For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 01, 2009

Is this about flatulence?

Elly is just feeling guilty about being caught not paying attention again, even though it’s many years on!

It’s funny how all those old feelings can come flooding back. I woke up one morning, freaking out about not having finished an assignment that was due first thing that same morning. Then, once I woke up properly, I remembered that I had actually left school over 10 years ago. xD

For some reason, I keep on dreaming these days of being back in high school…and it’s not any high school I’ve ever been in. I’m always wondering if I’m overlooking some class on my schedule, getting lost in the halls, thinking I’m way older than the other kids…none of which was ever a problem in real life. Must be symbolic of something.

I sometimes wonder what the hell some of my school mates are doing, or even if they are still alive; I finished high school in 1955

It might feel the same, but there have been changes, especially for the teachers. Back in the day, there was a dress code. Male teachers were required to wear suits and their female colleagues were not allowed to wear pants.

Openwings and Rakkav: I have those same dreams occasionally. What a relief to wake up! I just enrolled in my first college class in many years. The teacher uses PowerPoint now, and the boards are white, not black. I’m the only one who doesn’t have a backpack and wears long pants. I do my homework on an internet site and it automatically goes to the teacher. The textbook would have cost over $200 if I’d bought it new, and it’s full of color diagrams and sidebars. I am loving it.

This comic takes place in Canada and she should’ve said grade one not first grade. I keep making that mistake myself since being here.

Rakkav - It sounds like a classic stress dream that you are having, like the one I had last night and have infrequently. I am back at a job that I had years ago and nothing is going right and I keep getting further and further in trouble.

If I passed my best high school buddy on the street, I’d call the Ghost Hunters, since he’s been dead for over 20 years.

I don’t know if I’d recognize my high school sweetheart. I sometimes wonder how she’s doing, but so far the only way I have of trying to drop her a note is through Classmates.com, and their messaging system stinks on ice. It’s definitely not worth paying their prices for.

one big difference, when my son was starting 1st grade, no smell of mimeograph paper in the hallway

Hey Hoomi -

Classmates.com does stink. I gave up trying to get a message to an old high school friend.

Switch to facebook! Get your profile going, put up a picture and do a search under your school and year to start. You’ll be more successful that way. I was! Found my high school friend in 5 minutes instead of the year + through the other.

Funny, but I got thinking about my 7th grade last night, dreaming as I fell asleep that I was attending my 50th anniversary grade school reunion. I had decided to skip my 25th reunion even though I already had tickets years ago … mainly because a girlfriend wouldn’t go with me and she was from same school.

Didn’t Elly go to grade school in Vancouver ? She is raising her family outside of Toronto (where she went to college and met John). How can she recognize the room where she is sitting ?

Hey, Cleokaya, well said.

Doctor Toon, I went to my 50th H.S. in 2000. Surprisingly out of over 100, there were 3 whom were still very recognisable. As for the rest of us, “who are you?”

For nastalgia reasons I hated to see the old beautiful North Central building (built about 1917) being replaced by a new one, but it is indeed very nice. Time moves on.

Susan001: If a majority of us are crazy, that means we’re the normal ones and the other ones are crazy. Doesn’t it?

Every September I have this dream– There are three versions of it. First version: I am in high school, and I’m late for the first day of school, actually several days late, and I don’t know where to go. Second version: I’m in college, and I have missed every day of the term up until finals, and I know I’m gonna flunk! Third version: I’m a teacher, and I have missed the first month of school, and I’m afraid I’m gonna be fired.

Pretty transparent, huh? I taught school (HS) for thirty years.

When I was in college, I’d constantly dream that I was back in high school and forgot my locker combinations (had a regular locker and one for phys. ed).

Then, after I was out of college (8+ years ago), the dreams were of me in college… it was first semester finals (December), and I had completely forgotten about one of my classes all semester… never attended even once. Needless to say, the worry was the “F” I’d get!

I’m glad to finally know I’m not the only one having those types of dreams! :-)

It’s amazing how memories of grade scholl flood back when we return to the school. And the dreams keep coming back too.

Being late, forgeting to wear clothes or not finding any to wear, all kinds of things happen in dreamland.

Does that look like Michael to you in the second panel? I know it’s supposed to be him, but he looks like a different boy. I wish Elly’s nose would stop growing ; ^ )

Ok, someones going to have to explain this to me. I stopped reading the strip a few years back, for whatever reason, and recently restarted. Why does the mom still have little kids? They should have grown up seeing as how the strip moves in real time.

Mr Roberts

The strip is in “new run” mode. Basically, the author reset the ages to the beginning of the strip so Mike and Liz are little now. It’s to fix things in the past or something.

Thanks monkeys, now why is it everyone calls me mr?

I can identify with all of you who have had recurring dreams about returning to school, and there is some consolation in knowing that I am not the only one who has had them. In my dreams, I know that I have finished high school; but for some reason I am taking classes again (I graduated with honors, so it is not that I have to repeat the grades). I arrive at school, one where I have never been before, and go to class only to find that I don’t have the required text book and have not done the homework. I go to my locker but can’t open it as I don’t know the combination (I never had a locker at any of the schools I attended. That dates me, doesn’t it?) If anyone has an explanation for these dreams or knows what they symbolize, please let me know! Are they stress-related as cleokaya suggests?

Wow. I have never had the school dream. I never realized before how odd that is.