For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 04, 2024

I don’t know the outcome of this arc, so please don’t ruin it for me and anyone else that doesn’t know.

SPOILER ALERT: I’m gonna fill my grandkids with sugary snacks and then send them back to their parents.

When I was just slightly older than a baby, but hardly a toddler even, and only just able to walk, my Grandma was (supposedly) looking after me at her house in a busy inner suburb one afternoon, while she was preparing dinner for us. Mum, Dad, and Grandpa were still at work, I think (this was about late 1945).I got bored waiting for Mum to come home, so decided to surprise her and meet her on her way, and quite confidently (without telling Grandma, I presume) let myself out the gate in the back garden, into the laneway that ran along behind the house to the local shopping centre in the main road (complete with trams, as well as motor vehicle traffic).I knew the area fairly well from previous shopping trips, so wasn’t at all concerned, and happily wandered along the footpath (sidewalk) outside the shops, enjoying my adventure. Strangely enough, no-one stopped me, or asked if I was lost (I doubt that I could talk much anyway).What do you know, I found Mum—she had been doing a little shopping on the way home. She told me years later that she nearly had a fit to see me by myself in the traffic and crowds of the evening rush period. She carried me home and roasted Grandma, who wasn’t aware that I had gone, apparently. I wasn’t worried, and can remember most of this little activity.

I believe that everyone who had followed this strip in the papers (and even some who didn’t) know what’s gonna happen.

Why must poor, old Farley have to be the one to keep tabs on that reckless brat? Are her parents THAT self-centered??

Time to stop reading for awhile

This arc broke my heart

Spoiler alert from Lynn’s comments, so don’t read my reply on this comment if you don’t want to know more.

Oh shi*!

Now, how could that have possibly gotten there?

Maybe if she hadn’t found that boat, she wouldn’t have had the idea to do what she did next.

I never liked April. This is only the start of why.

Be careful April

And the dread mounts….

Maybe should’ve taken her to swimming lessons after all. We don’t deserve dogs.

Comic strip characters get old? Snoopy has been around longer than this strip and he is still active!

I will skip this comic for a few days

April is certainly a loud kid. I seem to remember young MIchael and Elizabeth as kids who were not inclined to go about outdoors yelling things. You would think her parents would track her based on sound alone.

All I can say is I may sit it out. Been there, done that, don’t wanna re-do that. Great story, so enjoy.

It will ruin you all by itself

Uh oh. I see the start of the most heart wrenching arc in the entire strip.

From the beginning, you know the end…

Remember the scene from the Saint Bernard movie BEETHOVEN?

The little girl is drowning in the swimming pool and the pooch breaks through a fence, jumps a couple of backyards,and rescues her?

I’ll see you guys in a few weeks. I’m taking a “spoiler” break (yes, I read it the first time, years ago!).

That’s how it worked when I was a kid.

Oh boy, skipping this one for a week.

I learned it as “Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers”.

Since we’re here, CAN WE CHANGE HISTORY? … please?

Having never read this before, I know where this is going :(

Those looking to avoid spoilers should probably stay out of the comments for awhile because you KNOW somebody will spoil this arc. Those who actually want spoilers can read ahead – today’s strip can be found on April 6, 1995.

Okay, I’m going to bow out for a few days. I don’t want to see this arc ever again.

I was wrong, looks like this might be the story arc that no one wants to see. :(

aaaaahhhh

arrrrg… let’s just skip it and fast forward …….