Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for November 08, 2009

Dang, Calvin stole my punch line!

I’ve done that. Ouch!

“Lest we forget”

Ladie and Gentlemen! I give you, Calvin the Human Slinky.

I know it’s Fall for many but it’s Spring in Oz. Either way, this is good timing.

I used to ride a toboggan down the steps.

He’s going to make one heck of a gymnast when he gets to high school….assuming, of course, he survives long enough.

For our youngest, her stair nemesis was her older sister who just didn’t remember to close the baby gate. But the only time she fell down the stairs, she’d actually walked all the way down and was coming back up. She got halfway when my wife saw her and cried out in parental terror. The shocked look on my wife’s face, scared my daughter and she slipped and tumbled back to the bottom.

Considering the number of 2-story houses built in the 19th and early 20th century, how did our population EVER survive and grow without baby gates? And fans. Have you ever seen an oscillating fan made in the ’30s or ’40s ? The cage on them consisted of about 6 or 8 wires around them. Now, how come there aren’t more 50- to 80-year-olds with more stubs than fingers? I never once stuck my fingers into a fan (from the back of it; the front just pushes you back like out like the wind).

Calvin is feisty enough , but slinky ? No , under aged .

Not funny!

It appears that Calvin saw Susie from the top of the stairs and fell head over heels (in love with her)!

Hey Dad, Calvin was right about the elevator. From the looks of frame 4 they don’t have a banister next to the stairs either. It looks to me like they want the kid to fall and die.

Here we can bye a rubber spiral, that makes such motions. I hope it doesn’t meen, Calvin has fallen on his head and is out of his spirit!

My cousins and I would use card board boxes to slide down the stairs… Also we would dare each other to see how many steps (top to bottom) we could jump at a time… Good times oh yes.

LXO13 That’s “buy” - not bye, as in good bye.

Eventually, Calvin will learn how to land on his feet.

As a child I discovered bannisters can break

I’d like to see my cat try this trick.

At this rate, he will be completely retarded before his eleventh birthday.

Stairs build character!….and scar tissue.

Bought a two story house with a winding staircase. The first things the (then) young boys did was get their pillows and attempt to slide down those stairs. They would run into the wall at the turn. Today my oldests grandkids slide down his stairs.

I have come close to falling down the stairs many times and think about the consequences every once and awhile. As you get older the thoughts of the results of falling make one extra careful.

BC13 Thank you for “buy”! to land on feet is better than on head, and to lern this is important!

Did anyone actually get their Slinky to go descend the stairs the way the ad showed? I never could!

Years ago parents told their children no and slapped their hands if they touched something dangerous. When my mom would first turn on the heat in the winter she would take us each in turn and lightly touch a finger to the radiator so that we would understand that it was hot. Can’t do either one of those today or you will be arrested for Child abuse.

Six year olds don’t need baby gates. By the time they are six most kids know how to walk up and down stairs. I was accident prone when it came to stairs. One time I fell down the cellar stairs. My dad came running over and asked if I was OK. I held up my arm and said “I broke my watch.”

The poor kid is lying there in a rubbery heap and SHE has to ASK?!!

Move over, Spring Man!

celecca, Yes my slinkies worked. For stairs the old metal ones worked much better than the new plastic–more inertial mass to push past the next ledge. Also, wood stairs are best, definately no carpet–adds too much resistance.

celecca: yes. You really need one of the original metal slinkies. The plastic ones will still do it but not as well or as reliably. (My son loves to do this. He will start two at the top of the stairs and watch them race.) I should add that it doesn’t do so well on heavily carpeted stairs.

It’s a new style of slinky.

My boys worked out this Take a dresser drawer empty it put your brother or sister in it and push Watch for Mom Dad or a baby sitter

Yup, a metal slinky works best. Have one sitting on my mantel just in case I need to play. (My youngest is 28) Sliding down the banister was much more fun than falling down the stairs.

Doctor Toon - Falling up stairs depends on the amount of alcohol ingested.

I HAD a metal slinky - I don’t think plastic had been invented ;) I think it was the steepness - or lack of it - of the stairs. Once it went two whole steps and I ran to our neighbor’s house to brag to my friends.

Thanks for the tips. I’ll have to get a new old Slinky and try again.

I have an etch-a-sketch and magnets on my desk, and I’m old enough to have a 28 year old kid. Nothing wrong with play at any age!

celecca - I also had a metal slinky and it worked perfectly. I was very anal about my toys and kept them in immaculate condition. It really upset me when a small neighbor kid put a kink in my slinky.

LOL, that sounds twisted.

Hobbes: Oooooh, looks like SOMEONE’s falling for Susie! Calvin: Shut up, you miserable bunch of stripey orange flea bait!

Slinxy I meant!

Slinky, slinky, slinky!

Strange way to go upstairs!

Considering what we didn’t have to protect us as we were growing up (ie bike helmets, knee pads, warnings on every single plastic bag in existence-even the one holding our milk duds,seat belts that we actually wore) it’s a wonder that the whole human race isn’t extinct;at least by today’s standards. I will say however that a staircae without banisters is scarey. Ever go down one before?

James One of my buddies has a house designed that way with no banister to the upstairs. Even as a mature adult, I find it scary and very unsafe.

James, I agree. How did some of us live to tell about when life was more fun.

James, the stairs to the basement in my grandfather’s house had no bannister. I was petrified every time I went down there. Although, come to think of it, that could have been his way of keeping the kids out of the basement. My metal slinky always worked best on concrete steps.