For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 04, 2019

you’re a big help, Gordon

I know, Mike. Apply for the lifeguard job at the city pool! You will meet girls by just sitting on the tower, soaking up the sun in your cool sunglasses and lifeguard uniform.

Could be worse Mike, at least you aren’t being shipped off to the farm. This year.

I know the black in the background is supposed to be tree foliage, but it seems to show mike’s mood perfectly.

For Heaven’s sake Michael. Suck it up and don’t be such a diva! Yes Elizabeth will be having fun at camp, but you will be earning money, possibly more than what you get for pocket money.

You broke a window

My girls didn’t enjoy their day camp when they were younger. While they advertised that it was a good place for ALL girls, girls who weren’t “sporty” were often discriminated against. My girls often felt bullied, and I’m sad to admit that I thought they may have been exaggerating. It didn’t start out that way; it only started when new management took over. Last year my husband & I bumped into a lady who worked in the office of the day camp, and she confirmed it; our girls WERE bullied and discriminated against because they weren’t into sports. That night we apologized profusely to the girls for doubting them.

Started working at 16. Nights and weekends at a restaurant.

Jwhen I was his age, my mother would pay me to do odd jobs around the house. Clean the whole house was $50, lawn was $5, windows were $5 a window – inside and out. My parents both worked and I was home alone – the original latch key kid – so this kept me occupied and kept me out of trouble. Not to mention that come the weekend, I was flush with cash! (And the house was the tidiest on the street!) :D

Love how the older sibling completely forgets what he was doing at Elizabeth’s age-going swimming every day, day camp, having fun….Elizabeth’s allowed a turn.

Can we talk about LAWN ORNAMENTS? While I may admire a birdbath or two, maybe a fountain, or even a pair of Flamingos, I really hate to see a nice yard covered here and there, with an odd assortment of lawn ornaments. The latest thing around here is old car tires, cut up and sculpted together and then painted the appropriate color, to turn then into, elephants, ladybugs, and other items that their imagination (and tire supply) can dream up. They seem to be like potato chips – you can’t own just one…. And I always thought that a dozen mismatched gnomes were bad! One place has the gnomes, flamingos, AND tire statues….plus a Christmas wreath still hanging on the front door. They love their place, so I try and love it too.

My Dad (a pharmacist) was lucky enough to have his own store. From the time I was old enough to legally work, I worked in it as floor help—same pay and schedule as everyone else. Gave me a bit of spending money and helped him too. Looking back, I think it was his hope that I’d get enthused and end up wanting to run the store. But life worked out in another direction. As I reach older age, I find myself appreciating more and more what he did for me.

Good luck to you kid. Go somewhere you would like to work and see if they have something for you to do. Pay or not, at least you are doing something you are interested in and staying out of the house. Mission accomplished.

In high school I spent one summer working in an old-timey hardware store stocking shelves and odd jobs, including sorting and cleaning some really old stock in a really old basement. But although it was dirty sometimes it was also fun exploring through the “archives”. But even a modern hardware or home improvement store should be a good experience for a teenager.

Mike might get as lucky as I did if he looks around. I got to work 3 summers in a row as a construction laborer, made union wages of $3.87-1/2 an hour and worked my a** off for that money. Eventually I became an architect and never forgot how hard, dangerous and expensive it is to build something.

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Michael – you are nothing less than a spoiled brat. Get over it and get on with your life.

Hauling hay (5 cents a bale), and milking cows (92 cows), gave me the incentive to find my own job. Although the cows were milked by machine not hand it was not a fun job. The Hay job was just plain brutally hard work.

My first job was at 13 at a day camp for K-2 kids. Boring job. My job was just to clean up tables, supervise lunch, escort kids to the restroom…My job was essentially to free the day camp leaders to focus on the campers rather than the small details. My next summer job at 14 & 15 was at a city court filing their microfiches – their system back in late ‘70s. I liked it because the office was air-conditioned, the seat nice and cushy and I got to use a typewriter. My longest teenage job was at McDonald’s, ages 15-18. Then in college, I was the student resident assistant – like Bernice in Luann. Fun job.

If you’re a lifeguard, the “doing absolutely nothing” part of Mike’s ideal job description can get someone killed, either yourself of someone else. People disappear under the surface of a lake while you’re not paying attention. People grab you and pull you under as you go about blissfully unawares of the fact they are in trouble. People cause accidents while you ignore them running on the pool deck or pushing others into the water, including non-swimmers. I’m glad that reference to “lifeguard” was not Lynn’s.

When I was in my mid-teens, I wanted to get a job, since some of my friends had jobs, so I’d have a little extra money and some experience. My parents made me a deal – if I would continue to be available to care for my 8 younger siblings, they would make sure to buy me anything I would have been able to buy if I had a job. I took good care of my siblings (though I was “bossy big sister”, lol), not just being there at home with them, but grocery shopping before supper, cooking supper, doing dishes, helping with homework, getting them to bed, etc. My parents responded by more than keeping their word – they paid for anything I needed, sent me to college when I graduated, etc. I was so grateful to them. Many of the home care things I would have done anyway as the oldest, but I did a better job and learned responsibility with this arrangement. And I was still free to go out with friends in the evenings, as at least my mom was always home then, so I didn’t suffer socially, either. ( I also got to go to Europe one summer, with the help of a sort of scholarship!) Too bad Michael couldn’t have some kind of arrangement like that, if he weren’t so obnoxious! (But this is a comic, I know, lol.) And I wonder if it ever occurs to him that all his present “misery” could have been avoided by just asking nicely for Liz to let him in the door? (Again, what fun would that be?) :-)

I had a friend in college who was a lifeguard, and it is indeed no easy job! She told me all the training she had, the responsibility for oftentimes idiots, the long days in the 100-plus degree sun. She loved the job, but it sure wasn’t “easy”, and I admired her for it, because I would never have had the courage to even try it!

One summer, I didn’t get a job lined up in time, so my parents had me painting the backyard fence of their baseball field sized yard (no exaggeration). It took several weeks to do being that it was rough cedar and they were very particular about it should look when done. I thought I would never be finished. :P