car: Browse The Strips

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Lynn's Comments: Few women have the luxury of combining a satisfying career with being a "stay at home mom". I have never taken this blessing for granted. I have, however always been disappointed that I never finished my education past high school. With Elly Patterson in mind, I imagined how she would feel, trying to pick up where she left off, trying to achieve her degree in English and then wondering... "What now?" What do you do with a potential career now that you've got young children to raise? Raising children is the most important career of all....but for some of us...it's just not enough.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Lynn's Comments: We wait so long to hear our children speak in clear, concise sentences. We correct their grammar, teach them the meanings of new words and how to incorporate them into their vocabulary. We rejoice in their learning - and then... we want them to shut up!!! By the time he was five, Aaron was reading well and speaking like an adult. I loved the baby talk, but my goal was to see him go as far as he could with the language and to enjoy its use. Katie too loved to learn and the hope was that with good communication, we would all be able to understand each other better. With the advent of language came the flood. Every movie was dissected and rehashed, every accomplishment, every thought, dream or accusation was gone over again and again. In short, there was non-stop talking. The trick was to pick up enough of the garble to prove you'd been listening and also to filter through the flow for the important stuff like: "the upstairs toilet is overflowing 'cause there's a sock in it." Interesting, isn't it, that when kids become teenagers and the need for real communication arises ...they don't want to say a thing!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Lynn's Comments: To continue with the family monikers: Rod and his younger brother, Ralph, were often called "Walph and Woddy" by their dad. It was what they used to call each other when they were kids and Tom still loved the sound of it. My brother Alan and I were "Alsy and Lindy". I was perhaps eight when I began to hate my nickname. I refused to come if someone called me Lindy and eventually my parents gave in and called me Lynn. These names weren't nearly as irritating as the names we called each other. My brother and I had nicknames that continue to this day - and I won't repeat them. We enjoy an affectionate and peaceful relationship and I don't want that to change!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Back to hockey! These were busy times, but the early morning practices, the struggle with uniforms and the expense were all worth it. I am such a supporter of children's team sports. It's great exercise, wonderful experience and parents must participate. You can't take a very young hockey player and leave him or her to play without Mom and Dad in the stands! They have to see you cheering for them, encouraging them. I remember watching the kids whose parents would just drop them at the rink and come back later. Perhaps they really didn't have time to stay, but the look on their children's faces as they scanned the bleachers, looking for someone to work hard for - someone besides the coach - was sad. Perhaps they did well in the long run, but it's my guess that the kids who excelled at hockey (and everything else!), were the ones whose parents stayed to watch them play.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Lynn's Comments: When we drove out of "the bush" to Winnipeg, it was an hour to Leaf Rapids on a paved highway. Then we travelled for three hours to Thompson on a narrow dirt trucking route that wound through glacial eskers over muskeg and sparse patches of shrunken black spruce trees, which looked like they had been pulled backwards through a knot hole. There were no buildings or facilities of any kind. Rocks and scrub willows at the side of road provided no privacy at all, should nature call. The good thing was that we rarely saw another vehicle, but you had to keep to the right anyway, because travelers drove so fast they'd be in front of you in an instant. After Thompson, it was another 14 hours to Winnipeg on a rural road, so you can see why traffic was rather awe-inspiring. I even forgot what it was like to have traffic signals and the thought of rush hour made us laugh. In Lynn Lake, everyone but the miners walked to work - and "rush hour" was a line up at the pub!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Once again, I sort of threw a shot at Rod. I often made remarks suggesting that he was less than supportive, when in reality he encouraged me to do what I wanted to do. I ran a small business, had my own income and made my own decisions, but I wanted Elly to be more like the person I might have been. I loaded her with some of the baggage that I might have carried and made her a bit pathetic, sometimes. Maybe it was an effort to separate her from me - or maybe there was something I was trying to hide. I don't know, but that's the way it was!

Friday, September 9, 2011

Lynn's Comments: I did not feel guilty for leaving Aaron at the Dundas daycare centre. Not until he was sick! Nothing makes you feel negligent and helpless like a call from the daycare to say your child is sick and calling for you. I was lucky to have an understanding boss. Looking at my reflection in the rear view mirror, I remember thinking- "To heck with all the powers they come up with in the comic books- a REAL superhero would be someone who could be in two places at once!"

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Lynn's Comments: My friend, Audrey, was as nonchalant as could be when it came to delivering her baby. It was her husband who panicked! When she said she thought it might be time to leave for the hospital, Mack ran out to the car with her overnight bag and almost forgot her. Then he backed into a post on the way out of the driveway. Audrey ended up driving to the hospital and checking herself in. We laughed when she said she'd told the orderly to put Mack in the wheelchair for the ride to the room!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Here is where my imagination took me for a ride. Running out of gas on the way to the hospital appealed to me. Typically, I had no idea what the outcome of my contrived situations would be, so this was like living through the real incident: "What happens now?"

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Lynn's Comments: My first ex husband always wanted a Porsche. Although we never bought one (a house came first) we went often to look at them. It occurred to me at the time that this was not the kind of vehicle in which one could fit groceries, nor would I fit if I were 9 months pregnant. I was being practical... and Porsche and practical aren't usually found in the same sentence!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Lynn's Comments: We didn't get a Porsche, but we did buy a second hand Volkswagen. This is an image reminiscent of a time when we crammed three chums in the back seat and went for a drive. Needless to say, it was a short one.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Aaron did ask why we didn't have another baby and my explanation was that we had sold the crib. In a way it's true. If you have even the slightest positive thought about having another, you store the stuff. With this in mind, however, I have friends who kept everything "just in case" and are now offering cribs and jolly jumpers to their married, adult children!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Lynn's Comments: The truth is- I felt no guilt in taking Katie and Aaron to day care. They both thrived on the company of other children and enjoyed the change of scene. I too, needed a break - which, in turn, made me a happier mom. Happy moms make happy kids. For us, it was all good.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The worst thing about having a kid in hockey is the gear. The odd hours of practice, the driving and the butt-numbing seats in the stands were a pleasure compared to the fitting, loading, dressing and stench of the required gear. Hockey moms go unappreciated until a kid grows up and becomes a hockey parent themselves!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Here is an embarrassing moment from my personal file. While stewing away about something, I ran into another driver who had stopped at a stop sign. He was understandably irate and came to my driver's side window to say so. I felt like a kid who was about to be sent to the principal's office. I rolled down my window and listened while he berated me. What I recommend doing at a time like this is to just agree with the other driver. It's hard for them to do you in when you keep saying; "You're absolutely RIGHT!"

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!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Because this storyline took place in late October, I had to make up something that would cover both the houseware party and Halloween. Imagining that John had picked up a costume for Michael created an opportunity to have some fun.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Whenever we kids went into dad's shop, we were told "Look, but don't touch." He'd also say, "You can't break something by looking at it." One day, I was looking at the corrugated board my mother used for stringing pearls. One of the services our business provided was the cleaning and restringing of quality bead necklaces--and Mom was an expert at this. I couldn't help myself, I had to run my fingers down a row of pearls just to see what they felt like. The row of pearls rolled off the groove of the board onto the floor with a wild tinkling clatter. Dad spun around when he heard them fall and ran towards me. "Honest! ... I was just LOOKING!" I told him. We both got down on the floor--desperate to find each and every one before Mom could see what had happened. Unfortunately, she returned before we finished picking up the pearls, and as her eyes fell on me, with his usual comic timing, Dad looked up at her and cried, "Honest ... I was just LOOKING!"

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Lynn's Comments: My dad took us to the Hudson's Bay store one year to see Santa. We were a bit too old to do the Santa thing, but this was something we felt we were doing for Dad. He was in a great mood and enthusiastically encouraged us to wait in a long line. As we stood there, he went on and on about the decorations and the scene in which Santa had been placed. I remember thinking that he was way more excited about this than we were. Eventually, Alan and I had our turns on Santa's lap, were photographed, given a candy cane, and allowed to go. Dad was beaming, and on the bus heading home, he quizzed us about our Santa experience. "Well," I said, "he was greasy and smelled like cigarettes and needed to use a toothbrush really badly."

Alan added, "His beard wasn't real and didn't fit right, and I didn't like the way he said 'Ho, Ho, Ho'." Dad looked out the window of the bus for a while and said little else about our trip to see the great Claus. When we got home, I overheard Dad talking to Mom about our excursion. As it turned out ... the man who was dressed as Santa was a great pal of our dad's!

Monday, December 17, 2012

Lynn's Comments: One of the things I loved about my dad was that he took things in stride. He didn't get too upset when something got broken. Stuff, after all, was just stuff, and what couldn't be repaired could be replaced. As long as it hadn't been maliciously done, occasional breakage was not a big deal. We did, after all, have a gift shop, and china got broken in transit all the time.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Lynn's Comments: These cartoons were done after we moved from Lynn Lake to North Bay, Ontario. After being part of a regularly scheduled exercise group in a space I could walk to, I was now 20 minutes away from a gym and had no friends to work out with. In an effort to guilt myself into exercising again, I drew these and published them knowing full well I was doing nothing at all!