The Born Loser by Art and Chip Sansom for September 20, 2023

Decaf in the morning? Better not to drink anything.

You don’t take the school bus?

You mean she followed the speed limit.

Hey! Why didn’t think of that excuse when I was that age?

My house was near the beginning of the bus route. If I missed the bus it was a 20 minute fast walk to school. If I made the bus it was a 20 minute ride to school.

Kids don’t drink coffee.

I initially thought Gladys had lost a lot of weight. BTW, I have been drinking coffee since I was old enough to sip from a saucer

I don’t just drink coffee for the taste. Quite frankly, I don’t even like the taste of coffee that much. But boy, do I need that caffeine rush.

Although there are exceptions, we don’t have school buses like you have in the States. As others have mentioned, I also used to cycle 2.5 miles to school every day rain or shine. These days, it looks like all the kids are being taken by their parents in cars, no matter how close the school is. Now that the summer holidays are over, the traffic has increased 10 fold – I kid you not, and no exaggeration. It takes me nearly 4 times longer to get to work now as a result due to all the cars getting snarled up at junctions. Rant over

must’ve worked on the car too if it was slow… maybe you should’ve shouted FIRE super loud. that would’ve scared her awake at least, I’m sure the car would careless though. :D

If decaf grows up, will it be de-cow?

At one point, Wilberforce considered getting out to walk.

I don’t feel tardy!

I’m with Gladys. I want caffeinated coffee.

I won’t even have decaf in the house, what’s the point?

That’s right, blame the coffee. However, l must admit that I have never heard that excuse before. I’d have let it go based on originality if for nothing else…..

Luckily, he gets a ride from Mom….she’s on time when she doesn’t drink decaf!

Well, there you have it. The real reason our schools are failing. Kids aren’t allowed to have a coffee before coming to school. I always had a coffee with creme and sugar before school.

I drove my child to school for years, dropped her off in plenty of time for her to get to classes and me to get to work. I don’t ever drink coffee. I was at work when the schools let out, so she either walked home with other friends or took a bus. On a rare occasion I was at home when she got off school, and I would walk over and get her.

So you have to give his Mom the demerit.

better than a lot of the excuses I heard as a teacher

Makes sense to me. Kudos to Wilberforce for the quick response. Boo boo boo to the teacher for confronting him in front of the entire class. Shame on her.

The teacher should give Wilberforce a pass on that one considering it was a very inventive excuse.

Not everyone took a school bus. Anyone within the lower limits of distance to school ascually walked there (Walk? Heaven forbid!!) Some parents did drive their kids to school. No parent drove their kid to school when I was a child, or very rarely. We weren’t wimps that were driven everywhere. My mother said “God gave you two legs so you could walk. Use them!”