For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for June 19, 2023

She doesn’t care, emotion has to displace reason

Elly, how will you cope when he leaves for college and you can’t micromanage him anymore?

It’s difficult to imagine Michael thinking of graduation as a solemn and important occasion, considering how lightly he took his education. We had comic strip after comic strip showing that Mike was the kind of student who did not study for tests and who did not do his homework. It’s not a surprise to me that graduation is unimportant to him. What do you call the kid at the bottom of his class? – Michael Patterson.

elly, elly, elly, take 5 deep breaths and get a grip

My brother went to his naked under his robe. The school was so happy when he finally graduated.

Been there done that and yes lost that argument with my Mother too ( 90° ) !

I wish Michael had the guts to say, “And I want YOU to shut the f**k up and leave me alone!!”

I remember making the mistake of wearing high heels at mine. We had to go up a ramp to the stage where we got our diplomas and I was so afraid I’d fall. I still remember how my feet went click, click, click going up that thing.

And several will be naked or in just their underwear.

I wore the same gown at all my four graduations at Penn State and the same kind of underclothes. I just had on two different hoods for the two master’s.

That deformed head of his always amuses me.

So why did Michael rent a tux 5 days ago? Was that money down the drain?

Michael, just go do what your mom asked of you. It’s only for a handful of hours, then the remainder time is yours. Life’s way too short to be fretting over the small things. If it makes any difference, I had to wear the same at my high school graduation. But once the ceremony and pictures were done (prior to the party), I switched into something more comfortable. You can be annoyed all you want at here micromanaging, but look forward to the freedom and separation once you get to college. Believe me, it’s worth the wait.

All the girls wire white dresses under our robes and the boys wire suits. We’re talking 45 years ago.

I wore shorts and a t-shirt under my HS grad gown. It was interminably hot in the school gym, and being the last of 7 kids my parents were done arguing about such minor things. Plus they agreed with me. I was the most comfortable person in the gym! :D

The pontificating hippie continues to say, “Do as I say, not as I did in 1969”. Typical…….

My Mom make me shave my upper lip. The only time i ever did in my entire life!

I went to both my High School and College in shorts. High School was out in the hot late June sun, and College drove 4 hours with my parents in the car graduation morning. They recognized me by my Tube Socks

Found this re mortarboards: Mortarboard caps are thought to have been created in the 15th century, as part of an evolution from a hat type known as a birettas which was used by Catholic clerics and professors. The distinctive square shape of a mortarboard is believed to signify a book, chosen in recognition of scholarly achievements.

One girl at my high school graduation wore jeans shorts. I mean, she had the legs for it, but still…

We received an e-mail from my daughter’s school saying how the kids should dress for graduation, which was this past Saturday. The boys had to wear collared shirts and slacks – no jeans or shorts; the girls had to wear dresses, skirts, or dress pants. No sneakers. However, the kids were allowed to decorate their mortarboards (as long as there wasn’t anything large on it). The class had about 120-something students & you could tell that they all got the memo. (I have to add that it was one of the most fun graduations I’d ever attended…so full of heart and enthusiasm, but not in a distracting way.)

Just read this morning where a girl danced to get her diploma and they wouldn’t give it to her. She wasn’t being a wet blanket and the principal who thinks they are god was upset. Or maybe insulted that someone was so happy to get the heck out of there!!

I don’t see anything wrong with wearing good jeans under the gown. It’s his day, not hers.Julie

When I graduated from high school we didn’t do the “Cap and Gown” thing. Most of us wore a jacket (blazer), white shirt, tie, and dressy trousers – although because it was the early ‘70s the dressy trousers were god-awful polyester pants. Mine were blue and white herringbone, and they weren’t the gaudiest by a longshot. And we didn’t do tuxedos or go in limousines to the banquet and dance. These days the schools where I live have done away with the banquets and dances, because too many families couldn’t afford the limousines and tuxedoes.

Get dressed properly, Michael. Your mother is right, this is a big occasion.

No ceremony for me in 1967 in UK, I just left on the last day and joined the army 6 weeks later at the age of 16.

Graduation ceremonies, just another useless gesture to placate parents and grandparents everywhere.

I think when I graduated High School we “borrowed” the robes from the school and the gym teacher passed them out on the day. We were told we wouldn’t get our diplomas if we didn’t turn our robes and flat hats back in. I always wondered who the goof was that stole his, or her, robe and made that a rule.

My second oldest grandson recently graduated from colegio (high school) here in Ecuador. All the boys in his class wore dark suits, white shirts, and ties under their robes, and the girls wore formal dresses.

I remember having to wear a suit & tie for my H.S. graduation but I wore shorts and a tee shirt at my college graduation, and slacks and a button-down collar shirt (but no tie) for my graduate degree.

At my HS graduation, three of the guys wore nothing under their robes, and streaked us afterwards.

Elly sacrificed her own college graduation so she could raise Michael. The least Michael can do is look presentable at his own graduation to show thanks to his mother.

Sounds like a Hagar the Horrible strip where Hagar and Lucky Eddie are in a foreign land where the men wore fezzes. They walk by two men, and Hagar smirks and says “What creeps! Did you see the funny hats they were wearing?” One of the local men does the same and says the same exact remark about Hagar and Lucky Eddie in his native tongue.

At least they aren’t Dunce caps…

Touché, Michael. I hated my graduation. What a waste of time. Then again, public school taught me to hate learning, hate my peers, and hate all governments, religions and media. I guess I learned something after all.

Two different trains of thought. . . .

The stark generation gap is apparent.

“Who must know the way to make a proper home, a quiet home, a kosher home? Who must raise a family and run the home, so Papa’s free to read the holy book? The Mama! Tradition!!!”- from Fiddler on the Roof

At my oldest brothers graduation (1982), it was in an indoor auditorium, and I played in the orchestra. We moved before I graduated, and my graduation was outdoors in the football field…hot summer day. I had asked mom if I could skip it, and just let them mail me my diploma. That was a no. But afterwards, she apologized and said yes, we should’ve just let them mail it to us…bigger school, over 400 seniors. Long time to sit in the heat.

He could emulate The Fonz and be naked under the gown!

Although it is for laughs, I agree with Elly.

The reason —in real life —is that it is only a one time life passage, and it ought to look nice on pictures. My mother used to say that all the time.

Maybe today’s kids don’t have that kind of idea since they are always taking selfies and don’t bother to pose for that one special keepsake kind of picture.

At my H.S. graduation, all I got was a bill stuck in the diploma

I had hoped the strip would run long enough that we’d see Elly die and Michael could engrave her tombstone with her signature line:I DON’T CARE!

Sums up her personality pretty well, doesn’t it? She never listens to reason, logic, or basically anyone else!

This is not the time to be talking about graduation. Today is Juneteenth. Michael and Elly, as well as John, Elizabeth and April need to apologize for their sin of being white.

Woo woo woo, oh Africa!

What I remember most about my graduation 40+ years ago, is my mother hid my boots and laid out a pair of dress shoes. What she didn’t realize, is I had a pair of grungy old boots stuck back in the hall closet. After all, who looks at the shoes you’re wearing during graduation? My mother. She griped about that until not long before she passed away last year. ;)

It depends on what the family is doing either before and/or after the ceremony.

wait until he discovers the military will pay you to listen to junk like this.

When I graduated high school, even I wore slacks, short, necktie*, and dress shoes.

*The necktie was my older brother’s necktie he used to wear during his high school jazz band concerts and was tiger striped because the school’s mascot is, well, the tiger.

My sister wore a dress, a cap, and a gown and a fake right arm to her graduation. She took the diploma, but left the arm with the principal.

When I graduated from high school, I thought I’d feel stupid wearing the gown. Then I got to the gym where everyone was getting ready and realized how stupid it would feel NOT to be wearing it.

I have to say I’m with Elly on this one. Graduation is an important life event, and the chances of going to a nice restaurant after are very high!

Hey, I remember this strip from when it first ran in the paper! This is the first time I’ve been able to say that!

It must have stood out because I was titillated by “I could be stark naked under that thing.”

Then what was the tux for?

Ohhhhh! Someone needs to call the Comic Strip Child Protection Services.

I wore 501 levis, black boots, and a white T-shirt. 1965.

This is not about HS graduation but it applies. I sang in a high school church choir and we toured for a couple of weeks in the summer. Many of the churches where we sang were not air-conditioned and those choir robes were heavy and hot. So the guys took of our dress shirt and just wore a tee shirt and trouser under the choir robe. The girls would take off their dresses and just wear full slips under their robes. (Remember slips people?) And this was a concert of sacred music in a church but survival was paramount.

Wow! That is a tiny graduating class! Must live in a little town, or maybe went to a private school.