For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 19, 2024

At age 4, she’s too young to know about the Disney park, less where it is. She’s talking about the one in Florida but the original is in California. Heck there are parks all over the globe now.

There is a park in northern Ohio, right next to the lake. Cedar something, I think. They could stop there.

Through Minnesota, Lake Michigan, Detroit, then Toronto. I remember this story from back when it was originally published. Lynn Johnston does amazing research on each location and the Patterson kids learn a lot from each place. It’s a fabulous story. I just hope they reprint the comic strips in all their detail.

See they are going to take the southern route.

A long road trip around Northern US with a 4-year old in tow? John and Elly are fools!

I remember a story online about vacation disasters. OPs parents decided to drive from Ohio to Disney in Florida. Dad didn’t bother to make a reservation for the night they would be on the road, he said they could just find a hotel when they got tired. Might have worked at any other time, but he didn’t think about a little thing called the Atlanta Olympics. When he was ready to stop for the night, there wasn’t a hotal room available for 200 miles.

Their loan for the funds were denied by the bank.

I live in the Anointed States? Cool.

Yes

Save your money kid. It isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Disneyland opened a month before my 11th birthday, and having watched the Disneyland TV show for the past year, I was in a fever to go (we lived just a half-hour drive away). I finally got to go on my birthday (just as well—there were some opening-day glitches that needed working out). In college my roommate and I would save our pennies (literally—I cashed in about a dozen penny rolls for one trip) and take 3 busses from Riverside to Anaheim to spend a glorious day. And in the 1990s I began taking my niece whenever she visited, following my usual adult pattern—up at 5 AM, drive from Ventura, get to the park before the gates opened, hit all the popular rides in the morning while the crowds were thinner, then eat lunch and stroll and take in the less popular rides (particularly ones where you got to sit down someplace cool). We’d stay until the park closed … but the drive home was a monumental struggle to stay awake! (I always managed to make it safely). Sadly, it’s too expensive and crowded nowadays, and there are too many thrill rides now, which this aged and motion-sick-prone body can no longer handle, so I stay home, watch “How Disney Changed the World” on the History Channel and reminisce about the “good old days” when Disneyland and I were both young.

visit both grandparents in two different cities and then sightsee in detroit — what a vacation!

Anointed States? LOL

Disney World? On a working man’s salary?! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!! Yeah… dream on, kid!

Going through Minnesota? Be sure and eat some lutefisk.

Sure, why not? Florida is on the way.

Ahhh. The southern route. Wave as you pass through the Twin Cities on I-94.

No offense, but you’d rather go to Detroit rather than California? No wonder the girl was upset

Not even close, Kid!

Here’s today’s Fun Fact…all the Disney Parks have “Vomit Squads” on the ready at all times. Just what it sounds like, some kid barfs and they’re on the ball. Cleaning it up straight away. Must be a swell job.

The parks have discrete doors, you don’t know they’re there, which are part of the parks’ behind the scenes maintenance facilities. When security detects a Vomit Event , the team goes to work.

You’ve been indoctrinated enough, you don’t need disney.

Figured April’s parents would be laughing at their daughter for saying something cute. Instead they looked shocked in the last panel.

Geez this trip is too long!

“Prior to and during the World War 2 years, a child’s life revolved around school and chores. As soon as you got basic motor skills, in most cases you were put to work helping out on the family farm. That started to change in the 1950s. Walt Disney invented childhood as we know it, and Dick Clark invented the teenager.” -Andrew Wilkow

That is one HECK of a drive they’re talking about doing!!!

Taking the long scenic route huh! Why not just drive across Canada back to Mississauga and what’s in Toronto?

Going to see a little bit of Wisconsin, then through the UP. Maybe see some copper mines, Tahquahmenon Falls, the Mighty Mac. So much!

My family moved to Orlando the summer I turned 11 in 1955. I graduated college in Orlando then moved away in 1970 before Disney opened. My sisters still live in the Orlando area and I am amazed at the changes when I visit them. Some changes, but not all, were positive. I’ve been to Disney World 3 or 4 times and have no desire to return.

Disney World. DISNEY WORLD!!! You don’t want to go to no stinking Disney World April. You want to go to Wally World.

I found out long ago

(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

It’s a long way down the Holiday Road

(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

Holiday Road

Holiday Road

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick

(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

Take a ride on a West Coast kick

(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

Holiday Road

Holiday Road

Holiday Road

Holiday Road

I found out long ago

(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

It’s a long way down the Holiday Road

(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

Holiday Road

Holiday Road

Holiday Road

Holiday Road

Take him to Detroit!

No!!! Not Detroit!

U2B : bVDDYQlmq0w

No, April, not this time.

Stop at Valleyfair, Wisconsin Dells, Navy Pier, lots to do.

Isn’t she older than 4 by now?

Someone please remind me where this family lives.

The answer to that last question should be a resoudnig NO. Addictive tourist trap. Too much to see in this world without letting life revolve around a cartoon mouse.

They could always go to Wally World instead…

No Disneyland, Minnesota will substitute.

Imagine a strip where the Patterson car is driving through a ghetto in Detriot.

John: Elly, I do not like the looks of this neighborhood.

Elly: Come on John, it is important for Elizabeth and April to witness the struggle.

THE BIG TEST—How many times can you listen to “It’s A Small,Small World” in a row before you lose your mind?

Well they could stop at Greenfield Village in Dearborn before they get to Detroit. Better than Disney World’s Liberty Square!

Anointed states?

Are we there yet…..;-) Have a good week chilluns !

Stop at Mall Of America.

The Anointed States… too funny.

If only it was in the north, huh, kid?

Sometimes I think I am the only American that has never been to a Disney Theme Park or any other type of amusement or theme park. Nor have I ever really wanted to. Just seems to be too many long lines, bad food, and crowds to make it worth the while.

They have TV’s in Canada. I am sure the Mouse House advertises there. My four year old grandson has never been to Disney (any of them) but he knows Mickey Mouse and Disney.

April’s kind of earned it, having had to spend a week each in two different FOGEYLANDS!

April’s kind of earned it, having had to spend a week each in two different FOGEYLANDS!

They SHOULD have detoured to one of the Disney parks. It wasn’t so greedy with admission and food souvenir prices back then.

When I went to Disneyland for the last time in 1992 it was $32 admission. That would be $71 today but in reality it’s closer to double that now. The food and drink products also rose much faster than inflation. Buying up and tearing down all of the nearby cheaper motels I use to stay at doesn’t help. They also stopped the free shuttles to the park and make people pay to ride now.

Disney Corp sees it all as a money-making machine now instead of a family park and only wishes to please stockholders with the maximum possible profit. I gave up going when they started the FAST PASS scam to let people wealthier than I cut in line ahead of me. Never again.

Walt’s dream died long ago.

Who needs it?

August 21,2024—-front page of NEW YORK TIMES

“Go To Disney,Then Into Debt”