Monthly Archives: June 2012


About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-03
Appearing: , , , ,
Location:
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About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-04
Appearing: , ,
Location:
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About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-05
Appearing: , ,
Location:
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-06
Appearing: ,
Location:
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-07
Appearing: ,
Location:
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-08
Appearing: ,
Location:
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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.
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-09
Appearing: , ,
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-10
Appearing: , , ,
Location:
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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.
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-11
Appearing: , , ,
Location:
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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Lynn's Comments: In reality, Rod and I had a very different kind of wedding. It was his first; my second, and we both wanted a small, private ceremony. Neither Rod's nor my parents could attend, so our friend, Marjorie Baskin, suggested we use the living room in her house--as her husband, Rabbi Baskin, was going to do the honours. She made us a cake. My brother and a few good friends were there. It was a beautiful service--a combination of Christian and Jewish ritual, which concluded with the breaking of a wine glass. It was a sunny afternoon and friends were looking after Aaron who, at the age of two, was not likely to sit still. After a celebratory drink and a piece of Marge's cake we went to pick him up. Aaron wasn't sure what had happened, but he knew our lives had changed. I picked him up and as he gave me a hug, he said, "I've now got a mom and a Rod!" This, as much as the ceremony, made us a family!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-12
Appearing: , , , , ,
Location: ,
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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.
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-13
Appearing: ,
Location:
In Books: ,
Daily or Sunday:
Items:
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-14
Appearing: ,
Location:
In Books: ,
Daily or Sunday:
Items:
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About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-15
Appearing: ,
Location:
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About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-16
Location:
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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?!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-17
Appearing: ,
Location:
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-18
Appearing: , ,
Location:
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Sunday, June 17, 2012

Lynn's Comments: It was hard to imagine my parents as children. To me, they had been born old and were just getting older. When they talked about days gone by, the photographs they turned to were black and white. Our world was in colour. What they talked about was hard to relate to. It was more like hearing a story than a real event.

Maybe it's because they had too much to do to enjoy the kind of childhood we had--they both grew up during the depression and had to work in order to help their families survive. Neither of my parents had the luxury of going to college or university. They learned from books and through experience, and were intellectuals in their own right.

I hoped that my kids would relate to my stories, but life changes so much between generations that Aaron and Katie probably listened with an attitude much like mine had been: "If you really were a kid at one time...why don't you understand kids NOW?"
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-19
Appearing: , , ,
Location:
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-20
Appearing: ,
Location:
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-21
Appearing: , ,
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-22
Appearing: , ,
Location:
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-23
Appearing: ,
Location:
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-24
Appearing: , ,
Location:
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-25
Appearing: , ,
Location:
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Sunday, June 24, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Sometimes a friend would tell me something that was so perfect for a comic strip that I couldn't wait to go home and draw it up. My friend, Loretta, was a wonderful cook. She often had friends over for dinner and was always well prepared ahead of time. In our small northern town, certain fruits and vegetables were hard to come by, so when a shipment of fresh food arrived, we all got into cooking mode.

Loretta had filled her fridge in preparation for a neighbourhood get-together but had forgotten to remind her family that the food was for company. By the time she discovered their scavenging, it was too late to replace the groceries. When she told me what had happened, I remember laughing so hard that I couldn't catch my breath. A few weeks later ... the same thing happened at MY place!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-26
Appearing: , , , ,
Location:
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-27
Appearing: ,
Location:
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-28
Appearing: ,
Location:
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About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-29
Appearing: , , , ,
Location:
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French Strip:


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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-06-30
Appearing: , ,
Location:
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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.
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-07-01
Appearing: , , , , ,
Location:
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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!
About This Strip:
Originally Run: 1983-07-02
Appearing: , , , ,
Location:
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