For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 22, 2022

Dreadful.

Well, your 30 – years – later self will have no need of those clumsy paper maps. Your car will have a navigation system if you buy a Porsche as your dad did. Or just GPS on your phone! Heck, your middle-class car could be installed with a navigation system if you want it aftermarket.

Why couldn’t you just get off at Waverly Street and cross over to the same highway you WERE on and go back to your exit? Is that too easy?

They all ain’t constructed like that. There are a lot of places where Off means just that, Off. Getting back on again is miles away and probably in the wrong direction. Or off lands you on a One-way boulevard.

A kid his age might not be able to read a map even if he wasn’t crying. And why is he crying, anyway? Just the idea of being lost?

This is how those slasher movies begin.

Ah, the halcyon days before consumer GPS service.

Wah! One late night when I was 18, a cop pulled me over. I explained I was hopelessly lost, so he drove in front of me so I could follow him to the correct highway. Things sure are different in Houston these days. But Michael might be as lucky, because he’s in Canada in the 90s!

Ah, the days before GPS. I remember those days.

Getting lost is frightening, especially when you’re a teenager.

Wow! They used to print Google Maps!

So nice to have the HOME button now on my GPS!

I got lost on foot once and had an adventure. I was coming home from school after we had moved about 20 miles. I took the bus to downtown Oakland as directed but couldn’t figure out how to catch the second bus. I figured the house wasn’t too far away and I kinda remembered the address. Short story: I backtracked a few miles to the street I thought we lived on, then walked toward the address. Eventually I figured out I wanted 38th avenue instead of street. I walked 15 miles that afternoon. I wasn’t as tired as I was disappointed in myself.

Just a little bit south of Saskatoon

I’m as lost as can be in Dad’s car

Thankfully I met a cop, her name was June

A little bit south of Saskatoon

Umm, just get off at the next exit and come back, silly story line…lol

Some adventures are better than others, but we seem to pay for all of them dearly.

One of the reasons I finally switched from my antique flip phone to an iPhone was the maps app.

Someone once asked Daniel Boone if he was ever lost. He replied “Lost? No, I was never lost. But I was once a mite bewildered for five days.”

Dan was right. Nobody is ever truly lost if they have a sense of how to handle themselves and stay alert.

I guess they did not have cell phones then?

He is not lost he is just on an adventure!

Years ago, when I was “taxi-ing” my kids all over town & countryside, I discovered that they had no idea where geographical things were located, no street names or route numbers, nothing. That was before cell phones, GPS or phone maps. They learned the hard way, just like Michael.

Hafta. Hafta. Hafta hafta hafta. Hafta hafta hafta hafta hafta hafta hafta. Because I hasta!

Just pull up Waze or Google Navigation on your phone! …….Oh, wait. This is Milborough. Such things don’t exist there. To be honest though, I do keep a few paper maps in the glove box as a backup… Just in case my phone is dead and it won’t charge…

The new generation?

Just don’t read the map when you’re driving, Mike.

Put it in reverse and back track.

Seriously, Lynn? You expect us to believe that the kid would get lost in the neighborhood he grew up in?

A modern kid would use navigation on his phone not an old fashioned paper map.

See what happens when you do something you’re not supposed to…

I remember these pre-GPS days. Printing out map quest maps… Nostalgia be damned, thank god for technology!

I understand that a good cartoonist doesn’t over-stuff the speech bubbles, but it’s still weird that he thinks “HWY. 16” instead of “Highway 16.”

You may laugh but if, or when the GPS grid goes down, most people will have no idea on how to use a map or even what a map is. This could be us sooner than you think…

Will this arc continue on Monday?

With Elly yelling and John about letting Michael use his car, and John relieved that the car is in one piece??

Some priorities those two have!!

Nice Sartre reference in the last panel.

I have SO been there! GPS is my best friend!

And this is why we have navigation now.

Now that brings back memories! Thanks to GPS, I can’t even remember the last time I was actually lost somewhere.

Poor kid. All that self-confidence he thought he had is not here today.

Just don’t wreck the car and you’ll be O.K.

Days before WAZE.

Been there.

Your parents trusted you, kid… And now you have betrayed that trust! MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOUL!!