lamp: Browse The Strips

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Lynn's Comments: The town of Lynn Lake was so small, an older kid could successfully hit every single house on Hallowe'en - as long as the frost didn't get him. Our place on Elgin Avenue was right in the middle. With a lane behind us and one of the busier streets in front, both our front and back doors were busy from about 4 in the afternoon until late at night. Some years, we might count as many as 180 trick or treaters and I remember dipping into our own kids' treat bags after we'd run out. Our favourite thing to give out was toothbrushes. One year, fearing we'd get egged for handing out something other than "treats" we decided to give the kids chocolate bars. Surprisingly, people were disappointed. Turned out the toothbrushes were something they all looked forward to! Just goes to prove- that on a night when witches, devils, and scary things roam....you never know what to expect!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Our family home in North Vancouver was designed so that a kid could run from the kitchen to the hall, around to the living room and back into the kitchen again. This made for an excellent track and field event, should it be raining, and it usually was. Mom was long suffering, stoic and understanding. She let my brother and me blow off steam while she stewed silently, knowing that kids need the exercise. She drew the line at our jumping on the furniture though and her admonishments were almost always the same: "This is a house, not a playground!", "I am sick, sore, fed up and tired!" and of course, Dad's fave: "Are you cruising for a bruising?" Alan and I could almost mouth the words as they were spoken - but heaven help you if you were caught! When my own kids took to racing around the house, I heard myself saying the same things my mom said to us - and a new understanding between my mom and I erased some of the wall that had separated us for so long. I knew that my kids had memorized my litany of commands and I knew how she felt. At long last, my mom was vindicated! Some day... it will be MY turn!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Lynn's Comments: They say that "normal" means different things to different people. For us, normal morphed from one reality into another as the kids grew and changed and became individuals. When they were little, reality was toys - everywhere. Later, it was friends - everywhere - and the sounds of sports, music and video games. Normal didn't become tidy and organized and quiet until they both moved out. Then, normal meant projects and travel and missing them. I went to visit friends of my daughter's recently. Brooke and Matthew have twin daughters, six months old. The girls are just starting to toddle and their small living room is strewn with blankets and toys. Brooke apologized for the mess. I said, "Don't worry, relax - I understand. You have two little kids! ...This is normal!!!"

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Lynn's Comments: My friend Mary seemed to have a bun in the oven every year. When baby number seven was on the way, she sighed and said she wondered if this one would be the last. I assured her it was indeed the last one and she wondered how I knew. "Well", I said, "your husband was one of seven kids and he told me he wanted the same number of children, too". "He did, did he?" she replied in her sweet Irish accent..."Well, why the h*** didn't he tell ME?!!!" We always wonder what the future will hold when we're in the family way - but it all seems so right when we're holding our beautiful new baby!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Lynn's Comments: This has to be one of my favorite Sunday pages. Aaron often came into my room early in the morning and talked to me while I was half asleep. Katie had no reservations about running outside in the buff. Combine these two elements and I had a good gag. I had fun with the illustration- most of all I loved doing the expressions on the faces of the characters. Facial expressions and body language are as important as the punch line and I erased Michael's sly smile several times before it was right on! Sunday comics like this one were fun to read when they came out in the paper. I would read this strip as if I were a stranger who'd never seen it before. If it made me laugh again then, I knew I had a good one!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Lynn's Comments: We were living in a log house and having renovations done. A number of workmen, strangers to me, were coming and going at the time. One night the phone rang. The receiver was on my side of the bed. I answered, expecting it to be the Dental "on call" service, but a man's voice said something I couldn't quite understand. I had been in a deep sleep and wasn't prepared for a conversation. "What??" I said. He repeated whatever it was but I still couldn't understand. He said something vaguely suggestive, but I wasn't able to pick up the thread. He eventually gave up and asked if I knew who it was. I said I did not and he seemed surprised. At this point, I just wanted to go back to sleep, but he asked again if I recognized his voice and I said I didn't. Satisfied that he'd remain unknown, he hung up. The next day I was convinced it had been one of the guys who was working on the house. One, in particular, was a bit of a wild card and I wondered if it had been him. It amazed me to think how vulnerable and anxious I felt, even though the call had been clumsy and short. Somebody was "watching" me in an unhealthy way and it made me nervous and wary until the project was over and the strangers were gone. I tried to imagine what someone who had been seriously threatened would feel and how long, if ever, they would take to get over it.