For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 19, 2024

I can’t read the names of the cereals.

There’s an episode on LEAVE IT TO BEAVER, where Wally’s GF’s sister married very young—and June immediately started clutching her pearls that Wally would do the same.

Nothing makes you feel old than your children and their friends getting married.

Every time you see Patterson kids in the kitchen talking about something, they’re always stuffing their faces with snacks while doing it.

Gord and Tracy rather remind me of my brother and sister in law. They got married at 18 but were mature enough to handle it. Still married nearly 52 years later.

Minor spoiler I had to look up to get the exact number but 5 years isn’t exactly a while. And I say minor, i’ll leave who a mystery to daily readers (though if you guys want to not be spoiled don’t look at the cover of the complete library). At any rate I find it funny that it’s way sooner than I expected.

Ma’am, I promise your son will not spontaneously combust if he doesn’t have a wife and two kids by 23.

Why does Michael think it’s so weird his friend is getting married? Gordon is way more mature than Michael!

Emotional conflict.

Didn’t John say that he and Elly were engaged at 20? Why does Elly find it so hard to believe that her son’s friend is getting married at or around the same age?

Let it be a sigh of relief for now, Ellie.

“♫ A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh.. ♫”

John, that was a sigh of a woman that just ran into the I’m getting Old Wall.

…as time goes by.

In the last panel there was a sigh of relief from Ellie. Naturally, she’ll keep “her little boy” for a few more years yet until he graduates from University.

“Teach your parents well

Their children’s hell will slowly go by

And feed them on your dreams

The one they pick’s the one you’ll know by

Don’t you ever ask them why

If they told you, you would cry

So just look at them and sigh

And know they love you"

♫ ⊱✿ ◕‿◕✿⊰♫

You think that, Mike, and then . . .

Let’s see, how does the progression go? Find a girl. . .Get married. . . Have a couple of kids. . . Move in with the folks. . .

That’s what happened to me. One Saturday morning I answered a knock at the front door and there was my son, his wife, two kids and she had one in the oven, “Dad, we lost our jobs, and our place, mom won’t let us move in, we got no place to go. . .” “Sigh. . . Come in. We’ll make it work somehow.” I put the two kids in the big bedroom, I took the back one, I moved the dining table to the living room and put my son & wife in there. Two weeks later the landlord shows up, “What’s this I hear about. . .? Oh. . .” When he saw the crowd. I told him what happened. Then asked, “Would you turn your kids away if they showed up at your front door?” He said, “Of course not. Sigh. . . We’ll make it work somehow.” Sometimes its better to apologize than to ask permission.

If Elly ever hears 19 by Paul Hardcastle bet that will stir up emotions considering Michael is that age (or about to have his 19th birthday).

LOL… The difference between Moms and Dads. Mom is relieved Mike is going to be around for a long time and Dad is stunned to learn Mike is going to be on the family payroll a lot longer.

I remember this from the original run, and if memory serves, The Patterson’s become huge supporters of Gordon and Tracy.

One must be careful when she is sighing. The littlest thing can cause anger. Elly is a time bomb just waiting to go off.

be kind to your parents…though they don’t deserve it…..

It’s just a thought I know…your parents once were children long ago…INCREDIBLE!!

Broadway show FANNY

I started looking for wife material after high school…I was 21 when I met my future wife, married a year later, and have been together ever since. Married in 1989. My dad was 18 and mom was 17 when they got married. I’ve seen people wait til they were older, to get things financially in order, but sometimes you need that partner in life to help with those things.

Since this is a comic strip and comic strips are supposed to be funny, wouldn’t this be a better strip?

Elly: Gordon and Tracey are getting married? I give them a year.

John: Anyone else for two years? OK, all money down, no more bets!

“Gordon’s been making decisions for himself all his life,” says Elly as she remembers when Gordon made the decision to drive her new car and then wrecked it. Oh wait, maybe she is thinking about when Gordon decided to microwave the spider to death in her microwave until Elly stopped him. There are so many choices.