daily: Browse The Strips

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Situations like this are not uncommon for freelance artists, writers, and musicians. The philosophy seems to be; "The skill comes FREE to you, so it should come free to me, too!" This same freeloader wouldn't think of not paying their dry-waller or mechanic, but artists are used and abused! It's all part of the education you need in order to survive. You soon learn to value your own work, and to defend your right to make a living by it!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Lynn's Comments: I once did a series of illustrations for a publisher who produced a quarterly children's annual. He didn't pay me and wouldn't answer my calls. I came up with a plan. The next time he needed a small piece of art, I agreed to do it, but rather than mail it to him, he had to come to my home and pick it up. When he arrived, I refused to give him the art until he paid his bill. He said he was broke and would do anything to even things up. I asked him to mow my lawns, which he did. I still savour that image!

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!"

Monday, May 14, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Alan would often call my kids "short one," which I thought was charming. One day on a business trip, I got into an elevator with a woman and her young son. I looked down at him and said, "Hiya, short one!" His mom immediately berated me for saying cruel things to a child who had an illness and was abnormally small for his age. AAAUGH!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The comment "What you need is a wife," never used to bother me. I didn't think of it as sexist. For the most part, we are more organized; we like to keep things clean and tidy. Today, however, I'm more likely to take the side of the independent woman and say, "What you need is discipline, pride, and self control!" After his marriage, by the way, my brother became extremely tidy!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Parents of young children can easily carry on two conversations at once. While showing a toddler that you are there and paying attention to them, you can also listen to and process adult communication. This is not something a non-parent can tolerate and now that I'm well past coddling a toddler, I can't stand it either!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Lynn's Comments: I did have this conversation with my brother. He had been a musician for much of his life and was beginning to rethink the itinerant nature of his career. He wanted stability and a permanent home. It wasn't long after this that he went back to university and got a teaching degree. He was an excellent teacher.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Lynn's Comments: One of the many things I enjoy about my brother is his storytelling. When he was living in Hamilton, Ontario (I lived twenty minutes down the road in Dundas) his adventures with roommates, neighbours, and friends would liven up an evening. He could take amazingly uncomfortable situations and make them sound hilarious. It was stand up comedy at its best; one person's method of coping is another's entertainment.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Alan was a good catch--but a slippery one. I met a few of the girls he went out with; nice people, easy to have around. None scared him like Joan did, however, because she was "the one." I remember him talking about her with the kind of angst that comes when you are at a crossroads and have to make a serious decision. Did he really want to get married? Was he doing the right thing? In the end, they both made the right choice. Al and Joan have just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

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!

Monday, May 28, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Michael has been smitten by Deanna and has heard his uncle talking about Georgia. He knows that love, whatever it is, carries a powerful punch and serious consequences--should you fall! I remember being hopelessly in love in first and then again in third grade. Nobody would have believed the extent of my "crushes" or how badly I wished the boys I liked would return my affection. Puppy love really is serious stuff to a kid and shouldn't be casually dismissed!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Lynn's Comments: In a neighbourhood where boys outnumbered girls (and the girls were GIRLY) I tried to fit in by being as gross, grubby and rude as the boys were. I wanted to join their club--but the initiation was: you had to pee through the knot-hole in Gary Perkins' garage. Not having the necessary equipment, I offered to spit my way to acceptance. This I had learned to do on the back porch with my dad and when the time came for my initiation, I beat Gary by two feet, six inches. As a member, I had to constantly impress the guys with outrageous acts and better my last indiscretion to prove I was worthy. When you think of it, this was preparation for jobs later on--where women were not treated as equals!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Down the lane behind our house, the garbage cans waited. Every lid was a potential shield, every can a treasure chest. Eldon Avenue residents checked their cans as soon as school was out--knowing that a stream of kids would soon be tumbling by, looking for fun and mischief. After a year in Lynn Lake, none of us knew whose lid was on which can--and it never occurred to us to wire them on!

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Janice was going to be a regular character in FBorFW. I was looking forward to having a rough and tumble girl down the block who would be an even match for the boys. She was named for a tough kid I knew growing up, and I hoped to explore some of my more daring exploits through her. I imagined Mike and Lawrence battling Janice and other "enemies" in an ongoing quest for neighbourhood supremacy. Sadly, Janice soon disappeared. Perhaps she came on too strong. Perhaps I bowed to reader criticism. Either way, I lost a neat character and some potentially good story lines.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The tap on the side of the house I grew up in, should have broken with the punishment it received. Alan and I filled balloons, hung buckets, and tied skipping ropes to it. We also drank from it--right from the spout. Mom managed at least to prevent one thing by telling us snake eggs were in the water and would grow in our stomachs if we didn't use a glass!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The kids who were eager to show their report cards, always had good ones--no F, D, or C appeared on their neatly prepared sheets. I always tried to avoid these too-good-to-be-true types. Instead, I gravitated towards the mixed-bag students who had As in the stuff they liked and a "pass" in everything else!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Lynn's Comments: My parents took great interest in our report cards. Mom, especially, wanted to see progress in the "A" department. A pass wasn't good enough, so she'd take it upon herself to do remedial teaching--especially math, in which she excelled. She spent hours with us, drawing diagrams, using coins, and cutting up popsicle sticks, so that numbers would make sense. I was more interested in the remarks column--hoping to see "improved" or "talks less." What my teachers thought about me was important. I knew I was a pain in the wazoo, sometimes, but I hoped that my "good side" showed through!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The days leading up to summer vacation never seemed to end. It was so hard to concentrate on lessons when sunshine beckoned and the bells on ice cream trucks chimed. I counted the days until school was out, but when I finally cleaned out my desk, I cried. My elementary school teachers were like parents to me and I hated to say goodbye.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Lynn's Comments: My folks were good badminton players. As soon as the spring rain subsided, they'd stretch out a net in the backyard and the games began. Alan and I would go through a couple of racquets each in a summer because Dad bought cheap ones. He knew we'd be using them to whack rocks, dirt, and each other. We even tried to make French fries by pushing a cooked spud through the mesh. We lost the shuttlecocks and made holes in the lawn. We pushed each other into the net and tried to swing from the posts. Badminton was an all-purpose sport, which we kids loved...and did eventually learn to play!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Ours was a one-bathroom house and Mom resented the parade of neighborhood kids coming in to use it. She was especially grouchy if Dad had just mowed the lawn and we'd been rolling in the clippings. I remember her washing handprints off the wall, hoping to make an impression on the people who had put them there...but, vindication didn't come until I had children of my own and complained to her about the exact same things.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Roller Blades were just around the corner when I did this series of strips. There was still a roller rink in North Bay and it was a great place for kids and teens to go for a spirited, noisy afternoon. This focus on roller skates had more to do with my own past and memories of speed, daring, and prowess. Our awards were skinned knees, bruised backsides, and the feeling your feet were six inches off the ground, which would last for hours afterwards.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Aaron was well aware of what things cost and was encouraged to earn his own money with which to buy extras. Letters came suggesting that "Michael Patterson's" parents were far too strict and that I was putting out the wrong message. I was suggesting that kids work! I was stunned. I had been thinking that this was a good thing. Maybe it was...when I was a kid!