Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for October 13, 2014

Now comes the bad news.

As an Air Force brat, I can identify with this. About every three years (sometimes one or two), just when things are finally going well, it’s time to uproot myself and change my whole world.

What bad news?

Did something suggest that they’re moving?Maybe I misunderstood… but I thought the plan was to open a bistro and keep the farm…

With, of course…a little trip to Paris first…Gee,poor kid!

BTW I was also an Air Force brat… and while I hated a lot of things about it, I loved the moving, and the chance to start over, reinvent myself.

My sister hated it… and I think still resents it.

After talking about how much the restaurant will bring them? Can’t it be Poppy’s cheque?

BTW I can understand the feeling, I was a navy brat and we moved every three years, it was normal life to me. It wasn’t until I reached adult age that I realised how many things I missed with that constant moving around. When you have friends telling you about their school friends and you realise you don’t remembe a single one or kept a single one… (before internet).

Just one of the sacrifices for freedom. I was career military and my family uprooted every couple of years on average. It sucks in some ways, but then as a military brat you get new experiences and see new places, not just the same ‘ol, same ’ol. My father worked for North American Aviation and Rocketdyne and we moved all the time as he was sent to head one project or another. We got to live several states, which broadened our perspectives. My kids got to live overseas in Germany, Japan and the UK and got experiences you cannot have other than by living in a society. Along with moving within the US, it gave them perspective as well and they don’t really regret any of it. We settled down and they had the same school from middle school through high school as I had retired, so they had and still have loads of school friends.

@John SmithThere was some speculation that Pops was aging faster; could this happy seen be a prelude to a health report?

She may have gotten her secret decoder ring from Ovelteen

I wonder if those are supposed to be Morning Glories around the mailbox? I used to grow them, they are such a glorious shade of blue, with pink centers. Such a happy, welcome-new-day! flower. I’m hoping this is good news. Observer, it’s time for a replay of your comment Saturday about a “strip tease.”

This is the flower I was picturing. But there are many different varieties and colors.

♪What’s the story, Morning Glory? What’s the word, Hummingbird?♪(From “Bye Bye Birdie”)

Meg growing up overnight is still weird to me. I feel like I missed a year’s worth of strips.

Meg seems to look different again. I can’t tell if Mr. Johnson is not happy with how she looked or just accurately depicting how much children can change growing up.

@ArianneThere was nothing in today’s strip that would tease anyone. It is more of a cliff hanging, will the plot walk the edge or fall of it?

My dad wasn’t career military and we didn’t move around much but I was a brat anyway.

weird strip. no text. Meg looks nothing like her mom though in earlier versions say from 2009 she did. she looks more like a kid from the Hi and Lois comic. maybe she got curious about her Dad and sent off a letter to him and now her Bio-Dad is looking to meet and get custody. Gene should have adopted Meg.

“Not quite sure what the theme of most of the comments has to do with this particular strip”

Well, there’s speculation that Meg will be moving, leaving behind her school friends. Some commenters are recalling their childhoods as oft-moving armed-service brats, as many people (the gold standard being me) like to share tales from our pasts. I wasn’t an army or air force brat, but moved a lot before age six because my dad was doing land appraisal work for the government during the depression, so that the govt. could condemn land for railroads. For age almost six to almost nine, I lived in Pittsburgh because Dad had quit the govt. job to work in a shipyard. When I was almost nine, he got himself transferred to the shipyard in Tampa, and we lived in St. Petersburg (where he had lived in the ’20’s) from then on. Luckily, after that things were stable. However, I benefited from the earlier experiences in GA, TX, LA, MS, VA (& DC) and PA.

I find that former service brats are more interesting people than average. I’m never surprised when someone I like tells me that’s how s/he grew up.

As for the story, TBD.

The happiest days of our lives are often spent not worrying about being happy, but simply BEING happy.

Maybe it’s an old-fashioned letter from techie Grandma?

The military brat thing. Yes, you are moving, but so are all the others in your new class. There is no such thing as class tradition.

I don’t think it can be bad news, Meg looks like she is smiling in the last two panels.

So I’ve been on vacation, what’s been happening??….

I think the point is, because Gus closed the restaurant, Meg isn’t coming home to an empty house.

A lot of note here. As someone said, the fact that Meg isn’t coming home to an empty house could be what JJ is trying to get across. Or that letter is something ominous, like a not-so-great report card she’s trying to hide from ML and Gene or a letter from her biological father. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

Gene looks happy to be working in the garden and there when Meg gets home from school. She is happy to have someone there after school.

my guess is adoption papers

My money’s on Meg carrying the deed to the restaurant. Anyone want a piece of this action? lol

Heck people, maybe its the notice from the gynecologist at last!

Chizzel, I like your idea. It is Ovaltine.

What is the joke??

PULLING A LETTER FROM A MAILBOX IS NOT A JOKE, JIMMY.