Nancy by Olivia Jaimes for July 23, 2013

Hope they used “Applewood”… ha ha! But that smoke flavoring is nice….

Hopefully, Aunt Fritzi and Phil are discreetly hovering in the background – making sure that the kids don’t let the campfire get out of hand.

“Added flavor!”Sluggo’s a real guy.……and he’s an outdoorsman type, no problem with the fire.

Hmm…..Poochie is beginning to look more like Sam’s twin!

Can’t really clean the sticks..unless you used wire coat hangers like we did, but they weren’t cleaned, either.

We never cleaned the sticks we used for fire-roasting goodies. The fire’s gotta take care of all that anyways, right?

I know a couple puppy dogs who wouldn’t mind eating those hot dogs off dirty sticks.

Re: Stjoeriver said, about 7 hours ago@Estrelita PhillipsI think you must be a worry wart L"

Actually – I am mainly just dreaming up reasons for Aunt Fritzi and Phil to be around.

However, one of the great features of comics are all of the little identifying details which address common, everyday occurrences for that time period. For example, some of the best Mutt and Jerff cartoons show Mutt and Jeff worrying about having enough ration coupons to shop for next week’s groceries or to have enough gas ration coupons to fill up their car when they discover that they are out of gas.

We recently took our grandchildren swimming and, in spite of the fact that there were four lifeguards on duty – there were signs posted all over that children under the age of 13 MUST be accompanied by a responsible adult. Since Nancy and Sluggo are supposed to only be eight – that would mean that, in most places in the U.S. today, Aunt Fritzi could end up in a lot of trouble for NOT being somewhere nearby while Nancy – and Sluggo too – are in the water.

Ditto with the campfire. Of course, I live in Colorado and we are in our second consecutive year of dealing with major forest fires. We have fire restrictions everywhere – so no one around here would be building any type of campfire – period. However, even presuming that Nancy and Sluggo live in an area which is NOT dealing with major drought and wildfire issues – most places would still require 8-yeaar-old kids who are dealing with a campfire to have some sort of adult supervision – and that would include even kids who were part of some sort of Scouting troop.

I agree that stuff was much simpler when we were growing up – and, in my Dad’s day – which is when Nancy and Sluggo debuted – no one thought it was all that unusual for an 8-year-old boy to be living alone in his own house! I agree that it is too bad that daily life is not nearly as simple and uncomplicated as it was even a few years ago.

But, over all – I think it would be great if Aunt Fritzi and Phil were hanging out not far away, chatting about old times and keeping a watchful eye on Nancy and Sluggo as the kids enjoy their trip into the woods.

In the meantime – a film clip of Nancy and Sluggo helping to raise money for the USO.

CARTOON RESEARCH – Nancy, Sluggo and the USOhttp://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/happy-4th-of-july-with-nancy-and-sluggo-2/