Andy Capp by Reg Smythe for January 04, 2002

You sure know how to shop Flo!

xxx

These four strips (Jan 1-4) were posted by mistake under 2002, they belong to 2003, and can also be found under their correct dates.

The year was 1940. My mother and I loaded up our 1937 LaSalle and she drove us from San Antonio to New Orleans to board the SS Toloa for our cruise to the Panama Canal Zone to join my father who was working there. The ship was a United Fruit “Banana Boat” which also transported some passengers and other cargo. Our car was also loaded on board. The trip took about a week with stops in Havana and Honduras. We were able to do some sightseeing at each stop. My dad met us in Colon. The car was unloaded and we drove to our new home in Diablo Heights. We lived there for a few months then moved to a larger apartment in Balboa where I enrolled in school for the eighth grade. I got myself an after-school job setting pins in the Officer’s Club bowling alley. It paid 3 cents a line and the pins were all set up manually. No machinery in those days. I really enjoyed my year in the Canal Zone. Perfect weather, Year round Springtime. No winter. -In the Summer of 1941 it was decided that my mother and I would head back to Texas. Europe was at war and it looked like the U.S. may get involved. Pearl Harbor was yet to happen. We headed back to Colon where we boarded the SS Ulua, another banana boat, for our trip back. It was almost identical to the trip there, except we stopped in Costa Rica instead of Honduras. By the time my dad was to return to Texas (about 1942) we were at war and Nazi U-Boats were sinking ships in the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/16/us/gulf-of-mexico-shipwrecks-world-war-ii/

He had booked passage on a ship that was sunk but wisely chose to fly back. The Pan-American highway was incomplete at that time so he could not drive back. He sold the LaSalle and booked a flight to Mexico City. Airline service was very spotty in those days, so he booked a separate flight to Monterey and then a bus to Nuevo Laredo where he crossed the Rio Grande to Laredo, TX where he bought a 1938 Chevrolet which he drove to join us in San Antonio.

And this relates to Andy Capp because… ?

Because obviously Andy’s wife Flo is explaining why Andy needs large pockets in his jacket. Obvious to some that is.