Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for April 08, 2016

The first known trip I had without my parents was the Big Island of Hawaii in 2007. Stayed with a friend from the island.

If I was Frank, I’d be even more worried about Luann than Nancy is. People are usually more worried about their opposite gender children than same gender children.

Good idea, Frank…

Only in the comics can someone talk while brushing their teeth. . . . .

Uh… it’s been a while, hasn’t it Frank?

Frank looks so hopeful….

First trip I had without my parents…….does summer camp count?

Yes, my man Frank!!! Now, we need a couple of blacked out panels to protect the innocent while these two go at it.

Beat this: driving to New York from Chicago in a 1956 DeSoto,with 6 or 7 college students going home from Illinois Institute of Technology on Christmas break, with, two little brothers (I was a Big Brother) from Chicago, and back. My friend wrecked my ca in tbe Bronx (fool was driving on a driver’s permit, and could not stop on a North Bronx hill and hit an off-duty New York cab drive—I later got sued)r but I was able to drive back to Chicago with the right fender all pushed in. I was 18 or 19 and got everyone there and back alive.

I hear ya, Frank; that floor-length high neck nightie is driving me wild.

In the immortal words of Churchill LaFemme: “Oog!”

All untrue!

It’s the age of cell phones. You will be in touch much more than when you took your trips!

Someone in this strip should be getting some action.

Why don’t they just ask their parents how they survived it (if they’re still around, that is…otherwise, time for the blackout panels)

Good luck, Frank! Nancy may be too worried about Luann to get into the mood, though….One more time: relax, folks. Luann will be just fine, especially with Pru’s colorful friends looking out for her ( and Bernice).

Frisky Frank.

Let her? She’s old enough to do as she pleases…

Sounds good.

great answer Frank. Nancy is a very nice, attractive Milf. I’d get busy too. she’ll get over Lu’s trip quickly. Lu’s doing you both a favor.

who’s Churchill LaFemme? “Oog!” (lol)

“No Strings Attached”“Parental Advisory”“Branching Out, On A Limb”“Keep Your Cards Close To Your Nest”“A Full House Beats A Paradox”“The Catch At 22 Anystreet”“Flight Training”“Trial And Error”“Grown Up Pains”“Misgivings And Mistakes”or“Parts Unknown”

Lots of romance is how Brad and Luann came into the world, in case they’ve forgotten.

Army

I was 17 and went to Europe for a month and followed Pink Floyd.

They are dopes.

If the bottle of lotion on the bed is any indication, something will be happening very soon.

Did they worry about Brad when he went on his first trip with them?

Answer to Nancy’s question? You don’t ever stop worrying about your young. You let them live their lives and make their mistakes.

I’d be perfectly thrilled with all that if I was still flexible enough that I could actually sleep in the back seat of a VW.

Frank’s a horn-dog! And I should know!

“Gentleman, Start Your Engine.”

Frank! you sly dog.. Right answer!

Lots of romance. *For whom, Dad?

Cue the mood music.

At 18. Driving south to LA out of BC. Turned left on 66 and then to Oklahoma City – and back. Alone. Sad I could buy a simple bloody beer in the US. But some years later I tasted it. OMG!

With the popularity of helicopter parenting, I wonder how many kids don’t have the maturity or sense of freedom to have adventures on their own…even in their 20’s. I like that Nancy recognizes that her worry shouldn’t be an impediment to Luann.

Am I the only one who thinks that after Luann’s trip to NYC with Pru, she won’t be interested in Quill? There’s always something new to learn in the big city without parents.

We never stop stressing about our kids. I worry at times about my 37 year old daughter.

I don’t think Pru is going on the NY trip with L and B. She was telling them what they should do while they are in NY. And Luann is heterosexual. She will not suddenly change to a different sexuality.

Churchill (Churchy) LaFemme is the turtle in the Pogo comics of a bygone era. He typically wore a pirate hat and was frequently seen in the company of Howland Owl, an owl with horn-rimmed spectacles and a wizard’s hat.

You’ve got to let your kids go out in the world and make their own mistakes. You had 18 years to teach them, hopefully the parents did a good job of teaching them in that time.

WAIT. VWs had “back seats???”

And she’s already got the hand cream out. Nice start!

7I am glad for Frank today. It is nice that he may presumably be granted a happy end to his day. Too often Dad’s are given the short schrift in terms of the love and attention they too need. It is nice to see Frank come out a winner!

Life is large with loads to learnSpringing into bursting kernels.Leafing out’s a lot earnFor Lu and Bern’s coming vernals.

The worry makes Nan’s belly roil.She thinks of acorn into oak,Of her own bursting through the soilTo make a future her’s bespoke.

The seeds are safer when encasedBefore the shoots grow out and up.You know their limits are in place.They meet no wind, no sun to sup.

But life’s a feast in all its courses:Wind, sun, rain — even hail,And growth does not the past divorce.Oak too has roots, so will not fail.

Without burden to bear a stem’s not toughAnd trimming nurtures on new shoots.Newly difficult is just enoughTo bend into a form that suits.

The options are to stay a seed till time in up, life atrophied,Or be bonsai in great confinement.

So instead, dear seedlings, meet the wind, venture forth, try a deedGrow toward the sun and self’s refinement.

My first no parent trip was a ghost towning trip up north, visiting old mill towns and defunct mining villages.

As usual, i had at least one typo. The one i spotted is that i wrote “in” instead of “is”. Yes, i checked it first, but missed it…

The options are to stay a seed till time is up, life atrophied,Or be bonsai in great confinement.

So instead, dear seedlings, meet the wind, venture forth, try a deedGrow toward the sun and self’s refinement.

--It is strange to me to read some of the people here who apparently self-bonsai, seeming so afraid of what and who is different that they do not even bother to learn if their fear even has any true foundation.

Anything not out of some misguided bible belt perspective is a liberal agenda. This Christian says thank God for a liberal agenda. If you look at the social and political time back when Jesus lived in the Roman Empire in Jerusalem where most of the Jewish establishment was extremely conservative in that context, Jesus was the first radical agenda, far to the left of the conservative establishment agenda, one that believes in love, forgiving, tolerance, following rules, but then loving those who didn’t follow some accepted Old Testament way of doing things or valuing people. Proof? They crucified him!! They went to the dictator’s representative and got him executed brutally. So there are transgender people, there are gay people, God doesn’t make mistakes right Mr or Ms. earth native? So why are you being so judgmental? I know it won’t help open your mind, but I feel I should do my part to spread liberal and open ideas, which even an enlightened conservative could or should embrace.

Two news stories on an event related to the side topics this week just showed up in my mailbox. This is the most detailed write-up i have found so far:<http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/08/473484539/on-divorce-contraception-pope-calls-for-more-grace-less-dogma?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20160408&utm_campaign=breakingnews&utm_term=nprnews>

And by “romance” he means….

What the news story describes kind of gets things for the most part to about 50 to 70 years ago, some a bit better, some a bit worse, but that is far preferrable to the 17th century.

In relation to the discussion here in the comments section: There are and always will be some people who are so afraid of anyone and anything which differs from their own narrow confines that they are too frightened to even learn if they actually have anything to fear. They miss so very much which is worth knowing. They miss so many people who are worth knowing. They never realize that accepting variety in people is not the same as surrendering oneself, that being part of the variety IS being oneself. That amount of fear always seems very sad to me. Yes, some people like that have and always will try to limit others as much as they limit themselves, but despite all the suffering thay have and do cause they tend to ultimately fail, not necessarily with individuals or even generations, but ultimately with society.

Progress tends to happen because it is inevitable, then some become afraid and society draws itself a little backward in fear of change, though usually not as far as before because people have learned worthwhile things, things most want to keep. Then a generation comes along which finds a way toward more progress and the forward some, back a little less, forward some more motion goes on.

Luannfan, yes, it is quite common for religions to begin as liberal “agendas” and then later to become more conservative as an area’s social cultural limitations work their way in, but there always are those fearful ones who look at the letter of the text instead of considering the historical environment in order to consider the SPIRIT of the law or of the religion.

Shall we assume that luann and Bernice have already—finally— left for New York?

A bonsai rests within its pot,Small, confined, and verdant cutie.It does not grow high from its spotYet as itself it has a beauty.But being small it can’t see the crowdInstead of many it just sees someAnd assumes the shade is always cloudNot cherry, mulberry, pine and plum.And stays there in a small recessNot seeing the other growths toward success.

After my first year of college I took a summer job as a camp counselor on the left coast. Took a day longer than I’d planned on Greyhound, so bummed other riders for meals. At the destination terminal the camp people were NOT waiting. But did find another world-savvy counselor, and we hitch hiked the 30 miles together (first time for that too). Next summer I went to the right coast— but that’s another story.

I enjoy your poetry. It was a disease that killed so many mighty oaks in the 1920’s onward. ************************************************Sukie’s poetry killed off the oaks? (Teasing alert)Powerful stuff!

No, Frank! That’s how we got her in the first place.

Strong possibility for a new character in the strip. Think “Father of the Bride part 2” (Steve Martin). You’re what!! Think of April in “For Better or Worse”. When the heck did we……………. Oh yeah. That time Luann went to NYC. OMG Not again.

Several of that person’s posts disappeared. Along with their composer, I think. I noticed that Night-Gaunt49’s response didn’t have the customary “@” on them. Probably got whacked with the banhammer. Good riddance.

Ah, I guess the “@” disappears just if the post it’s responding to is deleted. Banning wouldn’t have shocked me. What he was doing is the textbook definition of spamming.

All this political and historical stuff is distracting from the main item of interest………a sexual romp for Nancy and Frank. Good luck, Frank ………getting a woman in the mood is a bit like Russian roulette.

Frank really has strange ideas on what drives romance.

Just out of curiosity, I am sure some people here are female. How many rolled your eye at Frank’s suggestion/joke? I ask simply out of the need to know. Because, in my experience, and I am no Cassanova, the women I was ever involved with, including my wife, actually LIKED sex…And while it is certainly not the only thing a relationship ( a real one ) should be based on, it is a level of intimacy that seems to go away or get overlooked over time. I just feel if there is no overall health issue, than why not? Unless one of you finds the other physically unattractive, but it should be about how you feel connected emotionally as much as anything else. IMHO. ok sorry for the soapbox..

If people missed it, today’s announcement relates to two recent topics in this comic strip:http://brucespringsteen.net

I decided to delete my own. It is a bit strong and better if it is gone too.

And since you already included my reply in an earlier post of yours, I’ve done likewise to eliminate the remaining traces of your post (in my quote).-This is getting complicated.

Spoiler:Daddy-ness kicks in. It is a fun juxtaposition to the Fruday strip.

I realized afterward that i typed “Fruday” instead of “Friday”, but i have decided that i like it. Those of you who see this late note: let’s start something. Fruday is whenever we let Friday become about you rather than I. Sound good?

A broken fan belt. Mom was going to MASS, when I came home,after the car cooled..She thought i slept with my girlfriend.NOT!

Oh, I’m a HUGE Pogo fan! During the Red Scare in the late 50s, he went happily on his way, with characters like Simple J. Malarkey and the Jack Acid Society making fun of the then-current obsession with investigating everyone’s loyalty.

There was a pig who strongly resembled Nikita Khrushchev, a dog who looked a lot like Fidel Castro, and a hyena who bore a strong resemblance (a few years later) to Spiro T. Agnew.

P. T. Bridgeport’s word balloons! Miss Mademoiselle Hepzibah!

While lives and careers were being destroyed in the entertainment industry, nobody among the Red-hunters was paying attention to a cartoonist, evidently unaware of the audience he could reach. He may well have insisted that he was apolitical, but his strips — not so much.

And his art! Granted, panel sizes were much larger then, but most of his scenes were outdoors, set in the Okefenokee swamp, and (I am told) pretty much every piece of vegetation he drew was identifiable and local.

He was one of a kind. Maybe not to everyone’s taste, but if you want to call yourself a genuine panelologist (look it up), you need to have at least a vague familiarity with the work of Walt Kelly.

Should I ask if anyone else remembers Gus Arriola’s Gordo?

Too late in the day. Nobody’s going to see this…

A few of us come back and check the previous day’s comments after the new strip arrives.-I remember both “Pogo” and “Gordo”. Now you have some clue as to my age.

Thanks! No titles from you?