daily: Browse The Strips

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Lynn's Comments: This scenario dates back to my own childhood. My brother and I would torment each other by simply staring. This "game" even had a name: it was "Seeing" (from the lament, "Daddy! She's seeing at me!") This could get intensely annoying, and when my brother finally broke down and asked Dad to intervene, he got into the act. He invented the "one eye see," the "two eye half see," the "blinking see," and so on. With Dad ready to play the game along with us, the sport quickly lost its competitive sting and we gave it up. That is until I told my kids about it--and the tradition carried on.

Friday, July 8, 2016

Lynn's Comments: My dad had a friend who'd had surgery on his throat. The result was that he couldn't speak. He had learned to talk by what Dad said was called, "an educated burp." This fascinated my brother and me, so Dad challenged us to see how much of the alphabet we could recite in one long burp. Unimpressed, Mom told us off--saying we should have better things to do with our time. As soon as she was out of earshot, Dad, my brother and I continued our efforts. Yes, Dad didn't have to do much to convince Alan and me, and all the kids in the neighbourhood that he was one of us.

Monday, July 11, 2016

Lynn's Comments: The cherry tree in our front yard on Fifth Street was tall and sturdy, and one branch afforded us a great view of the neighbours' houses. Every time we hid up there, we hoped to see something important, something about which we could tell the police. If we didn't see anything, it didn't matter. Alan and I could always make something up.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Lynn's Comments: While writing this short vignette, I remembered very clearly the vigils we made in our cherry tree. I could feel the branches, smell the leaves, sense the movement of the tree, and anticipate the pummeling my mother would give us if she caught us up there. A cartoonist has to have a good memory and an even better sense of "what if?"

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Lynn's Comments: This vignette had its roots in another story from my childhood: Across the lane from our house on 5th Street, lived the Doucette family. Their back yard faced ours, and Teddy Doucette was one of my adventurous buddies. His sister, Annette, was a teenager a few years older than we were, and everything she did was of great interest to us. The Doucettes had a small wartime house much like ours, but their attic had an outside access with a ladder going up to it--a wonderful place to play and hide. The floors in their house were thin and made of painted wooden slats. The attic was directly above. In the ceiling of Annette's bedroom, a small knot had been carefully pried open, and from inside the attic, Teddy and I could spy into her room. We could see only a very small area, but the thought of watching her unseen was great fun. (Continued tomorrow).

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Lynn's Comments: (Continued from yesterday)--What we didn't know was that Annette could hear us in the attic. She had just entered her room when Teddy shifted his weight on the attic floor to get a better look. Suddenly, Annette looked up at the knothole and saw an eye looking back at her. We knew we had a matter of seconds to descend the outside ladder and escape. We just made it to the bottom when both Annette and her dad came roaring out of the house! Teddy and I ran as fast as we could, our legs pumping like mad down the lane and to temporary safety. It was exhilarating and well worth the tongue-lashing we received when we got back home. Teddy was sent to bed without supper. I was sent to my room until my dad came home.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Lynn's Comments: (Continued from yesterday)--I don't remember what my dad did. He was never much of a disciplinarian. All I can tell you is that he lived vicariously through my brother and me, and if he'd been our age, he would have been in that attic right along with us!

Monday, July 25, 2016

Lynn's Comments: Katie was a flower girl in my brother's wedding. My mom spent days making her dress--the front was beautifully smocked by hand.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Lynn's Comments: This is another true story, which went word for word into the strip. It belongs to my friends, Sandy and Kevin O'Grady. Kevin actually did this and they still laugh about it today.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Lynn's Comments: In Kevin's case, he meant to go to the dump, but an open dumpster in a city lane was an easier repository. What he did was toss in his car keys. I didn't know how to draw this accurately. It was easier to show his watch go flying into the bin.

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Lynn's Comments: Meanwhile, Sandy was at the wedding wondering where Kevin had gone. How long could it take to dispose of a bag of garbage?

Monday, August 1, 2016

Lynn's Comments: [Continued from last month:] Sandy sat in the pew and watched the wedding ceremony--worried and angry. Where could Kevin be?

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Lynn's Comments: He described the dumpster as being behind a restaurant and grocery store. Wet and decaying vegetables lay in a mucky stew on the bottom. He had to climb in, wearing his best clothes, and dig around in the stinking mess to find his car keys. If it had been a watch, he might have just let it go! Car keys were essential!

Friday, August 5, 2016

Lynn's Comments: Within the story of the dumpster, I had to blend the serious commitment of Phil and Georgia's wedding. This kind of challenge made writing and drawing the strip pure fun.

Monday, August 8, 2016

Lynn's Comments: Kevin O'Grady spent the entire day aware of how badly he smelled of the dumpster. If things like this weren't so funny, we'd never get through life!