Recent Comments

1. about 18 hours ago on Nancy Classics

   YOU can do anything if you have friends – and a little imagination.

2. 1 day ago on Nancy Classics

   I remember the olden days when neighbors did nice things for each other and Nancy and her friends got together for fun times together. Back in those days, every house in town had a covered front porch, so someone who had a hammock would have set it up on the porch – so they wouldn’t need to worry about rain. In those days, on a summer evening, the grown-ups would all gather up on the porches for after dinner coffee and chats – and the kids would ride bikes and trikes in the street in front of the houses. We lived in a small town – so we never worried about stuff like traffic. A lot of people these days never get to know their neighbors. Such a loss.

3. 4 days ago on Nancy Classics

   Back in the day, beginning when I was 12, I worked as printer’s devil and local news correspondent for our hometown newspaper. I did stuff like throw in the leads and slugs. So, while we weren’t exactly using clay tablets, we were still pretty close. Our newspaper would advertise that, on such and such a date, they would feature a full color page of Walt and Skeezix walking in the woods to look at the fall colors. This was considered to be such an event that it was worthy of its own private advertisement. Phil, Fritzi, Nancy and Sluggo each had their own half page color strip on Sunday. In addition, there were cut-out paper dolls of Aunt Fritzi and Katy Keene, usually with fashions similar to the fashions included in the story in the comic strip. There was a time when getting the Sunday newspaper was an “event.” I think one of the reasons that newspapers are going down the tubes is because they forgot that the “funnies” was the one thing which newspapers provided which no one else could duplicate.

4. 5 days ago on Nancy Classics

   She’s reading a book! I remember those! Every now and then they show Aunt Fritzi reading a newspaper. I remember those too!

5. 8 days ago on Nancy Classics

   I KNEW that Aunt Fritzi celebrated her birthday in the olden days! In the olden days, she even emembered birthdays of people like Blondie!

6. 16 days ago on Nancy Classics

   Back in the day—Aunt Fritzi, Phil, Sluggo and Nancy each had a half page color strip on Sunday. The strips often intertwined stories. One I remember had Aunt Fritzi rolling up her rug, polishing the floor and calling Phil to tell him a great band will be playing on the radio this evening and she has invited some girlfriends to come enjoy the band—and suggests he should get some pals to join them. In Nancy’s strip, Nancy calls her friend Irma and makes plans for Nancy to stay the night with Irma while Aunt Fritzi has her party. In the Sluggo strip, Sluggo complains to Rollo that he won’t be eating with Nancy because Aunt Fritzi is having a grown-ups only party. Rollo tells Sluggo that his parents are in Europe but his butler is at home and is a fantastic cook. After Rollo invites Sluggo to have dinner with him, They they call Irma and Nancy and invite the girls to join them. In the meantime, in Phil’s strip, Phil calls some buddies and tells them about Fritzi’s party. Then Phil gets all duded up, picks up a new tie, a box of chocolates and bouquet of roses to take to the party. Then Phil hops in his flivver, picks up his buddies and they all cram into the flivver, with all sorts of boxes of chocolates and bouquets of flowers. Phil and his buddies arrive at Fritzi’s party and bestow their gifts on the ladies. Then Phil goes over to the radio and, when he turns it on—he says “Hey, guys! The game is on.” So all the men gather around the radio to listen the the play by play broadcast of a baseball game. Meanwhile, Aunt Fritzi and her gal pals are all over on the couch, tapping their toes on the polished floor, glaring darts at the guys gathered around the game. Meanwhile, in Nancy’s strip, Nancy and Irma arrive at Rollo’s mansion, where they are greeted by the butler. In Sluggo’s strip, Nancy, Irma, Sluggo and Rollo settle down for a candlelit gourmet dinner, served by the butlr. The kids had more romance than the adults!

7. 16 days ago on Nancy Classics

   I DIDN’T know if anyone else has seen Sunday’s Hagar the Horrible yet – but if your local paper carries that strip, you should check it out. Helga tells Hagar that she believes they need to buy some art, so she drags him into a gallery. Inside, Classic Sluggo is the artist, who is showing a collection of Classic Nancy and Aunt Fritzi. Helga spots a picture of Aunt Fritzi in a bathing suit and begins dragging Hagar out of the gallery. Hagar tells Sluggo, I don’t know much about art, but I know what I’m not allowed to like! Very cute, all the way around.

8. 23 days ago on Pluggers

   If you’re selling your used car for more than you paid for your first house – you’re a Senior Plugger.

9. 30 days ago on Pluggers

   I guess it’s too late to tell her that sprinkling better – or – better yet – cayenne pepper – into the bird feeders. The birds don’t notice the pepper but the squirrel gets it on his paws, wipes his face and eyes with the peppery paws, and immediately loses interest. I also put up a “squirrel” feeder far away from the bird feeders. I put peanuts and sunflower seeds inside the squirrel feeder – which is mounted on a post about five feet up. The squirrel feeder has a lid – the squirrel is the only one who is smart enough to realize that if you lift the lid, you can get at the peanuts. There is only room at the top of the post for one squirrel at a time – so any other squirrels which show up just have to wait their turn. Around sundown, I empty to squirrel feeder. Squirrels don’t hunt nuts after dark – but raccoons do. Raccoons are no more happy when they run into pepper in the bird feeder than squirrels do. Sprinkling pepper around your flowers, carrots, lettuce, also is an easy way to discourage rabbits from nibbling on your crops before they are ready to enjoy. If you want to save yourself the expense of buying birdseed – get some seeds for Skyscraper Sunflowers – then sprinkle around your planting area with lots of hot pepper and a lot of hot tobacco sauce – this will stop curiously seekers from digging up your seeds – and from climbing the stalk to feast on the sunflower seeds when they’re ready. Canaries and other songbirds just love these. You’ll end up with a very musical backyard.

10. about 1 month ago on Gasoline Alley

    It’s marvelous to see the Wallets returning to their roots. During the Gasoline Alley heyday during the Depression, a lot of comic strip characters regularly tapped in to their faith. During the Depression, the town closest to the farm where my mother grew up – decided that – in order to get a little extra cash to keep up their streets – they would sell an additional city license plate. The plate didn’t cost much – just $5 – but that was a lot of money for most people. So my grandparents and their neighbors each chipped in 50 cents per family and paid for one plate between. So the neighbors had to coordinate when they were going to use the plate to go in to town. The plate was tied to back of their cars, buggies, wagons, etc., with a thin rope. When one family returned from town, they would hang the plate on the next neighbor’s mailbox. Mail carriers never moved the community city license plate. Town council knew everyone was going that – but never raised a fuss – so long as they had the $5 to the plate. During that time, most of the newer church buildings had been built near the outskirts of town – but some of the older churches were right in the middle of town. so the town council declared ALL of the churches to be OUTSIDE the city limits. In those days, they believed that the more people who were in church and praying about the national situation, everyone would be better off in the long run! In those days most of the newspapers had a Daily Devotional corner – all of the pastors in town would take a turn, studying a specific Bible verse for the day and offering a prayer based on the lesson in that verse (or verses).. I guess that’s why they called them the greatest generation! Nearly everyone took time to look out for their family, friends and neighbors.