For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for November 04, 2023

Maybe he’ll write a thank you note

HA, HA, and so true!

I’m afraid Mike would read his mother’s letter as a drivel. Nothing like Rhetta’s letters.

At age 20, letters from my mother were: “Why did you leave us, your father sits and cries.” Um, I’m married? He walked me down the aisle. True story, my new husband was stationed in Texas during the Berlin Crisis. We were only there for 6 months. She knew that.

Elly needs to get over her jealousy of Rhetta

And the mocking of Elly and her obsession with getting a letter from Michael continues, this time with John taking his potshots. Kudos to John for saying, “cheque” instead of “check”. We need to be reminded this is set in Canada.

Bingo!

Men and women simply think differently. As a rule, women are far more sentimental. Men blow these things off more easily. But like I said yesterday, Elly is going to have to let go. Not all at once, but little by little.

Sung to the tune of Beyonce’s put a ring on it.

From Lynn’s Comments: I never thought I’d appreciate the ease of using email to communicate. I rarely write an actual letter these days, but when I do…I buy one of those expensive blank greeting cards. A real handwritten letter these days is a gift!

You can tell this topic is dated as with texting it’s nothing to respond to a person.

That reminds me of the joke about the lawyer who owed a recently deceased person some money, so he put a cheque in the coffin at the viewing of the body.

Gawd,let him go just a LITTLE,El…

Some people still write letters, mostly cards. I no longer send written letters. I found out that my last hard copy correspondent, my 103 year old Great Aunt has been using emails for years.

The Magic Formula For Getting Through!!

And we write “labour” instead of “labor”. “harbour and neighbour” The same with other words. You Yanks have a tendency to leave out a letter. lol Yes, you did take it out. Those spellings were in use long before the USA even existed.

Kids today cannot read nor write cursive. So don’t waste your time. Then again, maybe it is different north of the US border.

money talks

MOM is not Made Of Money.

I did not write my mother enough letters.

I left home at 15 to go away to school in another state. My mother was a frequent letter writer, while my dad rarely wrote. Mom’s letters were epistles and often filled with enclosed newspaper clippings about things I rarely was interested in. (BTW Her letter writing continued long into my adulthood, until my brother and I bought her a computer … and she discovered emails! )

While many of my mom’s missives were briefly scanned, the ones that always got my instant attention were the ones that had S.A.G. on the envelope flap.

S.A.G. stood for St. Anthony Guide which indicated that there was a cheque or cash enclosed. S.A.G. letters were always appreciated!!

Poor Elle… she misses her ‘boy’…. And John’s practical solution; ‘enclose a cheque’… LOL

There’s a thought

A short note, and some 20s works well too. Michael won’t have to go to a bank.

Well, he’s not wrong….

Zing!

Dear Dad,No mom,No fun, Your son.

Dear son, Too bad, How sad, Your Dad.

I don’t remember writing to my folks at all in college; but, then, I chose the country’s third best pharmacy school because it was only 90 minutes from my native soil by bus. Only letter I remember receiving from either was after I broke up with the girlfriend I finally got my first senior year. Did regularly write short letters to said girlfriend during a summer internship, with little reciprocation, but a later fiance (now wife of 36 years and counting) would send cards weekly, and vice versa, during grad school. After marriage and an 800 mile move I adopted her weekly phone call habit as long as our folks lived. Less regular with our siblings.

Tell him. Then put a cheque in it.

Spot on John, spot on.

Sometimes I think Ellie has totally blocked youth from her mind. She is likely forgetting the long letters and calls she shared with boyfriends in her youth vs the length of letters and phone calls she shared with her mom.

That shows fathers are more practical than mothers. The new gen has no idea about the importance of letters.

Don’t sign the cheque so he has to mail it back, although the letter would probably just say ‘please sign it’

Reminds me of The Wonder Years where Kevin, thinking he is over Winnie, enjoys himself on a family vacation. He happens to meet an older girl and has fun with her, but she must return home earlier than expected. The episode ends to Wouldn’t it be Nice by the Beach Boys

Narrator: When you are 13, it is a long way to New Mexico. She told me about getting her learners’ permit and learning how to handle a stick shift. She told me about our night on the beach. She told me she missed me so much she cried herself to sleep. She promised to write to me until we saw each other again. I keep that letter in an old shoebox. It was the only letter she ever wrote me.