For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 27, 2021

I remember when my sons started shaving. They stole their dad’s shaving kit and my husband wondered why his blade was so dull. Lol. He went to the store and bought them their first shaving kit.

I don’t remember anymore becoming scruffy at 16.

What could be going through Elly’s head as she is gobsmacked in that final panel?

1. What is there on Michael that would need shaving?

2. Is he using my razor?

3. Is he using the hair trimmers we have for Farley?

4. Do we have enough gauze, bandages and antiseptic?

5. Did John buy him razors and shaving cream without telling me or asking my opinion?

6. Is this Martha’s fault?

7. Is this Gordon’s fault?

8. Why am I dressed like a Pilgrim?

Shaving his pits, like dear, old Dad?

In the second panel- El looks like a, I don’t know, a pioneer woman?

I started to shave in 6th grade. Didn’t need to shave much or very often. But I did start shaving then. By 8th grade I was full-face shaving every day.

Fortunately, I was past 17 when I had to start shaving.

Spoils:

When Michael turned sixteen he started sharing. When Liz turned sixteen, she ditched her glasses and cut her hair. When April turned sixteen, she got a new character design. Just some fun facts.

Shouldn’t be a surprise. By sixteen, shaving is definitely an option.

I got my first razor and first shave in boot camp. Didn’t need either before that, but my Company Commander suggested to me, in his own loving way, that it was time for me to begin shaving for my health and well-being.

“It’s only a number”…. Elly, try out that logic when Elizabeth is 17 and says she’s going on a date with a guy who’s 25..

I sort of remember when I started shaving. It had something to do with a Gillett razor and something called “The Hot One”.

I have no recollection of starting to shave, but I remember when I stopped about a dozen or so years later. Haven’t shaved since. Just use scissors now and then.

I’d say something, but the censors would delete it.

When my friend asked how I planned to handle 12 year old daughter wanting to shave her legs, I said she already shaves. She then asked for tips on how I taught her. Said I didn’t, she just started when she saw her brother had shaved his legs. They were quite pleased with themselves. I’ll never forget the look of shock on her face, when I told her. Both my kiddos were bike racers, and shaved legs are what they do.

They will need more tissues for his “nicks”!

Reality check Elly? Your “baby” will be leaving for college in a couple more years.

I started in 1960, using Gillette Thins. (The brown blade, before the blue blade.) That would take a while and leave small pieces of toilet paper stuck to all your cuts and nicks. Modern razors are Sooo much better.

When a man in young, he can’t wait for his beard to come in so he can start shaving. When a man is old, he has to shave places he never thought of, ears, nose. . . .

I started shaving with a safety razor and later graduated to using my grandfather’s cut-throat straight razor that I’d inherited from him.

My kid brother, on the other hand, was given an electric razor to shave with. Big mistake! He was in the bathroom forever! This caused much consternation and irritation with my Father, my Mother, and Me, also trying to use the single bathroom in the house. It not because my brother was so meticulous shaving – he wasn’t – it was because the hum of the electric razor lulled him back to sleep! It got so we could tell when he was actually shaving or was sleeping with the razor in his hand.

I was listening to a radio show where the host remarked that Dick Clark invented the concept of the teenager, and the idea of childhood was introduced by Walt Disney. Prior to that, as soon as you gained basic motor skills you were put to work on the farm doing chores.

Didn’t anyone ever start shaving with an electric shaver besides Lingulst’s brother? Makes way more sense to me.

HA!! Shaving peach fuzz!

HUH? HOW is a 16 year old still a baby? I feel sorry for these kids having dumb Elly for a mom.

When did kids start getting hairy ? When I was in high school (class of 1964) the guys just WISHED they had to shave.

Our daughters noticed first that our son started to shave. He never shared that life passage with us…

So Elly, do you ever plan to cash all those REALITY CHECKS!?

Ha, I knew Michael was close to my son’s age, but turns out he’s only about a week younger. So relevant! Except my son is a slacker and doesn’t shave often, even though he probably should.

Watch Grandpa Jim and Grandma Pot-Holder-Burner come to visit and say how they still see their own daughter as “Baby Elly” in front of John and the kids.

Wait until Elizabeth turns 12. Having Elly and Elizabeth like that every time of the month!

I cannot for the life of me figure out this parental baby obsession. When I worked as a sheriff’s deputy, I tried to find a missing young woman first by interviewing her parents. They showed me a picture of her as a baby, which is all they had. When I asked if they had any more up-to-date photos, their response was “That is how we like to think of her as”.

My first razor was a Remington, today it is a Braun, it has a beard trimmer.

Always find it hard to believe teenagers don’t make their own school lunch.