For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 22, 2023

You think that, Mike, but once you’re immersed in the college life, you will forget home. Forget parents. Forget little sisters. Forget Farley. Forget Lawrence, Brian and Gordon. Maybe even Rhetta. Until it is come to come home, and suddenly there they are and you’ll be excited for the reunions – except maybe Rhetta.

From the look on Mike’s face in panel 4, Aypo’s bear must be stuffed with rocks.

My brother and I squabbled continuously, even when we left home we had our “disagreements”. Decades on, I went to his inquest a couple of days ago – one of the saddest days of my life.

Sometimes I think back to when my brothers and I were growing up and wish for those days back just for a while.

My brother had done that to me when we were around their ages.

Aypo to the rescue! WoC (Weapon of Choice): Bunny Wabbit!

My son lived at college for 2 years and returned when covid moved it all online. First year was a dorm, second year he shared a house. He left a kid and returned an adult. Best education. One year in a dorm is a stairstep for independence – not throwing them entirely in the deep end all at once. I asked him once what he missed most from home – he said the fast and dependable internet. LOL

What a bad brother!

After college I never went back to my hometown

It’s strange what things you miss…

I came from a family of 11 us kids and one bath room………….

Like how April, on the other end of the couch, ‘whaps’ Michael with her teddy bear siding with her sister—-‘Sisterhood Forever’ ! ! ! !

Ah, Michael being Michael again. Is there a bigger a-hole in the entire comics world?

The realization that things will never be the same again. Life moves on and the games of the past become fond memories, only to be held but never played again.

A real masochist.

I love all the sanctimonious commenters who apparently had apparently never had fun growing up while messing with their siblings.

Reminds me of this one, where Michael went to a new school.

Lawrence: Our first day of high school. Talk about a change.

Upperclassmen look downwards toward Michael and Lawrence

Michael: I am glad to be done with elementary school. Away from all the little kids!

The girls look gigantic

Lawrence: Something tells me we are the little kids!

Careful! You could seriously injure someone’s back that way.

Mike started it by using the hated “Lizardbreath”. Liz escalated by telling him she wouldn’t move. (I probably would have said the same to my kid brother.) Sitting on her which could potentially cause a serious back injury is going too far. A lot of the earlier strips had the “fight cloud” when Mike & Liz got physical in their abuse of each other. Perhaps that’s what he’s “going to miss”.

Three of my siblings “left” at the same time. Actually my parents and I (aged 12) moved to another state. Two of my older siblings had been attending junior college in our hometown, and moved on to college in yet another state. My next older sister stayed behind to attend her final year of high school.

So my “family” went from four kids to just one all at the same time. I hadn’t made new friends yet, and was so incredibly lonely without my siblings. It was the worst year of my life.

A real brother would then follow with a toot!