For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 12, 2024

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    charliefarmrhere  about 2 months ago

    Sometime later down the road, you will be one of those old fogey people!

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    Asharah  about 2 months ago

    Where’s your cousin Laura?

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    snsurone76  about 2 months ago

    Just wait until you get to the era of AI and social media, Liz!

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    Last Rose Of Summer Premium Member about 2 months ago

    As an only child of much older parents, I can relate. Even my cousins were grown by the time I came along.

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    Gizmo Cat  about 2 months ago

    From Lynn’s Comments: This was a big problem for me as a kid. Everywhere we went, we had to spend time with my parents’ friends. These people never seemed to have anything for kids to do, so my brother and I had to wait in bored frustration for these visits to end. It was then that I swore I’d have toys and games for kids to play with when I had a house of my own!

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    Frog-on-a-Log Premium Member about 2 months ago

    Remember when phones had cords? Yes, I’m a fogey.

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    ncrist  about 2 months ago

    I loved Listening to everyone’s memories. it was like watching old movies. Comparing now with then. Socially, economically. A treasure trove of suggestions and warnings for the future.

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    felinefan55 Premium Member about 2 months ago

    In 2004 I took my 10 and 12 year old daughters to Jersey, a place I hadn’t been to since I was 11 over 30 years earlier. My mom flew into BWI and I picked her up and she went with us the rest of the way. My sister and I had decided Mom should visit Jersey (her home) without it being for a funeral. The girls saw my Mom fairly regularly. Though that would be the last time I or my youngest saw her before she past. I am glad I have those happy images and not the ones the my oldest daughter has. She went to the hospital while Mom was in her coma. I was too sick to travel. I talked to Mom every week, but that 2004 trip was the last long drive I took.

    Anyway, the reason for this treatise is what my daughters tell people about the visit, “We went to Jersey and say a bunch of old people and dead people!”. My family moved to the area straight from Ireland in 1822 and 1880, so we have family plots in several of the churches. I raised my girls to speak their minds to me. If they hated the trip I would have known. Nope, they actually did enjoy it. My youngest bonded again with my uncle. Neither one remembered the first time they met when she was 2. He had a wooden leg and even after 50+ years still had a limp. She patted his knee and asked, “You have boo-boo?”. She then proceeded to show him hers. She has ALWAYS been a klutz, so there were a lot! My aunt told us he mentioned that visit a lot. His Alzheimer’s was so bad at the time of our visit that he didn’t remember my mom. He also didn’t remember my aunt whom he’d known his entire life. His love for her was still evident though. Mom didn’t get the disease, but her mom and two of her siblings had it. The third sibling died of cancer years too early for the disease to be evident. Still, I figure I’ll most likely develop it.

    Sorry for the long post.

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    M2MM  about 2 months ago

    Back when I was in my early 30’s, our 11-year old niece called me a fogey, and when I laughed out loud, SHE was offended. :D

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    eced52  about 2 months ago

    Instant Karma gonna get you.

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    SquidGamerGal  about 2 months ago

    Wow… Can you be anymore selfish and shallow?

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    win.45mag  about 2 months ago

    Sounds more like she’s suffering from acute spoilus bratitus

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    Niko S  about 2 months ago

    Yeah kids don’t like to hear about “fogey stuff”. They just can’t relate.

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    dcdete.  about 2 months ago

    So if they are going to fly to Vancouver from the prairies, who is going to return their family car back to Toronto from the prairies, a distance of a few thousand miles?

    Probably more economical for them to sell their used car there in the prairies, and buy a new car when they get back to Toronto.

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    bryan42  about 2 months ago

    I remember this exact feeling on the, luckily rare, visits to the relatives when I was a teen.

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    goboboyd  about 2 months ago

    I get that as well. It does surprise me a bit since I’m on the farther side of a century.

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    mindjob  about 2 months ago

    I wish those old fogeys were still around

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    BJDucer  about 2 months ago

    I can commiserate with Elizabeth here. As a kid, I loathed visiting my paternal grandparents house. We were told to “keep quiet and behave” and then had to listen to hours of conversation/experiences about people we knew nothing about, and were not involved in the conversation at all. It always amazed me after the visit and on the ride home my parents would ask “Did you kids have fun?”

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    ctolson  about 2 months ago

    Long distance call on a land line!!!! Even ‘Fogeys’ use a cell phone ‘cause it doesn’t cost extra. Dropped our landline long distance option ten+ years ago

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    Bob Blumenfeld  about 2 months ago

    I love how Lynn so perfectly captured a teenager’s chatting-on-the-phone body language in those frames. They give the reader something to look at in what’s essentially a short monologue.

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    gigagrouch  about 2 months ago

    Your day will come.

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    pheets  about 2 months ago

    Fair enough…. for now. Later years can change perspectives.

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    ilovecomics*infinity  about 2 months ago

    You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

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    paranormal  about 2 months ago

    They’re going back in time to B.C.???

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    Daltongang Premium Member about 2 months ago

    Elizabeth, it’s not Fogey Fatigue, you’re suffering from Teenageitius.

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    rshive  about 2 months ago

    We all go through that.

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    CultofFarley  about 2 months ago

    Ooga Farley!

    Booga Farley!

    Googa Farley!

    Wooga Farley!

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    elpasowalt  about 2 months ago

    I usta love our vacations. We had a ’56 Ford Ranch Wagon. Nice car. Dad would fold down the back seat and put a mattress back there so us three kids could play and lie down. It was nice.

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    ladykat  about 2 months ago

    My heart bleeds.

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    John Jorgensen  about 2 months ago

    I do remember a time when that bothered me, though not as much as it seems to be bothering her. Now I quite enjoy those conversations. The tipping point arrived completely unnoticed.

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    [Unnamed Reader - 14b4ce]  about 2 months ago

    Time for"The Liscense Plate Game"

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    lnrokr55  about 2 months ago

    I get it Elizabeth! It’s part of the charm of life reliving the past, it’s a comfort, it’s also a curse, since we almost never learn anything from it other than to justify our own biases and fears ! Happy Monday, good week everybody !

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    CoreyTaylor1  about 2 months ago

    So Cru-Elly dragged her daughter into this just to leave her out!

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    EMGULS79  about 2 months ago

    I spent so much time with old people that I always found them much easier to relate to than my peers!

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    mistercatworks  about 2 months ago

    What else are people who meet rarely since childhood going to talk about – politics? OMG, no.

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    tammyspeakslife Premium Member about 2 months ago

    A memory I have from when I was 19, visiting my grandmother and her aunt and uncle. Them passing around photos when I’m looking at a picture of a man old enough to be my grand dad and I’m supposed to say… what?

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    cwillis  about 2 months ago

    Some day when they’re gone she’ll wished she had that time back.

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    JPuzzleWhiz  about 2 months ago

    Panel 1 — they’re gonna visit cavepeople? d;o)

    Seriously, though, there’s nothing wrong with visiting “old people” — because you might want to do so while they’re still alive. Do it while you can. Wait too long, and that chance’ll be gone, and the only way you can see them is in old pictures…

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    sjsczurek  about 2 months ago

    As my Uncle Tony (r.i.p.) used to say, “Wait ‘til you’re old!”

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    thedogesl Premium Member about 2 months ago

    It’s our superpower. :-)

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    Clover81  about 2 months ago

    I used to feel this way about visiting relatives. Now they’re gone, and I miss them all so much. I wish I could see them again.

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    sincavage05  about 2 months ago

    You’ll remember those with great memories in years to come. My mom is 88 and remembers all of the yesterdays, to share.

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    Seed_drill  about 2 months ago

    My visits to grandparents usually also involved seeing my cousins, which was always cool. Plus Model T rides!

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    Strawberry King  about 2 months ago

    She’s gonna have kids like that one day.

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    CoreyTaylor1  about 2 months ago

    So Cru-Elly dragged Liz along just to make her feel LEFT OUT!?

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    washatkc Premium Member about 2 months ago

    Then there all gone. Then you will miss those stories and people. But alas we all have been there.

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