Paul's first assignment after flight school took us to Finthen Germany. It was 1985 and that flight to Germany was only the fifth flight I had ever taken. Germany seemed so very strange and exciting to me. Getting by with a smattering of German (I had studied French in H.S. and been exposed to Spanish at home) that I learned during the first two weeks in Germany was a bit daunting at the time.
One of the first things I discovered was the local Stars and Stripes Bookstore. Here I could buy english language books. What a blessing! I love to read and email ordering didn't exist (or at least not to my knowledge) at that time.
It was at the Stars and Stripes that I discovered the comic collections of "For Better or For Worse". If you are not familiar with this strip, it's drawn by Lynn Johnston and available for viewing at www.fborfw.com . Since I was only 25 and had no children yet, I related more to the children and the situations they would get themselves into. Later, when I was pregnant with Kendra, Annie (the next door neighbor) was pregnant with her third child and I enjoyed going through her pregnancy with her. A bit prophetic when her daughter was born with a birth defect, just as Kendra had been.
Later when Elly (the main character) was pregnant with a late in life baby, I was pregnant with Kim. The comic strip baby, April, had the same adventerous spirit as my Kimmy. It was great fun (in hindsight) to see that mischevious behavior caught in the strip.
When Kim turned 16, one of her gifts was an autographed strip of April's 16th birthday.
I have read this strip for over 20 years now. I have laughed and cried and been awed by the way real life situations were handled by the characters. I was amazed when Lynn could share the pain of having her husband leave her for a younger woman with a dream by Elly in which she thought John had left her. It was so touching.
The strip has finished its "real time" run over this weekend. Starting today, Lynn is going to be restarting the story with added dialogue and updating some things she has wished she could change.
I will miss seeing April continue to hit milestones with Kim, but I can understand how it may be time for Lynn to move on to other challenges.
Thank you, Lynn Johnston, for a fabulous comic strip!
7 comments:
Aww! While I've read that strip in the past, I'm not a regular reader. I had no idea she was stopping her regular strips.
I can tell it meant a lot to you and to your family--this must be a sad day for you. I hope you'll find another strip that you enjoy as much. (I'm partial to "Pearls Before Swine.")
All my best,
Beth
followed it for 20yrs!!!
That is what I call a faithful reader......I am sure you must be going to have some kind of with drawl lol
Hugs
Erica
I loved this strip too....and read it faithfully. But, when she killed off the dog.....I could just not read it anymore, it destroyed me. I understood that death of a beloved pet is part of life, but at the same time...I didn't want that in my comics. LOLOL! I do think she is brilliant though, and am sorry that it is ending for you.
Love & Pooh Hugs,
Linda
I, too, have faithfully followed this strip. People laugh when they see me reading the comics and I can't make them understand that some of them are addicting, that they have sequence, that they are like soap operas. In fact, I read several of them but don't even know the titles to them, all I know is that I can't wait for the daily newspaper!
Estela in South TX
http://journals.aol.com/venus905/Onmyweighdown/
YOU LIVE IN ALABAMA!!!So do I. I work in Birmingham and live in Shelby County. Sure is a small world. Thanks for coming by my blog.
Hi Estela! Great to hear from you. From what my mother finally told me about the break it could have been worse (or course, it could have been better too). She has told me that the pain is not terribly bad-it does not keep her up at night, that kind of thing. I just hope that she will behave herself and take it easy for a few days. I know that she is not an invalid, but this has just happened. It is not a crime for her to take it easy for a few days. I think transferring to WW Online will be a good thing right now.
I was a big fan of this strip and was sad to see it go, but I don't think I'll follow her 'redo' of FBFW.
Dan
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