For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 24, 2020

whatsa matter, Mike, can’t say hello to your grandmother either?

Your mom’s phone courtesy is in place because you see your friends everyday at school and in your neighborhood therefore there is really no reason for you to be on the phone for lengthy conversations. She doesn’t talk to her mom everyday so when she calls her, it is their special time to chat and catch up. So, Mike, respect that and hang up.

Juicy gossip!

Well, Michael certainly isn’t practicing telephone courtesy.

Oh how times changed!

Yep, now you can’t avoid hearing private conversations in public places. Loud, emotional, often embarrassing conversations as the cell phone wanders from aisle to aisle with its owner.

I mean she is pregnant… maybe she wanted some last minute advice

In any family, when Mom is talking to Grandma it will be a super long conversation!

Ah yes. Those old accidental conference calls were very enlightening when I was a kid. I was a little late for party lines but I’m thinking none of them were as annoying as a cell phone convo. on the bus.

My mom used to be on the phone for 2 hours plus every evening talking to grandma, my aunt (her sister), her friends. I would be on the phone for 2 minutes and I would get yelled at by my parents for hogging the phone. I suppose it was good. If I wanted to talk to my friends, I had to get off my butt and head over to their houses. Pre-cell phone days were certainly different than today.

How/when did Liz’s hair get so long?

Ahhh, such things as phone courtesy….tell that to the neighbors next door during the “party line” era of landlines.

How is he secretly listening in if he keeps blabbering without covering the lower part of the phone?

An argument could be made that it’s her telephone and she gets to use it whenever and for however long she wants. Or you could say that Grandma isn’t going to be around forever, and it’s a privilege to be able to spend some time with her. Or, maybe Grandma needs some company. Talk to your friends tomorrow, Michael.

How old is this comic? Where are the cell phones? Haven’t had this type of trouble in over 20 years.

Lynn’s re-running of the entire series from the beginning reveals some anachronisms now and again. Nobody has a phone on the wall anymore and pretty much nobody has a landline. Back in the old-timey days this comic would have made more sense :-)

When you pay the phone bill, Michael, you can complain. That’s what my parents always told me!

And Mama listened in on my calls, much to my annoyance. One time a friend called, asked how I was and I said “Pregnant”. She, needless to say, threw a fit. But never listened in again.

What a brat. He deserves a swipe for eavesdropping.

My father took the train home on Friday’s and we were told NOT to call anyone so my dad could get through. Well my sister as usual did what she wanted and “paid for it by losing her phone”….my dad walked home and ripped it out of the wall in her room. I told her you got what you deserved as I told you to get off so dad could call and you didn’t listen.

“Listening in”, lost to time and cell phones. Now only the government can do that . ;-)

We have both.

We still have a wall phone landline!