Lynn's Comments: Of course, he would have to learn how to keep his clients coming back!
daily: Browse The Strips
Friday, June 15, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Telling the truth when indeed the truth is obvious should be, well....a no brainer. Still, I remember telling some whoppers, for which I was severely punished. It was always a toss up: which will get me into deeper poo... the deed or for the cover-up?!
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Here, Michael decides to come clean about the money he's lost and Elly treats the whole situation like the lesson that it is. I got letters. Folks complained that I had made Gordon look like a thief, that he wasn't "that kind of kid!" They thought Elly should have gone to Gordon's parents and complained. They didn't know that Gordon's dad was at the pub and not likely to be home before dinnertime. They didn't know that his mom worked two jobs to make sure that the bills and the debts were paid on time. Behind every character was another story altogether--a story I had no time to tell!
Monday, June 18, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Despite his father's shortcomings, Gordon Mayes was being raised with a good work ethic and a sense of fair play. He feared and avoided his father, but his respect for his mother gave him some balance in a seesaw world. His difficult life at home gave him both courage and maturity. He might have looked like an underdog, but Gordon, in many ways, led the pack!
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Lynn's Comments: For three months one year, Rod and I worked on his sister and brother in-law's farm. They grew grain and raised pigs and I quickly went from being a city girl to driving the combine, chasing piglets, and building bins. It was an extraordinary experience, and the farm became one of my favourite places to take the Pattersons!
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Lynn's Comments: To be completely fair at all times is an impossible task! Even if you do manage to think of everyone, the kids themselves will invent an inequality and you're stumped again!
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Lynn's Comments: This is an invented scenario. The only cash I found in the dryer was small change...but a cheque, now and then, did make its way into the laundry. Too bad cheques aren't made from the same semi-washable material as paper bills!
Friday, June 22, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Ominous thoughts like this were derived from my own fear of falling. I don't ski or skate and friends who say, "but, Lynn! You don't know what you're missing!" don't imagine themselves in casts and crutches the way I do!
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Buying my own things gave me pride and independence. On the year of my twelfth birthday, I saved twelve dollars. During the fifties, this was enough to take my family to Vancouver on the bus for dinner and a movie. It was wonderful to be able to pay for everything with my own earnings. That twelve dollars made me feel like a million bucks!
Monday, June 25, 2012
Lynn's Comments: When Rod and I were first married, we agreed one summer to go to Miami, Manitoba and help his sister and brother-in-law on their farm. He was still in dental school, I hadn't been offered my job with the Syndicate and Katie had not yet been born. Our finances were dwindling and this seemed like a great way to earn enough to see us through the year. We rented our house to friends, packed up Aaron, who was three--and drove west. I had never experienced farm life and had no idea what to expect!
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Auntie Bev and Uncle Danny were closely based on my sister and brother in-law, Beth and Don Cruikshank. They are both such wonderful characters, I hardly had to make anything up!
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Friends in Hamilton were curious about our summer plans. They made jokes about my being a city slicker, but I was determined to learn how to be a good farm hand.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Farley, at this time, had been given to another family. He was now living on a farm himself, and I wondered how long it had taken him to adjust. His new family must have shaved off his long, thick fur, because he was a dog who loved to roll in everything awful and then trail it into the house!
Friday, June 29, 2012
Lynn's Comments: The real Farley never saw the insides of a kennel. He was always billeted with friends, and I, in turn, looked after their pets.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Lynn's Comments: The kennel you see here was based on the kennel we (much later) put our spaniel, Willy, in. Situations, which were based on reality, didn't appear in a chronological order. I relied on ideas and imagery, which came from the disorganized mess that is memory!
Monday, July 2, 2012
Lynn's Comments: My first husband, Doug, and I once left our house in the care of a friend. We were going on a road trip for a few weeks and he needed a place to stay. When we called to see if everything was ok, we could hear the sound of a party in the background. Our "friend" had let friends of his move in, and they were turning the place upside down! We cut our holiday short, came home, and threw out the lodger and his crew. Nothing was destroyed or stolen, but it took awhile to clean up. Sometimes generosity can bite you in the butt!
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Aaron wanted to take his transparent plastic space-gun with him to Winnipeg and did not want it to go out of his sight.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Lynn's Comments: This was long before the strict security measures of today. In Toronto, however, Aaron suddenly pointed the gun at a man in a uniform and we were immediately stopped, searched, and reprimanded for trying to bring a weapon onto the plane. It was funny, but we should have known better!
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Lynn's Comments: The toy gun was confiscated and Aaron hoped that some other kid would get to play with it. I'm sure this happened. Someone must take all of that "dangerous" stuff home!
Friday, July 6, 2012
Lynn's Comments: In the story, I had pity on the security guard and made him human. After all, it's a thankless job with guidelines that have to be met. The guard we encountered, however, took himself and his position a bit too seriously, and I wished I'd remembered what he looked like so I could draw a better likeness!
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
Lynn's Comments: This storyline came from a real life adventure, which I wanted to have fun with and share. I used photographs of my sister in law, Beth and her husband, Don in order to get a likeness and although it's not easy for me to do caricatures, I managed to draw "Uncle Danny" so well, he was once recognized on the street in Winnipeg!
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!
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Lynn's Comments: I used photos of Beth and Don's house as reference, too. The older lady here is "Dan's" mother--she made few appearances after this.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Laura was a combination of Beth and Don's three daughters: Lauren, Chrissy, and Arli. It was much easier writing about one cousin in the strip than three!
Friday, July 13, 2012
Lynn's Comments: The real farm story began before Katie was born. Rod and I were newly married and Aaron was about three when we drove west from our home in Dundas, Ontario and became farm hands for the summer at Don and Beth's place in Miami, Manitoba. For Better or for Worse wasn't even an idea at the time. Rod was still in Dental school and we needed the work!
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Monday, July 16, 2012
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Lynn's Comments: I soon learned not to look at the landscape for respite from our labour, but to look up instead. There is nothing more beautiful than a prairie sky! It goes on forever. The pink and purple sunsets, and brilliant stars in a cloudless sky made up for the featureless land around us. I soon understood why folks who live on the prairies love it so much.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Lynn's Comments: People in rural areas watched this series closely--to see if I'd "get it right". I soon got letters telling me that the bailing twine was going the wrong way in this illustration! No matter what you THINK you know, it's best to check your references!
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Anyone who uses the word "farmer" in a derogatory way has no idea what the term means! A farmer is a biologist, a marketer, a mechanic, and a vet. Farmers have to plan ahead and be willing to work all day and all night in order to succeed in a world of unpredictable events.