I Remember Danny and the Dinosaur
As a young lad, I remember Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff both when I was young and as a parent. As a parent, I discovered that a lot of times, when I opened up the old classic children’s books to read to my children, I was oftentimes temporarily overwhelmed by the images and words which I knew intimately as a child, but had not encountered for 30 years or more. There were a whole series of emotions which would flood back into my memory at the first reading, and I was surprised by how much was packed into those books, in terms of the way I thought about them in my youth. After a few readings, I would be back to being a jaded parent enjoying the books on their own merits from my adult perspective.
Danny and the Dinosaur has one particular section in it where Danny has a birthday party and the Dinosaur helps him entertain his guests. As an adult reading this story, I was taken by something that I had not recognized, but realized was the standard for birthday parties when I was growing up, i.e. Danny’s mom and dad have a huge number of kids over to their house for the birthday party and there are no other adults there aside from Danny’s parents. As I read this book, I remembered that it had been the same for my birthday parties, when I was growing up. My mom handled whole piles of kid all by herself.
My kids are 10 and 12 now, and they have yet to have a birthday party where at least one of the parents of the invitees did not stick around to help out. As the kids have gotten older, fewer parents hang around, but it still happens.
So, when I saw today’s For Better or For Worse hybrid, which appears to be Elly taking Michael, a walking Elizabeth, and 5 other kids of various ages to see the move, “Godzilla Meets the 3 Bionic Bears” I was immediately taken by a number of things:
a. Elly is handling these kids by herself, just like Danny’s parents, and my mom did.
b. The use of the word “bionic” was still considered to be funny in 1980, 2 years after The Bionic Woman and the Six Million Dollar Man were no longer on TV.
c. Lynn Johnston is lucky that the Godzilla people did not sue her.
d. Judging from the way “Godzilla” looks, Lynn Johnston is lucky Jim Henson’s people did not sue her.
e. I cannot ever remember a movie ticket counter lady handing out tickets off a hand-held roll of tickets. Maybe things were different in Lynn Lake, but in my little town in 1980, they had those ticket-feeding machines.
These things kept my interest long enough to keep from being depressed at the return of the hybrid reprint. I will admit, after 2 days of Connie Poirier spouting out pure (and somewhat offensive) nonsense, the hybrid reprint is somewhat of a relief. We had a long stretch of new strips in March, and I fear this means we are going to be in for a long stretch of reprints. Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy, reprint month.
Danny and the Dinosaur has one particular section in it where Danny has a birthday party and the Dinosaur helps him entertain his guests. As an adult reading this story, I was taken by something that I had not recognized, but realized was the standard for birthday parties when I was growing up, i.e. Danny’s mom and dad have a huge number of kids over to their house for the birthday party and there are no other adults there aside from Danny’s parents. As I read this book, I remembered that it had been the same for my birthday parties, when I was growing up. My mom handled whole piles of kid all by herself.
My kids are 10 and 12 now, and they have yet to have a birthday party where at least one of the parents of the invitees did not stick around to help out. As the kids have gotten older, fewer parents hang around, but it still happens.
So, when I saw today’s For Better or For Worse hybrid, which appears to be Elly taking Michael, a walking Elizabeth, and 5 other kids of various ages to see the move, “Godzilla Meets the 3 Bionic Bears” I was immediately taken by a number of things:
a. Elly is handling these kids by herself, just like Danny’s parents, and my mom did.
b. The use of the word “bionic” was still considered to be funny in 1980, 2 years after The Bionic Woman and the Six Million Dollar Man were no longer on TV.
c. Lynn Johnston is lucky that the Godzilla people did not sue her.
d. Judging from the way “Godzilla” looks, Lynn Johnston is lucky Jim Henson’s people did not sue her.
e. I cannot ever remember a movie ticket counter lady handing out tickets off a hand-held roll of tickets. Maybe things were different in Lynn Lake, but in my little town in 1980, they had those ticket-feeding machines.
These things kept my interest long enough to keep from being depressed at the return of the hybrid reprint. I will admit, after 2 days of Connie Poirier spouting out pure (and somewhat offensive) nonsense, the hybrid reprint is somewhat of a relief. We had a long stretch of new strips in March, and I fear this means we are going to be in for a long stretch of reprints. Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy, reprint month.
posted by howard at 10:39 PM
17 Comments:
Godzilla / Gojira is a Japanese creation, and unlike American creators, the Japanese don't sue over every unauthorized representation because it is also essentially free advertising.
Fan-made comics (doujinshi) featuring copyrighted characters are actually sold in specialized stores in Japan, and I don't think the original creators are getting any royalties - but they are getting their characters kept in the public eye, and they apparently assume the fans will still buy up the legit merchandising as well (which they do.)
Eh, my hometown theater only stopped using big hand-held rolls of tickets a few years ago. And it's not a podunk town, either, but a Milborough wannabe.
Was it really common in the 1970s/early 1980s for parents to indulge their young children (Mike would be, what, 3 here?) in birthday parties of many kids wherein they were taken on outings like this? I'm seriously curious. My parents never allowed us to invite people to our birthday parties until we were older (I think I was seven). And there is no way my mom would have voluntarily entertained/supervised that large a bunch of brats...er, kids. But then again, I know my parents were also quite strict about some things, so maybe my experience is not normal. I associate this kind of behavior with stay-at-home moms of the 1990s and 2000s, not housewives of the 1970s and early 1980s, who did not seem to think entertaining their children was a primary job, IME. (It was taking care of the house and chores.)
What bothers me is that Elly had no idea in her big, fat head that Mike was, on some level, paying attention to what she said. She probably still thinks that she managed to hide her negativity, her obvious belief that she was too good to look after kids, that he was a burden to be endured. Like her creator, she ignored the basic premise of Peantus: children know more than we think they do (but they don't know everything). Most of the havoc in the Patterson house was caused by Mike trying to get that huffy imbecile to admit that he was worthy of her love.
howtheduck:
Gah, I'm bummed that we're back to flashbacks.
I don't think I see Liz at all in this group of kids. The strip shows up very early (p. 17) in I've Got the One-More-Washload Blues, and Liz was not yet ambulatory. (I estimate it was around the 6th week of the strip, in 1979.)
BTW, I loved your analysis of Lynn's "studio" picture I posted last night. I knew you'd have something interesting to say about it. Great point about Lynn using NO marks to measure proportions.
qnjones, Mike is five in this strip. I think it ran in October of 1979 (it appears not too long before the Halloween-candy strip).
My hometown theater in the rust belt of the States actually had the rolls of tickets, but it was a three screen deal downtown and still is privately owned (although it was reincarnated as an "art" theater over a decade ago, which really just means they don't show crappy movies there anymore). Anyway, I remember seeing movies there in the mid eighties with rolls, and movies further north at non-first-run small town one-screen theaters with the same sort of tickets well into the nineties. Just an FYI.
Anonymous,
Fan-made comics (doujinshi) featuring copyrighted characters are actually sold in specialized stores in Japan, and I don't think the original creators are getting any royalties - but they are getting their characters kept in the public eye, and they apparently assume the fans will still buy up the legit merchandising as well (which they do.)
I think that is a very reasonable way to do things. Considering the way Lynn Johnston through webmaster Stephanie has threatened legal action against For Better or For Worse fan work in the past over at the FOOBiverse's Journal; I find it somewhat ironic that early Lynn benefited from this open policy of Godzilla's creators.
qnjones
Eh, my hometown theater only stopped using big hand-held rolls of tickets a few years ago. And it's not a podunk town, either, but a Milborough wannabe.
That's surprising to me. I only remember giants rolls of tickets at local carnivals and the like. My earliest movie-going memories back in the 1970s, still involved automatic ticket machines.
Was it really common in the 1970s/early 1980s for parents to indulge their young children (Mike would be, what, 3 here?) in birthday parties of many kids wherein they were taken on outings like this?
I had a huge birthday party with many friends when I was 4 and again when I was 7, which would have been in the late 1960s. After that, for a birthday, I usually had one or two friends sleepover. My wife had a big birthday party with a lot of friends every year starting from when she was 2, going to age 16, including years when her father was the only parent in the house. This would have also been in the 1960 -70s. She was brought up in a well-to-do are of Dallas, Texas; and she said it was typical.
My birthday parties were only at my house. My mom would have never done an outing like this one with Elly, because of the transportation issues. We had no vehicle that would carry 7 kids and 1 demented adult. Elly would not have either, which means the kids were delivered by their parents to the theatre or (judging from their birthday hats) they walked or came from a local eating establishment from which they could walk to the theatre. My wife said she oftentimes had birthday parties in a local pizza place, where they had games, and the kids were delivered there by their parents.
dreadedcandiru2
What bothers me is that Elly had no idea in her big, fat head that Mike was, on some level, paying attention to what she said.
Possibly, although it looks like Mike is more worried about the kid pulling on his shirt than Elly's "demented" comment to the ticket lady.
aprilp_katje
I don't think I see Liz at all in this group of kids. The strip shows up very early (p. 17) in I've Got the One-More-Washload Blues, and Liz was not yet ambulatory. (I estimate it was around the 6th week of the strip, in 1979.)
Oh well, I was just guessing that John wouldn't be home taking care of Lizzie during this, but I suppose I was wrong. I thought the littlest girl might have been Lizzie.
BTW, I loved your analysis of Lynn's "studio" picture I posted last night. I knew you'd have something interesting to say about it. Great point about Lynn using NO marks to measure proportions.
It was a good picture and showed me a lot of what I suspected about Lynn's drawing style. Thanks again for posting it.
Howard- thrilled to read about your love for Danny and the Dinosaur, written by one of the most beloved children's authors Syd Hoff, who happens to be my late uncle. In an effort to preserve his legacy I've created a website to honor one of the great humorists of the 20th century - www.SydHoff.org. Enjoy!
My son is 10 now, but when he was very young I got some great birthday party advice (sadly I don't remember where) that you should only invite as many kids as your child is old. I stuck to that until my son was 8 (when we went to a bowling alley and all the parents stayed). Since then, he gets to choose one friend to sleep over for his birthday. There is no way in hell that I would try to wrangle a bunch of 5-6 year old boys at a movie theater without any help. Where the heck is John anyway? Shouldn't he be helping? Is he working? Then that is your dumb fault Elly for scheduling a party on a weekday, not on a Saturday afternoon.
Carol
Thanks for the link to www.SydHoff.org. It was quite informative. I have a copy of “Oliver” the elephant, from when I was little, that I read to my kids also. It’s not in great shape now, since it’s over 40 years old, but I have found that I like the idea of passing those great books I grew up on to my kids.
Anonymous,
My son is 10 now, but when he was very young I got some great birthday party advice (sadly I don't remember where) that you should only invite as many kids as your child is old.
We certainly did not use that rule in my house. The number of kids invited was directly related to the expense of the event. For example, if my daughter wanted a party held at our house, where the only expense was going to be cake, ice cream, and a piñata; then she got to invite a higher number. It also helped that my daughters’ little girl friends were extremely well-behaved.
If my son wanted to go bowling for his birthday, then the cost of the bowling determined the number of kids invited. The other aspect of it was that thanks to my son’s Asperger’s Syndrome, he was not well-liked in school, and after one birthday party where only 2 kids came and they were kids of personal friends of me and my wife; we usually keep the number of invitations to his parties pretty high just to make sure we don’t have a repeat of that situation.
Where the heck is John anyway? Shouldn't he be helping? Is he working?
As aprilp_katje indicates above, it appears that little Lizzie is not at this movie outing, so in all likelihood John is home with Lizzie.
Where the heck is John anyway? Shouldn't he be helping? Is he working?
Ha ha ha...ha ha ha ha ha! I'm sorry, but in my experience, men in 1979 did not go to children's birthday parties EVER. They did dinner and cake at home, but when the other kids showed up, they beat a hasty retreat. After thinking about this some more, I do remember going to a bunch of large birthday parties as a child after I was school age. (I just never had one.) I never saw any fathers at them. Moms recruited other mothers to help. Men were either working, or on the golf course, or doing whatever their hobby was.
Men just did not help with child rearing in the 1970s/early 1980s. They didn't pick up kids at school, or change diapers, etc. The dads in my hometown might play with us a little on the weekends, but usually when we interacted with our dads, it was them including us in their regular adult activities--not them doing kid activities.
I doubt John is sitting for Lizzie, either, but it's possible. I remember that fathers in my neighborhood resented being left alone with their babies because they had to deal with crying and diapers, and those were women's jobs.
When my first child was born in 1982, my husband shared half the duties and continued to do so and again with the second child born in 1987. He changed diapers, helped with feedings, picked up or dropped off at day care as needed, etc. I returned to graduate school in 1983, and he had complete care two nights a week while I was in classes. He always read the bed time stories, and there was one birthday slumber party where he took 5 little girls to the movies; I even had him put up the girls' ponytails and pigtails when they were little because he did a much better job with their hair than I could!
Most of our friends were the same way. I really think the change occurred with people who were growing up in the 60's and 70's. The traditional father role was losing out in societal changes occuring in women gaining more equality, and men being allowed to show sensitivity and nurturing without losing "manliness".
But then I was lucky; my parents (who had children in the late 1940's and 1950's) had that kind of relationship also. My mother worked as a nurse, and several times she worked 3-11 shifts; my dad always did everything (cooking, cleaning, looking after us) while she had those situations; he certainly didn't think she should "do it all" as Connie stated. But I do realize my parents were atypical for that era.
As I have mentioned in the past, I grew up in an upper middle class suburb of social climbers. The men all had professional jobs (doctor, lawyer, dentist, investment banker) and the women were all housewives. I think equality of the sexes took longer to sink in at that particular level than it did in, say, the middle-middle class, where women were more likely to have jobs.
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