Nov 13th 2009 08:38 am When I was a boy…
Happy Friday the 13th! To paraphrase something I saw in a cartoon long, long ago, I’ve never seen a Friday the 13th that could hold a candle to the average Monday. I was working yesterday and did not get to update the Web site, so to conclude the boyhood series, I’m throwing in another “two-fer.” How lucky can you get?
Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J
51 Responses to “When I was a boy…”
Bob on 13 Nov 2009 at 8:42 am #
Pretty dang lucky for a Friday. Thanks, Jimmy.
Brenty on 13 Nov 2009 at 8:44 am #
Ah, to be young again and roughouse and pick on the girl you had a crush on.
Ruth on 13 Nov 2009 at 9:12 am #
My mom always said Friday the 13th was a lucky day and I guess she was right. Two vintage strips today, the last day of classes for the quarter, and a birthday tomorrow. It doesn’t take much to make me happy.
I particularly like the first one of today’s vintage strips. Imagine how much worse it is when the eternal sermon is being given by your dad. But I solved the problem; it was a running joke among the regular attendees to see how long it took me to fall asleep during the sermon.
buzz on 13 Nov 2009 at 10:28 am #
The girl in the second strip reminds me of Adoo Annie in OKLAHOMA! “Everytime I lose a wrasslin’ match/I git a funny feelin’ that I won”
Jean from Dahlonega GA aka Trapper Jean on 13 Nov 2009 at 10:42 am #
Ruth-Happy Birthday!!
I was pretty lucky as a kid. The pastor of the church we attended gave short sermons. I can’t prove it, but I think some of the more influential members of our congregation had early afternoon tee times.
I’ve always had good luck on Friday the 13ths. At least so far nothing really bad has happened.
Bonnie on 13 Nov 2009 at 10:54 am #
I WAS the girl that played football with the boys. Ahh….Good times.
Bill in Paducah on 13 Nov 2009 at 11:02 am #
Happy Birthday Ruth!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_pUi3c2eII&feature=related
Symply Fargone on 13 Nov 2009 at 11:20 am #
Ok so I liked playing football with the girls too. Friday the 13th I seem to remember one in January in the Finger Lakes of NY delivering pies at Alfred University to the food hall. I can remember slipping on the wet floor and fallin ginto the pies. Covered with meringue and sick from the flu(they did not have a sub for me that day) I wen to my boss, who took one look at me and sent me home at 10 AM. I think I spen the rest of the day after my shower in bed. Now it’s an OK day in MA and I am Symply Fargone.
Sili on 13 Nov 2009 at 12:02 pm #
So Arlo’s not a Universal Unitarian?
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 13 Nov 2009 at 12:27 pm #
Now I know why Arlo likes to try to hike the ball from Janis all the time. My wife probably wishes, at times, that I was not so much like him as whenever she bends over like a center, I like to “call signals”. I try to all an audible, but I always get a delay of game penalty.
So what is do unlucky about Friday the 13th? You get to look forward to Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th.
Lori in Irmo, SC on 13 Nov 2009 at 1:31 pm #
So that’s what Janis looked like as a kid?
How DID Arlo and Janis meet, anyway?
sandcastler on 13 Nov 2009 at 2:05 pm #
Sili…. Maybe Southern Baptist?
John in LA late of PNS on 13 Nov 2009 at 2:33 pm #
Just like Tom Robbins in the book, _Still Life With Woodpecker_, Sundays are the worst day of the week for me. I’ll take a week of Friday the 13s. IMHO, Mondays are fine once you get to work and get on with it.
Arlo a Unitarian or Baptist?? I really kinda doubt it. I’d say either Pantheist, Nature Mystic, Deist, Agnotic, or Atheist. Somehow, though Unitarians are related, I can’t imagine him wasting a Sunday morning that way.
Jimmy Buffett calls the Roman Church his church home but if you read _A Pirate Looks at Fifty_ you would know he’s not ate up w/ all the myths of organized religion. I guess that’s why Jimmy B. is such a huge fan or Joseph Campbell and his series, The Power of Myth.
I could be wrong about Arlo of course, just my take on it.
Mary in Ohio on 13 Nov 2009 at 4:37 pm #
Ruth - happy birthday!
Yup - had some good co-ed football and baseball games in my long ago youth.
Mary in Ohio on 13 Nov 2009 at 4:38 pm #
Forgot to add - today’s new strip must be Arlo’s Dream!
curmudgeonly ex-professor on 13 Nov 2009 at 5:41 pm #
Ruth - yep, happy natal anniversary on the morrow!
My dad was a Lutheran minister and gave sermons which were usually of moderate length, sometimes a bit longer or a bit shorter. [Most of the time I stayed awake.] On one occasion when he had what I will term a “trainee” helping run the service, the trainee (afterwards) actually accused my dad of “withholding the Word from the people” because, on that Sunday, the sermon was of shorter length than usual. Apparently, the trainee had not yet realized that quality and not quantity is the measure of a sermon; if one can make the point in 10 minutes, there is no reason to go on for 25 minutes. I never knew what happened to that trainee….
Bob, near Mark on 13 Nov 2009 at 7:05 pm #
c ex-p,
That trainee probably became a politician, reversing your rule of thumb.
That just made me think of Al Capp’s character in his “Li’l Abner” strip - Senator Jack S. Phogbound. Al Capp is another cartoonist long missed. I looked forward to his sometimes forays into the world of Fearless Fosdick.
Rex from TX on 13 Nov 2009 at 7:19 pm #
c ex-p, your dad was quite right. As a man on a mission to get Christians to read the Bible for themselves, I find that I can learn more in a quality 20 minute service, than in some of the hour and a quarter services I have sat through.
Mark in Boston on 13 Nov 2009 at 8:35 pm #
Somewhere in the most rural part of Vermont there lived an old couple named Ebenezer and Rachel. They went to church every Sunday morning, but one Sunday Rachel was sick and stayed home. When Eben returned she asked him, “What was the sermon about?”
“Sin.”
“What did the preacher say?”
“He was against it.”
Mark in Boston on 13 Nov 2009 at 8:40 pm #
Another time when his wife was sick, Eben went to church by himself and found that he was the only one in the congregation that day. The preacher went through the service and when it came time for the sermon said, “Eben, I’ve prepared a sermon but since there’s only you today, do you want me to give it?”
Eben said, “Well, sir, it’s up to you. I’m just a simple hog farmer. But I’ll tell you, if I went out to slop the hogs one morning and only one little piglet came up to be fed, wal, I’d feed that little piglet.”
Somehow this inspired the pastor and he not only gave the sermon, he extemporized on it for a full hour and a half and gave the best sermon of his life.
After the service he asked Eben how he liked the sermon.
“Well, sir, I’m just a simple hog farmer. But I’ll tell you, if I went out to slop the hogs one morning and only one little piglet came up to be fed, wal, I wouldn’t give him the whole bucket of slop all to hisself.”
spot on 13 Nov 2009 at 10:45 pm #
most businessmen and politicians are interchangeable aren’t they?
debbie on 14 Nov 2009 at 12:22 pm #
I love the way little Arlo’s hair is plastered down with water (obviously) to keep the cowlick down, the pants bunched at the ankles and the nose seems just a touch too large for the face…………..I keep wondering if you are drawing from a REAL Arlo……………..
Jim in SE Mississippi on 15 Nov 2009 at 7:37 pm #
While we’re on the subject, I’ll clear this one out of my old-jokes bin:
Man goes to doctor, complains of snoring problem. In an attempt to determine how bad the problem is, doctor asks, “Does it disturb your wife?”
Man answers, “Of course it disturbs my wife! It disturbs everyone in the church!”
I hope everyone had a great weekend and that the weather where you were was at least half as nice as it was here in SE Mississippi.
Jeff in Ann Arbor on 15 Nov 2009 at 10:39 pm #
Today’s (Sunday) NY Times crossword 113 down clue, “Janis’s comic strip hubby.” Hooray! I knew that answer!
Laetitia in Australia on 16 Nov 2009 at 5:00 am #
My birthday falls on the 13th (February) - I turned 13 on a Friday, I grew up in a house with the number 169 (13 x 13) and before I married my full name, including middle names had 26 letters - 13 for the 1st two and 13 for the last two. I can’t afford to be superstitious.
debbie on 16 Nov 2009 at 6:00 am #
I’ll tell ya’ll somethin’ sad as sad can be: Waiting for the new/old strip and the comments made by the ones who sit/wait beside their keyboards……….
sandcastler on 16 Nov 2009 at 8:29 am #
Jeff, was thecorrect answer ‘Frank’ or “Ernest” ???
John in Richmond Texas on 16 Nov 2009 at 9:27 am #
Saturday 11/14. Janis - feed him breakfast first, he’ll feel more like brushing his teeth; but really Arlo, isn’t Janis worth it?
There’s a euphemism for you - “let’s brush our teeth”.
Leary on 16 Nov 2009 at 1:04 pm #
Ok Jimmy… where are you? It’s Monday. We need for you to spread a little joy and give us some new topics to get de-railed on.
sideburns on 16 Nov 2009 at 1:27 pm #
For all of you who have a “thing” about Friday the Thirteenth, consider this: in Mexico, the unlucky day is Tuesday the Thirteenth. Now, you can have a “thing” about two different days. Aren’t I generous?
Mary in Ohio on 16 Nov 2009 at 4:31 pm #
Jim in SE MI - our weather here in NE Ohio has been spectacular too - until today, when we are back to November. But we have had the sense to enjoy it while it lasted!
Jeff in Ann Arbor on 16 Nov 2009 at 8:20 pm #
I had Sunday wool slacks like those. They were so scratchy! It’s as though they were made of steel wool.
I wonder what modern miracle process has rendered wool itchless, as I don’t have that problem now with wool, but I can still remember fidgeting in church with my grandma sitting next to me trying to keep me still.
Sandcastler - the answer was only four letters, so I figured it was Opus. Now if only I can make the rest fit.
Bob, near Mark on 16 Nov 2009 at 11:09 pm #
No, folks, you’re not going back far enough into comicstripdom. The answer is either “Mutt” or “Jeff.” It couldn’t be “Pogo,” that is unless Janis turns into a squirrel again.
Wait, what if… Oola?
K in ND on 17 Nov 2009 at 10:09 am #
Bob, Bob, Bob…Ooola is spelled with 3 Os.
Gee…look a little closer!
John in Richmond Texas on 17 Nov 2009 at 10:17 am #
Has everyone Googled all the Holley Avenues in Alabama yet?
Bob, near Mark on 17 Nov 2009 at 10:39 am #
K in ND,
Sorry, I must have been thinking of that town down near New Orleans - Oola, LA.
K in ND on 17 Nov 2009 at 11:24 am #
Bob-
S’okay. I’m not entirely sure if you were referring to the Alley Oop character or not.
And I’m still not sure if you’re joking about oo lah lah. I’ll have to go look it up sometime.
K
Bob, near Mark on 17 Nov 2009 at 11:45 am #
K in ND,
S’okay. I’m never entirely sure if I’m joking or not, either. :>)
As to the spelling of Oola - Oop’s, my mistake.
And judging by the current story line in Alley Oop, it may soon be “Ooola Oop.” Although, if she does take that name, she may be subject to a trademark infringement suit by the Wham-O Corporation claiming they also own the rights to the Cockney pronunciation of their toy product’s name.
sandcastler on 17 Nov 2009 at 12:37 pm #
Jeff in Ann Arbor…..
I believe the wool is still that itchy; it is my 60+ plus years of living that has toughened up the old hide.
Yes, it tis more fun to do the crossword out of the box; besides who needs an over-developed vocabulary to text or twitter.
Mark in Boston on 17 Nov 2009 at 2:25 pm #
Jeff and sandcastler:
I think it depends if the wool is worsted or not. My worsted wool suits are not at all itchy and don’t feel like wool sweaters or wool blankets.
Speaking of wool blankets, does anyone know where I can buy some? All I can find at the stores are those acrylic things.
Mary in Ohio on 17 Nov 2009 at 5:22 pm #
Mark in Boston - I’m sure some of those wilderness equipment stores sell wool blankets (LL Bean included) as all my cousins are great outdoors people and they all swear by wool blankets, so I am sure they are stil available somewhere.
Maraloon on 17 Nov 2009 at 6:04 pm #
Mark in Boston–you might try JC Penney for wool blankets.
David on 17 Nov 2009 at 7:54 pm #
My association with wool blankets was trying to get the bunk made tightly enough to bounce a quarter. The drill sergeant was fairly insistent…
Mark in Boston (I didn’t look at J.C. Penny, but probably good advice):
Green: http://www.armysurplusworld.com/product.asp?ProductID=10121
Blue: http://www.armysurplusworld.com/product.asp?ProductID=10122
Really soft in several sizes and colors:
http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Vicky-Premium-Italian-Merino-Lambswool-Blanket/3108755/product.html
Jean from Dahlonega GA aka Trapper Jean on 18 Nov 2009 at 5:50 am #
Gentlemen, wool slacks might be itchy, but try sitting through a sermon in an unairconditioned church while wearing organdy dresses with crinolines. My mother made me wear those when I was little, and nothing itched worse than those crinolines.
Leary on 18 Nov 2009 at 7:37 am #
Jean from Dahlonega…
Ok, I’ll bite… What are crinolines?
Dave in MA on 18 Nov 2009 at 7:54 am #
From wikipedia, “Crinoline was originally a stiff fabric with a weft of horse-hair and a warp of cotton or linen thread. The fabric first appeared around 1830, but by 1850 the word had come to mean a stiffened petticoat or rigid skirt-shaped structure of steel designed to support the skirts of a woman’s dress into the required shape.”
HC on 18 Nov 2009 at 9:20 am #
Crinolines — what we wore as little girls to make the skirts on our pretty little dresses stick out … per my equally old Websters “a stiff cloth -originally made of horsehair and linen thread used as a stiffening and as a lining” — and you guys were complaining about your itchy wool suits.
You should have tried to sit down like a lady wearing the crinoline — the back side squished down, the front side popped up … ’nuff said.
Jean from Dahlonega GA aka Trapper Jean on 18 Nov 2009 at 11:11 am #
Leary and Dave-crinolines now-a-days are made from nylon netting sewn onto an elastic waistband. The cut edges of the netting itched and scratched tender skin and caused much discomfort.
HC-the only things worse to try to sit down in than crinolines are hoop skirts. You don’t so much sit down as you perch on the edge of the chair. Between hoops and crinolines it’s no wonder I’ve spent my adult life in blue jeans.
Mary in Ohio on 18 Nov 2009 at 5:06 pm #
As Jean neglected to point his out I will add : the same kind of nylon netting they make those non-scratch pot scrubbers out of, just to give you an idea of HOW comfortable they are. They don’t scratch the pots, I mean.
Another reason to come to Wadsworth next summer for drive-in movies and Bidinger’s (or Strickland’s - they have a branch store) frozen custard: you can take a short detour to Medina to Whitey’s Army/Navy surplus store, an institution since it was actually WWII surplus.
Ghost Rider 6 on 18 Nov 2009 at 7:27 pm #
A lady of my acquaintance once told me that when she’d been a bit younger, she’d “had a rack you could bounce a quarter off of,” but since she’d never been in the military, I don’t think she was referring to a GI bunk bed.
Speaking of things that aren’t what they sound like, did you know that the term “Norfolk broads” has nothing to do with bawdy women who live in the vicinity of Norfolk, VA?
Mary in Ohio on 19 Nov 2009 at 4:46 pm #
And let’s not even begin to discuss Rocky Mountain Oysters/