Ginger Meggs by Jason Chatfield for April 08, 2010

Looks a might sneaky here!

G’Day Mates, Joe, Usfellers, Jason & All!

Morning, All!

G’day Joe, Jason and usfellers!

Hey JFri!

That’s a man for you, Mrs. Meggs!

Joe-Allen - what ever gave you that idea? ;)

Gday all!

….you wait til tomorrow…

Hi Jason, Joe-Allen, Lonewolf and Meggsie fans. Looks like Dad’s done this many times. What will he choose, that meat tenderiser, a solid knife-sharpener? Forget it Dad, Mum’s hidden what you think will do the job. Perhaps Mullens next door might lend you a hammer, if he doesn’t hit you with it first

Usfellers I’m sure Dad is going to come up with something that he thinks will get the job done.

And Jason’s “wait til tomorrow” sounds delightfully ominous. I can’t wait!

And in a mighty voice He saith The tools of the Woman shall be used by the Woman And the tools of the Man shall be used by the Man Unless the Man cannot findith what he needith. Then shall Man taketh from the Woman.

Joe of course women improvise! That’s one of our many talents! LOL!

G’day Dry. Agree, women sure can improvise, my wife has getting along despite my failings for years.

She also uses a tack hammer to straighten the ends of kitchen knives after I improvise by using them as screwdrivers.

Hi Joe. During WW ll it was mainly the ladies who kept the wheels of industry turning. In reality, the use of tools and gender have no relationship, perhaps it is just a little difficult for us men to see that.

Hey Joe Now you know, LOL! And speaking of tool boxes, if I get into my husbands toolbox, and he sees me, he says, “What are you foing? What are you doing?” Someday I’m going to tell him!

usfellers I have a Rosie the Rivatar T shirt that I bought at the Smithsonian a couple of years ago.

Great Dry, in my apprenticeship, which started as an aircraft fitter, I met many ladies who stayed on after the war and kept building aircraft..

We have a little circle of Meggsie fans who receive items from my collection. Would you like to join it?

Joe-Allen - Hi. As an apprentice Aircraft Fitter, I wa a male rivetter during the building of the UK/Austraslian Canberra bomber.,probably because the noise within the aircarft as I held the rivet dolly was more than those older could take.

But gee, at 16 years of age I sure liked those ladies in the confined space there vwith me.. That was in 1953 and the ladies who had stayed on after the war were older.

Ah well, Joe-Allen, as they say, confession is good for the soul.

I knew I spelled that wrong, Joe! But I figured people would know what I meant! :-D In fact, since I came home from work, I am wearing that Tshirt. I’m sure you’ve seen it, “We Can Do It!”

usfellers, what does that entail, your Meggsie memorabilia?

Joe my mom used to keep her knitting needles, etc. in a liitle tackle box. She was a great knitter! Her profession was an RN,(she was a Lt. in the Army Nurse Corp during WW2, and then continued in nursing for 40 years in the local hospital) If she had sold her knitting she would have made some decent money. She knitted for family, friends, my kids. She tried to teach me, but I never could get it right! Sigh!

Joe: My name of Usfellers is the name of Ginger Meggs’ strip in newspapers up till 1939, after which it was called ‘Ginger Meggs’. I had to join the words to use it as a nickname because two separate words would not register. Google the name in quotes like this “Us Fellers” or click on or copy and paste this link: http://collectingbooksandmagazines.com/meggs.html

I always thought ‘deadset’ universally meant something along the lines of, “That’s true for sure”, but from what you say, it must be an Aussieism.

usfellers - I don’t think the use of “deadset” is purely an Aussieism. I’ve often heard the expression that someone is “deadset” against something.

My mom & dad met at Boeing Stearman during WW2. She always said she wasn’t a riveter, she was an inspector. From what we’ve discovered, she had to go through a lot more qualification to be an inspector, than what a riveter had to go through. Both my parents were very handy with tools, and great at improvising.

I learned all my plumbing, carpentry and electric plus painting and breakfast; from Mammy-lou, whatever it took to get her tribe out the door each and every day except on sunday when Dad took us on a Sunday Drive. Dad was not trusted with a sealed paint bucket let alone a brush.

Joe Thank you for the Salute! And I Salute your relatives as well! Mom always hoped I would follow in her footsteps, but I didn’t have the bravery for it. One of my friends did, who Mom knew since the day she was born, so she was very happy with that!

I always thought “deadset” meant determined, stubborn, etc. A principle you believed in and wouldn’t be swayed from it. In any language.

I do know this, I can’t believe this strip has been around all these years!

@Jason is this strip longer running than “Blondie and Dagwood”? If not, it must be pretty close. that is amazing! In this day and age, this world NEEDS that! IMHO! :-)

not as long as the katzenjammer kids