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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The number of times we were faced with the daunting task of selling chocolate bars door-to-door was absurd. This subject brought in a lot of mail. Some folks sold them at work, but for us a dental clinic was not the place to fundraise with candy!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Lynn's Comments: After Aaron was "taken" by big kids on the school bus who promised to pay him later, we ended up buying all of the chocolate bars ourselves. I put them in the freezer, I gave them away and I ate them. The next time there was a drive, I asked if we could just contribute directly to the school.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Because of the three-hour time difference between Ontario and Vancouver, we had a hard time making phone calls. Either my folks were having dinner (and hated to be disturbed) or we were. If I called during the day, the kids were out. In the afternoon, my folks were out. The odd time we had a conversation (at a good time for both parties) everyone wanted to talk at once!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Like many little girls, Katie had a pile of Barbie dolls, clothes, and paraphernalia. Her tantrums (which were rare) weren't about wearing pretty things, however, she just wanted to be comfortable. It was I who wanted her to look pretty!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Lynn's Comments: I was happy with this punchline. In cartooning, a phrase like "turning over a new leaf" usually leads to a smart reply. You can also change the words: "A nerd in the hand is worth two in the bush". I always caution new cartoonists against using a familiar quote unless they are planning to use it in a zinger in the last panel.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Parents who stay at home today are fortunate to be considered part of the working class! There was a time when you would almost apologize for staying home to raise your family. I was lucky to be able to work from home and be there when my kids were toddlers and later when came home from school. I still think it's the best and most important job I've ever had.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Lynn's Comments: In my own small way, I took every opportunity to chastise the media for incorporating so much bad language into everything we see. Movies and television shows are filled with trashy material--this destroys our children's respect for our language and for us as well!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Lynn's Comments: I could never find my kitchen scissors. After looking high and low, I would buy a new pair and eventually those would disappear, too. This scenario was typical of a time when Kate and Aaron were small and things ended up in the garden, at the neighbours', or in the workshop--never to be seen again.

When Katie was a teenager, I made a declaration one day: she was grounded until she cleaned her room. Begrudgingly, she did so. The result? No less than nine pairs of scissors were discovered among the debris. The moral of the story? ... A string on the kitchen scissors might look silly, but you'll always know where to find them!

Monday, April 30, 2012

Lynn's Comments: My dad built a go-kart for my brother and me out of roller skates, a long board, and a butter box. It was more like a scooter, but it went fast and we were the envy of the neighbourhood.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Lynn's Comments: We had one bathroom in our house and my dad loved to sit there, read, and smoke. Sometimes he would sit for so long, his legs would fall asleep and he'd stumble out into the hall. This was the only room in the house with a locking door, which is why he chose to relax there. He called it his refuge--we called it a huge inconvenience!

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Lynn's Comments: When dad had a mind to build something, he made great stuff. Trouble was, he under-built everything, and what looked like a sturdy vehicle, would last for perhaps two good runs. St. Andrews and St. George's Streets bordered our block of East Fifth and were two of the steepest hills in North Vancouver. Our "Dad-made" go-karts disintegrated instantly--but they had potential. Each one he built lasted a bit longer than the last one, and we always hoped for a kart that would make it through the summer.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Lynn's Comments: After watching Dad build yet another dud, Alan decided to build a more conventional go-kart. He took apart our old baby carriage and used the wheels. This looked good, but the axles and the wheels were too flimsy to withstand our abuse. Mom was angered by the destruction of the carriage, so Al removed the carriage wheels and took apart our wagon instead!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Lynn's Comments: This is what life was like when I was focused on my work. Time disappeared when I went into the world of For Better or For Worse. Aaron and Kate were used to waiting for me to come back to earth. In the meantime, they learned to be self-sufficient.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Katie was able to crawl into the tiniest places and we did "lose" her in our roomy house from time to time. One of her favourite spots was under the kitchen sink, which meant I had to put the soaps and cleaners in another place. Convenience always takes a back seat to safety!

As a kid, I loved hide and seek. I attended kindergarten in a private home across the street from ours. Our teacher, Miss Stewart, often had us play this game, but we had to stay within the classroom. How dull! I knew her house well and when it was my turn to hide, I left the room and hid in her broom closet. Kids searched for me and Miss Stewart hollered. I eventually got bored waiting for them to find me, so I decided to surprise them all by taking my clothes off. When Miss Stewart opened the door to the broom closet, there I was in my birthday suit. Immediately, she pulled a small rug off the floor, flung it in front of me, and told the class of giggling kids to go back to their chairs and wait. At once, I was shoved into my duds. Miss Stewart's sister watched the class as she marched me across the street to my house. Mom opened the door to a barrage of complaints, accepted me into the house, thanked Miss Stewart, and sent me to my room. That day, I was expelled from kindergarten. I guess this was the last straw!

Monday, May 7, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Living on my own and working freelance meant that I was always very short of cash. One of the things I hated most was asking my clients for the money they owed me. I did all the right stuff; I had a proper billing system and a business license. All I needed was to be paid on time. It amazed me when people who could well afford to pay, made me wait for weeks--sometimes months...or didn't pay at all. I had to become more assertive, but it was hard!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Going back to the story of the Nova Scotia magazine and the unpaid bill: We artists are a clan. We stand up for each other. A large, aggressive illustrator I knew was heading home to the east coast to visit his family. I told him about the magazine, which had commissioned an illustration from me and refused to pay because they had used another artist's work. He happened to know the editor of this magazine and promised to see what he could do. A few weeks later, he came to my home with a cheque for fifty dollars--the amount I was owed. I was thrilled. I asked what he had done to convince the editor to pay my bill. He said, "Well, after I reached over, grabbed his shirt, and pulled him across his desk, he thought it might be a good idea to pay up."

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Lynn's Comments: My parents said this to us and I said it to my kids. When I did this strip, I had a mental image of thousands of parents nodding their heads and thinking, "I've said that, too!"

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Lynn's Comments: This scenario has been a cartoon staple for years. Even though we all try not to duplicate something we've likely seen before, there is always the need to do it your own way, using your own characters. The thing is to try and do it better than the last guy! I didn't succeed in doing this better than Doug Wright ("Nipper") for example, but simply drawing one more mess was enough to make me do this old chestnut one more time. My kids never did make me breakfast in bed--it's not something I like. I did hear from moms who enjoyed it, though--and I emphasize the past tense!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Lynn's Comments: One of my Mom's tastiest recipes was for a cherry loaf cake. Unable to resist maraschino cherries, I would pull out the ones closest to the surface, leaving "mouse holes" in the cake as it sat on the counter to cool. I remember my mom being pretty irate by my inconsiderate attack on her baking, but I regarded it as a compliment--an honest display of appreciation. Her "punishment" one day, was to make me bake the same cake on my own to see how much work it was. When it came out of the oven, it was beautiful. I was so proud of having made my favourite cake; I couldn't wait for my dad to see it. When he came in after work, I led him straight to the kitchen and discovered that my mother had picked all the visible cherries out of it.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Aaron and Katie were pretty good about eating whatever I made--but company cooking could pose a problem. I was often determined to make something I'd never made before, and sometimes, the results were less than great. This meant the kids ate Kraft Dinner while our guests ate the experiment. Only once, my husband said he wished he had taken that option as well.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Coincidentally, "Georgia" and Alan's future wife, Joan, looked a lot alike. I had even decided to call Georgia "Geo" for short!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Before he bit the bullet and proposed to Joan, Alan did ask us a lot of questions about things like cohabitation, home ownership, the right to go fishing if he wanted to. One really good thing was that we had come from a very solid home. Sure, our folks had their ups and downs. They both came from very different backgrounds and were often at odds with each other, but they lived in an era when you saw it through to the end. Marriage was more than a contestable contract--it was, "'til death do you part."

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Lynn's Comments: When I read this strip, I wonder how much truth there was to this statement. Did we really think it through before we got married? I think we did. Our marriage lasted for thirty-three years. It's amazing how we all change in time.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Lynn's Comments: There is only one downside to having a dishwasher: it has killed kitchen conversation. Great moments can occur when people, after a good meal, enter the sanctity of the kitchen to clean up. Those who choose to do the task are at liberty to discuss anything--knowing they will be uninterrupted. I got to know my father really well because he washed and I dried. Confidences, opinions, admissions, and jokes are all part of the cleansing process now killed by the dishwasher. But, I'm still keeping mine!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Because of the similarities between Joan and "Georgia", Al begged me to have Phil and Georgia wait to get married until he married Joan!