home: Browse The Strips

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Lynn's Comments: A question like this would have made my parents get out the encyclopedia and look up the answer. My mother especially enjoyed teaching us stuff about plants and animals and would easily pick up a snake or a spider to show us it was something to admire. She was responsible I'm sure for my brother's degree in biology and my years working as a medical artist!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Mrs. Baird was a background character who was meant to be put aside once Farley came into the family (her hobby was breeding Old English sheepdogs). To tie in with this, I also did a few strips about her being a friendly neighbour. I guess her short appearance struck a chord with some readers who asked to see her more often. In this Sunday page, I have her working in her greenhouse and talking to Michael--in a way that enabled me to say more about her personality and her past.

If Mrs. Baird was based on anyone at all, it would have been the ladies who lived across the street from us when I was growing up in North Vancouver. They were sisters, the "Miss Stewarts." They taught kindergarten and piano and were endlessly patient with me. I made a habit of going to their home uninvited and was rarely told that they had no time. When I needed an extra hug or another grown-up opinion, I headed for the Miss Stewarts' house and twisted the ringer on the front door to be let in.

Not long ago, I was in North Vancouver and I went for a nostalgic walk down Fifth Street. Their old wood frame house is still there, though mine is now a condo complex. A notice was on their fence to say the house and the one next door would soon be condos as well. I'm glad I got to see it one more time. There have been many unforgettable folks in my life, and these two ladies are certainly among them!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Lynn's Comments: The towels in our family bathroom were often filthy. Alan and I would "wash" our hands but were always in too much of a hurry to use soap!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Lynn's Comments: The quote "home bought" came from my childhood. My mom was always making bread and cookies, so for us, the ones that came in a package were a treat. My faves were "Dad's" Oatmeal cookies and "Wonder Bread." Every so often, instead of having homemade cookies, I begged for "home bought!"

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Lynn's Comments: This was true. My house and my yard were always full of kids, and though it sometimes became a chore, I always knew where my children were!

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I got my first real burn from my curling iron. I was in a hurry; it flew out of my hand, and stupidly, I tried to catch it. I had to wear a bandage on my hand for two weeks. The pain and the inconvenience made me aware of how dangerous these things can be, so when my kids were around, I was extra careful with it. I made sure they knew it could be dangerous, that it was not a toy and should never be played with. I was certain that my lecture was well heeded until the day I noticed my curling iron had been put away "differently." When I examined it, I saw nylon and some other substance melted to the barrel. I never found out what my kids had been doing with it or what they had destroyed, which reminds me: Now that they are adults, they tell me stories of "what really happened" when I wasn't looking--I'll have to ask about the curling iron!!

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Lynn's Comments: As kids, our backyard parking space was a covered rectangle--which smelled of cat spray and mud. North Vancouver's heavy rainfall was the one thing we needed protection from. Sweeping out the garage would have been a serious chore--if we had one. It wasn't until I moved my family to Ontario that a garage became familiar and oh so necessary. At this point, it was MY kids who hated sweeping the garage!

Friday, May 2, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I remember saving to buy my mom something for Mother's Day. What can you buy for a few cents? Even in "the day" when things cost less--earnings were less too. Dad would give me 10 cents for chores that were "one off", like pulling weeds from the front path or picking up branches from the lawn. I preferred these small chores to an hourly wage. For a kid, 60 minutes of "work" is a sentence, not a job!

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Lynn's Comments: The first gift I ever bought my mom for Mother's Day was a blue rose. It was artificial; fabric, paper and wire--but I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world. Very fortunately--so did she.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Aside from getting out the message that chaos always happened when I needed to think, I did owe a letter to my aunt Bessie. This was a way to tell her I was thinking about her and get some work out at the same time. Unfortunately, Bessie never read the paper the day this was released, but I did write the letter I owed her!

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Behind closed doors, I had a dopey, mommy-to-doggie vocabulary, which I shared with Farley alone. I even had a song I sang to him, and later, I made up a song for Willy, our small black spaniel. While openly criticizing other pooch-parents for talking baby talk to their canine family members, I was doing the very same thing. My dogs appreciated it. This was a language we shared in the privacy of my home. This Sunday page allowed readers into our secret world. I believed that the sheer stupidity of what Elly was saying would be taken as "made-up cartoon dialogue," but not so. I received several letters from readers telling me they used the exact same words of endearment!

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Lynn's Comments: This cartoon was done specifically as a message to my son. Word for word, grimace for groan, I expressed my outrage in the most visible and lasting way possible. When the strip appeared in the Toronto Star, I showed it to him hoping that he would be shocked into changing his evil ways. I said that millions of people had read it and now knew about the way he treated his laundry--and ME! Aaron read the dialogue thoroughly and said, "I get the gag, Ma, but what's your point?"

Monday, May 19, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Waterbeds were all the rage in the '80s, so we bought one. It was a miserable thing. The heater was defective, so the mattress was often clammy and cold. Putting the sheets on took practice. We had to pull up the edge of the mattress, then work a band of elastic under this blubbery, rolling water-filled sack while skinning our knuckles on the frame. It occurred to me that it was kind of like dressing something warm, large, and flabby!

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I actually thought I was overweight when I drew this. I thought the bulge I drew on my tummy was enormous. It amazes me now to think that I saw myself as unattractive. On the other hand, a little ego bruising at the time was a good thing!

Friday, May 23, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I actually did make two meals one for me on a diet and one for my family--who wanted more substantial grub. The hard part was cleaning up their leftovers and not swilling down the lot!

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Lynn's Comments: My mother didn't like me drinking out of the water faucet in the bathroom sink. She told me that there were snakes in the water pipes and they laid eggs in the water, so I had to look at the water in the glass to make sure there were no eggs in it. If I drank directly out of the faucet and swallowed the eggs, well--snakes would grow in my stomach and come wriggling out of my nose! It worked. I stopped drinking out of the faucet and looked for eggs in every glass of water I poured. I still think of this when I get a glass of water. The "power of suggestion" is power, indeed!

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I got away with this drawing, perhaps because there was no Internet to give me an instant blast for inconsistency: The car isn't backing out of the garage, it hit the frame while driving in!

Monday, May 26, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Having moved to a more southerly clime, we were able to grow real plants! I went crazy finding ornamental trees and flowering perennials to fill our garden. I dug and I trimmed. The job was bigger than I had imagined, so I hired a lady to help me. She would arrive with her young children in tow; I'd feed and water them while she did the same for the garden. Eventually, we had a beautiful place to live, surrounded by pine forests and open fields.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Begonias do very well here, and the blossoms can grow to an amazing size. Aaron and Katie liked to break them off and bring them in, along with the ants that infested them!

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Another actual quote from the man himself. He complained that I used the lines he didn't like and ignored the lines he did.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Lynn's Comments: My mother had a day of the week for laundry. Rain or shine, she washed on Wednesday, and there was an order to the way she hung the clothes on the line. Sheets, towels, and good clothing was hung first--so it could be seen and appreciated by the neighbours. Underwear and things not meant for public scrutiny were hung closer to the house. These things were easily reached by standing on the rungs of our porch railing, and often fell prey to my brother--whose pranks with Mom's unmentionables were legendary.

After our neighbour's big dog, Teddy, died, their daughter, Tootie (our babysitter), bought a small fuzzy pup, which she called "Noby"--short for "Nobody." Noby was a sweet, easygoing little pooch who put up with just about anything the local kids would do to her. One day, Alan decided to dress her up in Mom's underwear. Noby dutifully stood still while bra and panties were administered. Al expected a wild struggle for freedom, but Noby stood still. Frustrated by the lack of action, Al lifted Noby up and placed her inside a sheet, which had been doubled so it could hang on the lower line. Noby went crazy. She squirmed and howled, and we worried that she'd tear the sheet open. Tootie soon came to her rescue. She pulled Noby out of the sheet, cuffed my brother on the side of his head, threw the bra and panties on the lawn, and went home.

I picked up the underwear and put it back on the line. The sheet was left to dry. Later, when Mom pulled in the laundry, I watched as she folded it. When she got to the underwear, she frowned, wondered why it looked unwashed, but kept on folding. Then she reached for the sheet. There in the middle was a mess of dirt and dog hair. Mom looked at me and said, "Where's your brother?" Alan, of course, was gone. I was close at hand and received the brunt of her wrath. After a thorough tongue-lashing, I was sent to my room--Al had to wait. Nothing was said when he came home, and I was furious. I thought I had taken the blame for everything! Later that evening it was clear that justice prevailed. When Al pulled the blankets back on his bed, there was the dirty sheet. Grossed out and grumbling, he slept on it for a week!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Lynn's Comments: When I was a teenaged baby sitter, I resented it when the parents who hired me came home late. Having had kids (and now being a grandma) I understand why parents want to stretch their freedom for as long as possible--and often forget the time.