Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 25, 2014

FORTY ACRES! How can a bunch of students afford a 12 room house with 40 acres in Connecticut — even in the 70s?

I know Mike’s and BD’s parents aren’t rich and Mark’s father wouldn’t give him money for a cup of coffee.

-That is Bernie, Mike’s lab partner.The winner of the Cousin Itt lookalike contest is Didi, Bernie’s girlfriend.

We’ve seen Bernie every once in awhile over the years, but I don’t recall Didi showing up much after this.

When you’re renting a rundown old farm house in the middle of nowhere, that’s how. Me and six other friends grabbed a smaller place near UMass for an affordable rate in ’82, and that was in an area where the rental vacancy rate was near to zero.

Maybe it’s a former brothel a la “Chicken Ranch?” wanders off, humming “20 Fans Are Turning”

Agree with others – if you put enough people into a share house it was very affordable and also unpredictable and fun! Four of us (two males, two females, not couples – the best mix) shared a raggedy old house right on the beach in the early 70s. Total rent was $30 per week, a whole $7.50 per person at a time when we were each taking home about $90 per week from our average jobs. We had a great time!

And Zonker could go into agriculture

Only 1/8th of Connecticut is the NY-expensive Greenwich County. The rest (like, say, New Haven) is pretty much run-down. I bet the commune house doesn’t stand out in its neighborhood. You don’t have to get more than a 25-minute walk from Yale to find a big house you can afford in a nasty neighborhood, or a 15-minute car ride to find one in a not-bad neighborhood.

If you’re a college student, where will you find time to work forty acres, or any acres, for that matter? Unless you’re an ag major. I think Zonker does end up growing some dirty vegetables that no one will eat.

Zonker ALso goes in for a little Marine Biology!

Bernie was one of my favourite characters in the old strips…A little on the crazy side with his chemical experimentations! Guess money does change you :)

To all those saying this venture is doable, how much land came with the homes you rented? Forty acres in Ct. is a very desirable piece of land. This was especially true in the 70s when everybody was not only fleeing NYC but also the decaying cities of Connecticut, such as Hartford, Bridgeport — and the home of Yale — New Haven.

I am waiting to Zonk in his puddle

Yes, the amount of land is probably what seems the most odd about this arc. As to the large home, we haven’t seen the condition of it yet. It may be something a la Grey Gardens…

Ah boo on these negative Nelly’s. Bring on Zonker Cousteau…lol

It’s true that Zonker wasn’t YET talking to his plants (and having them talk BACK to him), of course, but even so, this wasn’t a documentary! (Besides, I seem to recall that Bernie came from a bit of money, and his father was far less of a miser than Mark’s was.)

As I recall, Bernie becomes a zillionaire as I (after GT’s first major hiatus when the characters “grew up”) and recruits Mike into the world of silicon wealth.

Hmmm, ranch house with aluminum siding! How middle-class. Reminded me of the movie Tin Men, about siding salesmen.

This is all new to me, since I wasn’t reading the strip back then. A real adventure is about to begin…

I stayed with my parents while I went to college. All this talk about communes makes me envious.

Remember all the laws they started passing to limit the number of unrelated persons who could live in a house?

@Chris Sherlock@FinnyGirl-Thanks

It’s han solo

Six of us lived in a…come to think of it, a.ranch house with aluminum siding.

@ujeanI didn’t know Mike was a newly freed slave.

When my uncle used to say he had to check the back 40. He meant the 40 acres that were attached to the part of the land he used for cattle and alfalfa, and horses and chickens. .farm house on 40 acres…. sounds about right to me.

Trudeau has created one of the largest casts ever assembled in a comic strip – if not the largest. Not every character can make frequent appearances. There was a long stretch before the first sabbatical when Mike hardly ever appeared. But when characters do reappear, they’re usually consistent. Trudeau has been good at making them feel real.