For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 15, 2021

Yepper!! Like my saintly grandmother used to say; Ain’t life a SUKA!!

;-)

The only thing I remember from my sixteenth birthday was a VHS of Spanish-dubbed Disney’s The Little Mermaid (I was taking Spanish in high school then AND I received the original English The Little Mermaid VHS for my sixth birthday).

Nothing like a good reminder that freedom isn’t free.

A good pop of his fantasy bubble.

Ahh the cost of maturity!

Emphasis on little reality. It’s John who is living in a fantasy. If Mike gets an after school job that pays him enough money to cover the insurance costs for a 16-year-old, male driver, then he should just drop out of school and keep that job. I know when I got out of college and was living on my own with a full-time job for the first time, I could barely afford car insurance. There’s no way a high school kid can afford that on his own. If John does not let Michael drive the family car until he can pay for gas and insurance, he will never learn how to drive. Plus, how is he going to get to that job, unless he can drive?

As Uncle Ben from the Spiderman comics was fond of saying..“with great power comes great responsibility”. ;D

I can’t wait till he sees his first police car in the review mirror. One that is just following him in traffic, nothing special. I bet Mike’s anxiety level will go to stratospheric levels.

On a side note: I wonder what Canadians call their police cars. I know that the Irish call theirs Panda’s.

John’s fantasy is that he’ll never have to give his kids (who are still minors) an allowance again.

“Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose….”

As my high school coach used to say, “he just got a whack from the reality stick.”

Perfect Lynn, been there 5 times

Time to work

He’s a kid. He expects his parents to pay for everything.

sad and true.

Details, details….

Yup, reality sucks the fun out of fantasy. Oddly enough, fantasy makes reality more fun.

A lot of the fantasies floating around today are impervious to reality.

Very true dad.

When I was 16 I got my PA driver’s license in Allentown PA in my father’s Austin A40. My transportation was a Western Auto Doodle Bug scooter. I looked about 12 or younger, & was frequently stopped by local police to see if I had a driver’s license. Earned enough delivering Call Chronicle news papers in my Allentown suburban neighborhood to eventually purchase a 2nd hand Cushman “show box” scooter.

Aww, John could have let Michael have his fantasy for a little longer. Real life intrudes quickly enough.

My folks did me the same way they had done my brother and sister. If we wanted to drive, we had to buy our own car, and pay for our own insurance and gas etc. Dad did help fix up any car we had, we just had to buy the parts. He was a great mechanic and fair body worker. It never occurred to me that wasn’t fair. Somehow, our oldest finagled her way and ended up with an old car we had but our youngest proudly bought hers.

True that. I however was prepared, I bought a car when I was 14, spent 2 years getting it fixed the way I wanted it(52 Merc, chopped and channeled, most expensive part was the engine I got out of a totaled ’vette) I also had 2 jobs, working in my friends fathers body shop and at our local Chevy dealer-until I got a better paying job at the local (Unionized) A&P meat dept.-for adult wages.From that I was able to buy a Honda 50 when I was 15-Could drive according to MI state law-and when I was 16 I bought a 305 Honda Scrambler(a fellow classmate owned the local Honda franchise) for cost, altho I did have to help him assemble it out of the crate

We paid for the (clunker) car, they paid for the insurance & gas! Welcome to life!

Preach it, dad!

My Dad’s exact words were: “Of course you can have a car! You just have to pay for it yourself, pay the insurance, license fees, upkeep, and never ask me for money for gas!”

I did, too! I never asked my Dad for a dime towards any of my vehicles. ( Of course, Mom might slip me $5 on occasion for gas… )

That’s the fact, Jack…..

What is there to worry about? This is Canada, land of single-payer insurance, duh!

Becoming of age isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Mike’s fantasy it a perfect fit for the old song, Here Comes Summer. The lyrics never mention a summer job. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY2aj3ba7pA

Good work John. The sooner Michael learns that the world is not handed to him on a silver platter, the better prepared he will be.

My folks allowed me to drive their cars and motorcycle without paying for gas or insurance as long as I stayed in school. Once I dropped out of college, I had to start paying my way, including the above and rent.

Of course any job he gets at that age will not be able to pay for everything needed, but there is certainly nothing wrong with his paying for some gas and insurance. ‘Nothing ain’t worth nothing, but it’s free.’

Young folks today seem to deeply believe that socialism will save them from personal responsibility.

When I was seventeen (“It was a very good year”. Sorry about that; flashback) my Dad bought himself an MG Midget. How I loved that little car. Then came the Speech: “This is MY toy, son. I’ll share my toy, but you have to give it back clean and full of gas”. Fair enough.

I bought my first car, and was paying the insurance on it by the time i was 15. Of course I’d been working summer full time jobs and school year part time jobs since i was 10 years old. Never had any illusions about who was paying for my freedom.

I got my License at 15, and my first car at 16, from there on out I learned really fast that living was expensive.

“If I were free then nothing would be free.” – A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Faster, John! Mike almost felt good about life for five whole seconds, you J@CK@$$!

Too true.