For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 05, 2013

And there, howtheduck, is the answer to your question about why the storyline seemingly abruptly shifted from Michael’s impending trip to his grandmother’s to Phil’s visit. You simply forgot the complete timeline!

yes, michael take your teddy

Always take you something that reminds you of home

Even grown ups love teddies and keep them around for company…especially senior ladies. Michael’s grandmother may have even bout him a new one to keep him company while visiting her. He’ll give up his teddy when he’s ready to do so.

Correction: ‘bought’ is the proper spelling. Lolol

How cute!

Of course you should take Teddy, Mike. He’ll want to meet Grandma too.

NO. If TSA does not take it then it will get lost in the luggage.

Susan, you are one sick puppy. I like that in a person!

Back then, teddy would have been safe from the TSA. Take teddy. Carry him in your backpack so you don’t lose him.

Aww… definitely take teddy!!(LOL, Susan! :-))

Too much pressure for poor uncle Phil.

Aaron is lucky to have an understanding mom who didn’t laugh at him.

Lynn’s Notes:After about the age of 7, Aaron never admitted to being attached to his teddy bear. At the age of 18, however, when he left home for Vancouver in search of work, he called from his small, sparse apartment and said in a small voice… “Uh, Mom? Could you, um send me my…teddy?” I didn’t say anything. I didn’t laugh. I sent him the teddy his grandmother had lovingly made, knowing it was something he loved and needed. It sits on his dresser to this day. Aaron turned 40 this year!

I found my old teddy bear while cleaning out my parents’ house two years ago. I couldn’t throw him away (but I don’t sleep with him, he’s safe in a closet). I’m turning 60 later this year…

My son had a stuffed lamb that he called “Kitty”. The poor thing was tattered, repaired and limp from love and multiple trips through the washing machine. He will be 36 in another week, and he still has Kitty packed away safely.

When I left for an out-of town college for the first time, I took along my blue baby blanket and my little baby pillow. I didn’t see anything unusual about this, telling myself that the blanket would help provide a warm spot where needed, and the pillow was very comfortable. At the time, it seemed perfectly logical. Well, it still does, 59 years later.

I got my teddy, named Teddy, 60 years ago. He’s been lost in a potato bin, at the Cincinnati airport, and under a very large dinner guest among other places. But Teddy and I are still together. I have my son’s teddy, Ezie Bear, and am preparing to bring Ezie over to my new granddaughter.

comicsssfan: When we were in Canada, it took my kids three years to find out that their school actually had a football team. “House teams” (intramurals, see Harry Potter) were the big item, mens sana in corpore sano. They never did find out whether the high school team played under Canadian professional rules, US high school, or something else entirely. No small matter considering the larger Canadian football field, number of players, backfield in motion, three downs for a first, etc.

@Dogday88: Congratulations on the new granddaughter!

I still have my teddy, only it’s a tiger, 52 years after one of my earliest memories: my dad, having just come home from a business trip, opening his suitcase and pulling out a stuffed tiger and giving it to me. It and by extension my daddy stand watch over my home still.

I don’t think you’d look very good in a teddy, Mike.LOL

Good one, Susan!!! LOVE IT!!!!!

Old ladies like me don’t have teddy bears; I prefer a sweaty tee from the one if I travel alone.

uncle phil has that duh look on his face after eating elly’s leftovers

I say: “Take your teddy with you, Michael. Two whole weeks away from home for the first time by yourself when you’re only 9 years old is too long to be gone without having a comfortable, familiar friend right there along with you!”

;-)

Meanwhile . . . I still possess a few stuffed animals of my own — some from my childhood, and some since I’ve grown up. The childhood animals are stored away safely in a box; the other ones on a bookshelf in my office have come from my husband every now and then over the past 25 years. I love them all and wouldn’t dream of parting with them for any amount of money — EVER! — and I’m 44 years old.

;-)

This one is JUST SO CUTE!

My oldest has his Teddy, Russell Bear and his stuffed dog Parker, safely put away in his closet. He just turned 27.

And I have just “Fort Knox”, which makes me wonder if Donald will still have Fidel when he is an adult, LOL!

Of course.

I’m 43. I still have the polar bear which I’ve had since before my birth (it was a baby shower present for my mother). It’s a bit worn by now, but much loved, and stays on my bed full-time. My kids love him, but they know this is MAMA’S stuffie, not theirs, and they need to ask permission before playing with him and treat him with the respect that befits his age!

On the Freedom Flights from Iraq to the US, there were plenty of teddies, loveys, and stuffed friends of all species. I hadn’t taken my old Bear, but my sister sent a little stuffed bunny in an Easter basket care-package. He stayed on my pillow the rest of my deployment, and came home in my carry-on patrol pack, not packed in my checked bags. Now he is an honorable retired war veteran, and sits next to old Bear on the bookcase.

Some loveys peeked out of the tops of packs on the trip home – some were down inside – but nobody, I mean NOBODY, said anything mean about any of them. Some big tough guys had loveys that their kids had given them to keep them company – they would sooner have left all the rest of their gear behind than those floppy little friends.