For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 25, 2023

Okay…..If you say so!

Don’t bet on it, Mike—I remember how it was when I was thinking the same thing at the same age. Adulthood was still a hazy vision on a far, far horizon.

Looks like Teddy is making a run for it.

You never really outgrow stuffed animals. I still have a few around and I’m past 60. No reason for Mike to be embarrassed but he will probably hide it from his roommates just in case they razz him about it.

I still have my original Thumbelina doll with the wooden wind up key. Thing 1 still has her Puffalump. Thing 2 still has her Lovey even though she has a daughter of her own now. You never outgrow your confidant,/comforter.

I remember my college roommate had her teddy bear with her. I even remember his name was Sebastion!

No,he is not leaving his childhood behind. I was told I had the wrong attitude and would starve in two weeks if I left high school.A few years after doing that I met three remarkable American women who had chosen to live in Canada. From them I learned the concept we call childhood is a recent invention. Traditionally infant were viewed as adult minds in small bodies. The concept of childhood is one few outgrow. There is no magic moment where we become an adult. This is the main reason we are in such a state of chaos. We have full grown people in positions of power who are still children. For more read everything by John Taylor Gatto.

So in panel 4 Mike has a live pet monkey that he is taking with him to uni?

I can just imagine how his roommates are going to love that!

Sorry Mike, but something peeks out of your backpack that says your childhood isn’t left behind!

For me, college was just a new chapter. Part II didn’t begin until I reached a point where going back home was no longer an option.

The point is not to leave childhood behind, but to find our place in adulthood. I would say by that measure Gordon is well ahead of Michael.

hellyeh! i packed my favorite pipe! dude!

You can leave your childhood behind, but you don’t have to leave all of it. Most people don’t in fact.

Wonder if Rubber Ducky is packed inside that backpack?

At least a little of your childhood always goes with you.

Look forward to the future. Appreciate the past.

Panel 2: Liz looks like somebody ate her Treacle. Panel 4: Radar O’Reilly goes off to Korea.

Tether bear

I visited London and took 2 small stuffed animal turtles. They were on the top of everything in my carry-on bag and smiled up at whomever opened the bag. Back then all the inspector did was laugh and set them aside, (they didn’t xray your bags back then).

My teddy bear came to college with me. And almost everywhere since. He’s in my bed right now. I intend for him to be in my casket.

So Liz got home in time to give him his backpack.

You’re giving up a big space for a room so small your outstretched arms will touch both adjacent walls. And you’re roommate will be a jerk

Well, duh! You NEED your bear!

I see that Superteddy is going along to keep an eye on Mike.

Sadly, I lost my childhood stuffed friends in a hurricane, but my boys bought me a stuffed Lemur at the zoo about 18 years ago and he is on the bedside table every night.

Glad that Mike isn’t sore at Liz re the knapsack.

Few of us that had childhoods don’t take some of it along with us throughout our entire lives……

I still have my Teddy too ;-)

Don’t judge, Liz. Superteddy is a treasured memory for Mike.

I t appears that many of us have fond memories of our childhood teddy bears. I was about 5 years old when I fell down our front brick steps and got a bloody bump on my head. That night, my father won me a panda teddy bear at the annual town carnival and I got mercurochrome stains on it. I had that bear for many years, stains and all. I am 2 weeks away from my 85th birthday. I wish I still had that bear. Mercurochrome stains and all.

I did the same thing. Took my favorite stuffed animal with me, maybe a few of them.

ORIENTATION—-that’s when they spend a week telling you things they just as easily could have told you over the telephone

Michael of the Wimpattersons

For many, civilian colleges are a continuation of adolesence. If Michael wants to become a man, he should enlist or go to a military academy.

Elizabeth went camping with the Enjos? Did they have cat-kabobs?

When I went to college, I had a little lamb clipped onto my backpack. I met one of my good friends when she started playing with it in a freshman orientation line. =)

The stuffed toy in the bag is good enough to keep to grounded to your childhood, fella. Be a child while you face the challenges in the world and you won’t regret.

Sure thing Michael.