted for over a week. He went to daycare afraid to ask for help in the bathroom in case someone saw. Fortunately, the staff had been forewarned and had the courtesy not to laugh out loud! This is a story I haven't let him forget.

Friday October 27, 2017

Lynn's Comments: My dad was particularly fond of Halloween. He loved to tell us scary stories and he was good at it, too. He once told me that if I couldn't see into a corner at night, where the walls meet the ceiling, then there was a goblin in the corner. I believed him and would lie awake waiting for the goblin to appear…

Monday October 30, 2017

Lynn's Comments: Next to Christmas, Halloween was my favourite celebration. I loved to make costumes and I loved all the treats, tricks and trimmings.

Tuesday October 31, 2017

Lynn's Comments: One of our dental suppliers made up special gift boxes for Halloween. In each box was a small tube of toothpaste, a small spool of floss, and a brand new toothbrush. Year after year we gave out toothbrushes and toothpaste for Halloween until I thought we would get egged for not giving out candy. I then switched to candy bars. When Halloween was over that year, one of the local moms stopped me on the street and asked why we’d changed our routine. As it turned out, a lot of kids were looking forward to getting a new toothbrush!

Sunday October 27, 2019

Lynn's Comments: This didn’t happen. I just wanted to show John and Elly Patterson wearing costumes for Halloween. Elly was "expecting" April here, so her outfit had to be baggy and loose. I could have put her in the rabbit costume, but it went to John instead. I thought it was funnier!

Tuesday October 29, 2019

Lynn's Comments: Funny story:
Five years ago, I went to my high school reunion and ran into an old chum who had lived in my neighbourhood. Paul, a musician and a widower (I hate that word!), asked if I'd like to walk around the familiar streets and see what we could remember of our childhood days: what had changed, who used to live where. We had a great time and agreed to see each other again. In a few months, my daughter, her family and I moved to North Vancouver, and for a short time I lived in her basement suite. My friend Paul and I had kept in touch. One day, he came by to drop off a CD he had recently produced. Katie saw him briefly. I thanked him for the gift and walked out to his car to chat. The chat turned into a date for lunch, which turned into a walk, which became dinner. After dinner, we went to see a mutual friend. As we were sitting in our friends' kitchen, my phone rang. It was Katie, wondering where I was! "You left with a strange man," she complained, "without saying where you were going or when you’d be back. I have no idea where you are or what you’re doing! Are you coming back? Should I leave the porch light on?" Well, did we laugh. Here I was, well over 65, apologizing to my daughter for being a delinquent kid!

Paul and I have been "partners" for almost five years now.

Sunday October 25, 2020

Lynn's Comments: If you're a fan of Jim Unger's "Herman," look at John's profile in panel 8. Doesn’t it look like it was drawn by Jim Unger? I loved the way he drew a non-expression like this. Guess the admiration rubbed off!

Sunday October 30, 2022

Lynn's Comments: In Lynn Lake, Manitoba (where we lived for six years), there was a Halloween tradition called, "Trick or Drinking." Lynn Lake was a tiny town. You could walk from one end to the other in about half an hour, so you could visit a friend, drink your fill and not have to worry about driving home. "Trick or drinking" happened after the kids were done with their rounds and had gone to bed. It was a time for the grown-ups to have some fun by dressing up, going to a friend's house and demanding a drink. If the host couldn't figure out who you were, they still had to invite you in, give you a drink and then wait until the next morning to find out who had been in the house! One Halloween, a gorilla walked into our house and demanded a drink. I gave him a beer and watched as he worked it into his head. No matter what we said or how hard we tried, we couldn't determine the gorilla's identity. Around noon the next day, we found out it had been the bank manager—one of the shyest and most unlikely pranksters in town! This just goes to show you that a costume not only changes the way you look, but can change your personality as well.