Frazz by Jef Mallett for October 26, 2023

She catches on quick, Frazz.

I grow out, I grow fat / I can’t see where my navel’s at.

Clever Young lady!

I’m on the “shrink” side of the journey. No, not that kind of shrink! :)

Had to look up the word flooders. It seems to be the opposite of what you would think.

Move over Frost.

I dunno about T.S. Eliot — but Steve Martin used to like to get small, too!

Before I realized the strip was about growth spurts, I noticed the girl was unusually stretched out compared to how Jef usually draws them. All makes sense now.

Roll them to mid calf and wear bright colorful fun socks.

“When I grow old…I shall wear purple…and learn to spit.”-Jenny Josephs

Remember the old commercial on TeeVee about getting old, pulling my pants up to my armpits, moving to Miami and cussing the government full time?

And then there’s those of us who are just short …

I’m with Frost. I’ve lost about 2" in the last 20 years. Since mfgs stopped producing odd number lengths, my choices for length are now are either 30," which just reaches ankle height or 32," with enough material to cover my shoe laces. And, since having the longer ones shortened costs almost as much as the pants, I just go with covered laces.

Growing old is a matter of continual accommodation to circumstance, not all as simple as inseam length.

The only dimension I care about is the “butt-gut” circumference. I buy decent jeans at an upscale warehouse store and factor in a couple of bucks to have them hemmed-up at the local dry-cleaner. As long as I can fit into one pair of nice trousers (plus my “marryin’ ‘n buryin’” suit) for special occasions, I’m good to go. Sadly these days, the most frequent special occasion is someone’s funeral. My M&B suit is ‘way out of style, but that’s what everyone expects of me anyway …

I remember that very scenario. Mom had purchased our school clothes at the AFB BX about three weeks to school starting. The obligatory try on was approved for fit. First day of school arrives…..Jeans are about an inch and a half too short. Mom was livid. I told her I couldn’t help that I kept growing.

They used to sell those as Pedal Pushers.

Trousers have a way of sneaking up up on you!

I was about 12 when I hit the adolescent growth spurt.

I grew about 8 inches that year. Pants did that & my legs hurt.

If she only knew what is in store in about 40 years

Whatever happened to the distinction between past tense and past perfect tense for these guys?

flang sprang stang drank sank shrank slang slank stank swang

Great Ceasar’s bust is on the shelf, and I don’t feel so well myself…

Shrank. ‘Had shrunk,’ but when the word stands alone it’s shrank.

We had growth spurts covered in the fifties.   Jeans were bought too long and rolled to the desired length.

I don’t recall skirts getting too short.

There is another line in the poem, ‘Do I dare disturb the universe’. I’m at the point where I feel the universe is disturbed enough.

The word is shrank, as in “imagine if we shrank”.

>

Actually, most of us do shrink if we live long enough.