Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 15, 2016

It’s important for the boy to become self-reliant.

OK, I know they stopped putting the original year of publication on these…and we haven’t seen Jeff in a while, so it’s hard to keep track.

But they’re arguing over driving him to daycare, not 7th grade.

In another arc, Mike just got back together with JJ, their daughter, Alex, now, in 2016, the mother of twins, wasn’t even born yet in this strip…so Jeff is probably two or three.

It’s a joke that he volunteers to walk…and coddling or not, I think it would be a crime to let him.In fact, we don’t know where his daycare is located…. it could be miles from their house.

Just how “self-reliant” were you tough guys at three?And how much do you expect from a toddler?

When I was in school in the 1950’s there were bike racks for about 200 bicycles and most of them were full. I lived one block away so I didn’t need to ride my bike.

Good grief. I was about to start telling everybody how I got to school. I suddenly realized, however, that nobody actually cares. Whew.

I walked 2 miles in 3 feet of snow in little dresses in the winter! Wait…..no one likes those old stories…. ; )

I used to walk…. oh, dear, I’m babbling again, aren’t I? I think its time for my nap now.

For your amusementfrom Monty PythonThe Four Yorshiremen sketch

Michael Palin: Ahh.. Very passable, this, very passable.Graham Chapman: Nothing like a good glass of Chateau de Chassilier wine, ay Gessiah?Terry Gilliam: You’re right there Obediah.Eric Idle: Who’d a thought thirty years ago we’d all be sittin’ here drinking Chateau de Chassilier wine?MP: Aye. In them days, we’d a’ been glad to have the price of a cup o’ tea.GC: A cup ’ COLD tea.EI: Without milk or sugar.TG: OR tea!MP: In a filthy, cracked cup.EI: We never used to have a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.GC: The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.TG: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.MP: Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, “Money doesn’t buy you happiness.”EI: ‘E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN’. We used to live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof.GC: House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING!TG: You were lucky to have a ROOM! We used to have to live in a corridor!MP: Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin’ in a corridor! Woulda’ been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph.EI: Well when I say “house” it was only a hole in the ground covered by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to US.GC: We were evicted from our hole in the ground; we had to go and live in a lake!TG: You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road.MP: Cardboard box?TG: Aye.MP: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o’clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!GC: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o’clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY!TG: Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o’clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.EI: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o’clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, (pause for laughter), eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing “Hallelujah.”MP: But you try and tell the young people today that… and they won’t believe ya’.ALL: Nope, nope..

My favorite Python sketch, even if it did precede the show. I’ve seen it with the original cast, with the Pythons, and with various tribute casts consisting of top talent like Rowan Atkinson.

@Kip W said“Good grief. I was about to start telling everybody how I got to school. I suddenly realized, however, that nobody actually cares. Whew.”.I care.I’m a very caring person.Let me guess, walking six miles through snow 7’ deep, uphill both ways while beating off hungry dinosaurs along the way?.That’s what I tell my kids and they know I have nearly always lived in Florida and alligators stay in gator holes when it gets really cold..Now as to those who think it’s a good idea to have small children wandering untended…the swamp behind my house has wild hogs, Florida panthers, assorted poisonous snakes, alligators (of course) and random crazies. The crazies are most dangerous although they could’ve brought home fewer snakes for me to identify..Serial killers have always wandered the earth but with limited communications most communities didn’t notice. (Besides, the kids might have been eaten by bears — I forgot to mention them.)

Sheesh… tough crowd!I was actually just teasing all you macho types… LOLBut… yes, 1987… but it doesn’t give the full date.

And I’d though Jeff was born in the mid 80’s, but I stand corrected… it was December 31st, 1982, which is almost 1983…

(click for full size)The birth was followed by a long hiatus… over a year and a half, which put his babyhood in the mid 80’s in my mind.

And I actually found today’s strip…January 19th 1987.

(Click if you want to go to the page, this time…. though it’s b/w with no commentary so not much point.)

So…. Jeff was just a couple of weeks past his 4th birthday.

And, IMHO, still a bit young to walk to daycare! He’s not even in school yet.

Or to be blamed for a lack of self-reliance!

Phew… the things I do for you guys….

As I recall, the real issue being portrayed in the 1980s had nothing to do with self-reliance and everything to do with the movement to have fathers share the child care. I seem to recall a number of Doonesbury strips were devoted to that. I still remember one: Rick heroically stays home to spend the day with his son, but spends it writing an article about staying home and gets mad at his son for disturbing him.