Timeline – 2001 Part 1

Hi and Lois Sunday page digital proof, July 8, 2001

In the episode above, the Flagston’s garbagemen are shown in their Sunday best spreading good cheer throughout the neighborhood.  They usually appear in the strip on Tuesdays in their usual working garb. It was fun to imagine how they might dress on their day off.

Abercrombie and Fitch have been regulars in the strip for decades.  Abercrombie, who made his initial appearance around 1956, is the rotund fellow in the uniform who likes to boss his clients around.  Fitch, the sloppy one, came along in the early 1960s.

Here is a classic Sunday page featuring the garbagemen from the mid-1960s.

Hi and Lois Sunday page color proof, May 16, 1965.

Abercrombie and Fitch stick their noses into all of the Flagston’s business.  They read their mail.  They analyze every scrap of paper and piece of junk they throw away. They consider themselves part of the family.

Their outlandish behavior contrasts with the relatively normal personas of the main characters in the strip.  They provide comic relief.  We get very few complaints from sanitation workers.  I like to think that somewhere there is a garbage truck with an Abercrombie and Fitch strip taped to the dashboard.

Next week we will continue our Timeline series in 2001, so stay tuned.

– Brian Walker