Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for April 26, 2020

You did good, Pig.

I don’t get this one

Sweet!

Painful, bittersweet memories.

With an added twist of the knife: C19 has been most cruel in places like this.

May I recommend “Voices of Old People,” Simon and Garfunkel, Bookends album.

It’ll rip your heart out, too.

Wasn’t this an episode of The Twilight Zone?

May I also suggest “Hello in There” by John Prine.

John passed away two weeks ago. C19.

Some day (perhaps not for Rat) you’ll grow old and will have a story to tell to the younger generations.

Hope the baseball player didn’t end up spending his major league sitting on the bench like John Kinsella.

… And some of them do still remember the glory days. If there were any. Thanks Pig (and Pastis).

Great strip!

Nowadays no one can visit anyone at the assisted living and retirement centers due to this ****ing virus…….. It is sad that we can only talk to our elderly parents and relatives via phone until things get better…..

Never saw Mantle play for the Yankees but I do remember as a real young kid watching Mays at 42 play his final season with the Mets in ‘73 and I did follow the Braves as a kid growing up in Tampa (ATL baseball used to be on radio and WTOG TV44 in Tampa before the days of cable TV and TBS) so I did see Aaron hit the home run that beat Ruth’s record in ‘74. My sister works as a nurse for the VA here in Tampa (first Bay Pines VA and now James Haley VA) and she works as a geriatric nurse so she tells me that almost of the veteran’s she works with have wonderful stories about their lives, kind of like a living history just like Tom Brokaw covered with his amazing Greatest generation books. They are good reading, especially in these times…..

I live in a retirement community. I’m one of the younger ones. I can still drive. But what I’m seeing is sad. We are in lockdown. We are told to shelter in place. Activities have been halted. The dining hall is closed, no more socializing. Meals are brought to our rooms. Many of the residents have sold their homes, many have lost their spouses, the majority no longer drive. The thing many looked forward to were visits from their children and grandchildren and because of COVID-19 currently that’s not allowed. There’s a no visitors policy in effect for our protection. We are fortunate that we have not had any sickness or deaths at our facility. The staff has been wonderful and doing everything they can. But I fear this continued isolation will take its toll in depression. Depression in old age is dangerous. The mind and body begins to shut down when it believes there’s no reason to continue.

Thank you Stephan, for the reality check. We will be old too, some of us quicker than the others…

Except now all the nursing homes are closed to visitors unless the patient is dying.

that’s so sad

Beautiful. Well done, sir.

I really dig this one. Now, if only I could get my grandkids to listen to me…

Wonderful strip. No they weren’t always old.

They’re not old now.

“Free Four” by Pink Floyd captured the sentiment well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPSb5QjgjAc

You get knowledge when you listen … Croc Power !

I didn’t guess where this was headed until the last panel. Thank you, Stephan… I love this poignant strip today.

When I was young (mid to late teens), there was an older man that I would go visit. We would just sit on his porch and talk. His wife would bring us out homemade lemonade. This man had an eighth grade education, but was one of the wisest people that I knew. He could also make you laugh until you cried (I still relate some of the stories). He ended up being the man that married my wife and I.

He was a great person with a great soul. I still miss him, and it’s been many years since he died.

It also taught me the impact that we can have on our young people… if (hopefully) they are around to listen.

Back in the early 1980’s I had an elderly friend…

I talked with her about the past, but she also had a great appetite for the future, and for learning new things, which I admired “at her age.”

I guess she was a bit younger than I am in 2020… only it’s strange, cos I’m certainly not “elderly” now.

Right?

Very touching. Sadly, so many are now at risk.

As you get older, and your parents, and then even siblings, end up in places like this, seeing people for who they were rather than who they’ve become is essential.

Wow – Stephan, this is very powerful. Thank you.

It took me a few moments to get this, because I was trying to work out the gigantic pun I was sure would appear in the last panel.

Here I was trying to figure out how the names and professions were going to turn into some kind of pun… Then I get to the next to the last slide and it hits me. Beautiful job, Stephan!

What a great tribute to the elderly! Many of whom are struggling mightily in many ways to survive right now. Good job, Pastis!

I keep growing older, but I refuse to grow up. And I have come to hate the word “elderly”.

If people would take the time to converse with elderly people they would find they came from the greatest generation…you know! The Generation that built this country up, after WWI and WWII! Have they got stories to tell, living through the worst of times and the best of times! Historical memories Imbedded in their being!

They don’t like links and such in this forum, but do a search for “Reflections of the Past” by Tom Hussey. It’s a very poignant look at what Pig has discovered.

Today, Pig is #1

I like how Pastis does not always use a special occasion or current events to have these heart-tugging installments.

I was waiting for the bad pun, but this was a nice twist.

Dear God, please don’t dump me in a home. Seriously.

And that’s gonna be us someday, Pig.

Stick em in a home with minimum wage caretakers and forget em. Good for the economy.

“The older I get, the better I was !” (SO true !)

I drive seniors around to various places. This is absolutely true. Meet some really interesting folks with remarkable stories. I get it Stephan.

You didn’t do a pun??? Actually this hit home after reading it the second time. Good job Steph!

Best Pearls strip I’ve read in years. And that is saying a lot. Thank you Mr Pastis!

Nice. A very good way of making the point.

I always enjoy Stephan’s comics. But this is one of the sweetest strips I have ever read.

Outstanding, sir.

Having just lost my mom, who was 95, this was so poignant. People always look at our older citizens as if they were always old. Most forget that they were young and vibrant at an earlier time in their lives with many great accomplishments. Thank you for today’s strip.

Brought a tear to my jaded eye. Well written.

Beautiful

A nice touch today, Pastis. Thank you.

LOL

No we weren’t.

Very nice!!

My Mom turned 88 last week. The retirement home she lives in won’t let me visit her and her friends because of COVID 19. Bleep you, virus.

This is the sweetest thing I’ve seen in a while. Love you little Pig

A very, very sweet Pearls.

What a sweet comic. Thank you, Pastis, for the reminder.

He was pretty kind on his drawings of them..

I don’t get it

Good for you, Pig!

THAT may be the most beautiful comic that I’ve ever read.

I <3 seniors xoxo

I just admire mixed species relationships.

I was raised in the deep South. My grandfather taught me how to bait a hook and fish for bass, bream, and the occasional catfish. A great-uncle took me to my first (semi-) professional baseball game and bought me a hot dog, a pennant, and a Coke (served in a bottle with a paper straw). An aunt always had a new book for me when I was taken to visit her. Everybody I knew had a Granny, or a Mee-Maw, or a Gramps, or a Paw-paw, who Grannied, Mee-Mawed, Gramped, or Paw-pawed all us kids, from fresh hot sugar cookies straight out of the oven to peppermint sticks kept in a mason jar in a work shed. Some were loving and doting, others were gruff and maybe a bit distant. But they had seen and lived through things I could only imagine or read about in the history books.

I am older now than my great-uncle was when he died. I have outlived parents, grand-parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, other family members, many friends, and my life-partner of over 45 years. So I volunteered in a local senior center and nursing home, since I’m still healthy and can still get around. Of course, I can’t do that now except by phone or video-conferencing. What’s odd is that I’m almost sure I miss them more than they miss me.

So thanks, Pig, for reminding me.

This is a sweet one

Hey, you readers out there with someone in a nursing home! Send mail, cartoons, pictures, and call as often as possible. Snail mail is still being delivered. Good luck!

Thank you.

Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever had a comic bring tears to my eyes before! My grandparents have been gone for 50 years, and my parents for 20+. When I think of all the things they lived through, and what they saw… damn, I wish I could talk to them now (for example, my grandfathers and their brothers and friends were mostly WWI veterans). Heck, I think about and miss my Dad’s father almost every day! I’m in my late 60’s now with my own grandchildren, and I sincerely hope to be as good an influence and memory for my grandchildren as my grandparents were for me.

Second from the last panel, far left, that’s Grace Slick.

That was sweet.

We haven’t been allowed to visit my 97 year old grandmother since the middle of March.

Three of my four grandparents died before I was born. My maternal grandmother wasn’t a great story teller, but she’d answer questions. Until about five years ago all of our grandchildren (with our kids, of course), lived over 1,000 miles away. Now two grandkids are about a 5-hr. drive away. So I miss out on the GP thing from both directions.

Mr Pastis that strip was one of your best ever.

Everyone has a life and a story to go with it. Take some time to find out who your neighbor is, you’ll be amazed

Wonderful. I was waiting for the pun and got blindsided. Well done!

Nicely done.

Long after they were gone, my mother made an album of family history. Seeing my grandmother in her 20’s posing as a flapper in front of a Model T blew my mind. My grandfather was both a drummer and a boxer, and there as a letter he had written to someone as he was searching for his father, who had run out on the family when he was a small boy. Their lives were far more interesting than I ever realized, and sort of wish I’d been willing to ask them more while they were still alive.

Respectful and kind-hearted. Are you feeling all right, Stephan?

After purposely catching COVID 19 pig decides to delete some elders

Sadly, I am one of those Old Farts who reminisces about Days Gone By….

For all the awful puns, sometimes Pastis posts a real gem of a strip.

Some people said they don’t get it…the bitter/sweet thing is…I do.

This is why I hate people

Stephen Pastis, I love you. Besides making me smile, laugh, and sometimes groan, you touch my heart. Long life to you!