For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 26, 2014

What’s with Elly’s backside?

It looks so much better when you aren’t in arrears.

Tough to assess a new environment when every time you look up all you can think of is an environmental disaster. A leak from that butt would put Chernoble to shame, and poor Lizzie has no escape route-she’s being dragged along behind.

Most elementary schools would have interesting things at a child’s eye level. Elly’s bottom looks similar to what most of ours look like from that viewpoint. Go ask any kid to look at yours and I guarantee the review won’t be flattering!

Lynn’s Notes:

Katie was starting grade two when we moved to North Bay. (The children in the strip were three years younger than Katie and Aaron). The little school she attended was about a mile and a half down the road, next to a hobby farm. At lunchtime she and the other children could watch the animals through the fence; a donkey, chickens, and some rabbits. On occasion, the farmer would take the kids for rides on his donkey, which I thought was charming. I said to her, “Katie isn’t this a great place to have a school?! This is something you’ll remember for the rest of your life!” and she replied, “Yeah, I will …’cause it stinks!”

Have a good first day, Lizzie.

I remember my first day after ALL these years…my mother wore a grey suit and a hat with a feather in it (same planet, different time!) And I still think that nun, Sr. Francesca, was nine feet tall.

I don’t really remember much of Grade 1, but I apparently ran away from school into the bush behind it every day for the first 3 weeks.

A 2,000-foot tower? Meaning the tower’s elevation above sea-level, including the hill it was on? I used to work at a station with its FM tower sitting on top of a 7,000-foot mountain…got calls with requests from all over the eastern part of our state even though we were only throwing out 35kW. I’m doing shortwave now at 100kW hitting four different CONTINENTS. That’s a nice long ego trip even if nobody’s listening.

And there’s nothing wrong with Steely Dan. Now, as for Spyro Gyra…

I remember going to my old elementary school one day to pick up my sister’s kids for her. As I walked through the halls I couldn’t believe how SMALL everything looked! It was a very strange feeling!

Funny how our memory works sometimes, isn’t it? I know that when I tell a story, I don’t always use the exact same words each time. I think sometimes that I get some weird looks from friends who are hearing the same story for the second time, and the details don’t match exactly. I blame it on my memory.

Elly seems somewhat self-centered — anxious to get her youngest out the nest perhaps?

Lynn- Re: Artwork angle— Great! From Elizabeth’s view… gives some additional perspective to the story….Ha ha.Doug

I brought my daughter to her new school the week or so before she started kindergarten. We walked around the school and looked at where her new class would be. It was a nice summer day. We laid on the playground grass afterwards and she picked some little dandelion flowers for me. There was a calm because we were the only ones there. When she started school, she knew where she was going and it was familiar because we had taken the time to go. I think that made it nice for her.

Thanks