October 26th, 2018

Timeline – 2002 Part 1

by Brian Walker, Greg Walker and Chance Browne

Hi and Lois Sunday page digital proof, January 13, 2002.

People often ask cartoonists where they get their ideas. Sometimes for Hi and Lois I look at advice books for parents. That’s where I got the idea for the Sunday page above.

There are many lists of phrases that mothers frequently say. Here is one I found on the Internet.

1. “Money doesn’t grow on trees you know….”
2. “Close the door! – were you raised in a barn?”
3. “Here’s a dime kid…go call someone who cares.”
4. “Because I said so.”
5. “If so and so jumped off a bridge would you jump off a bridge?”
6. “Stop crying before I give you something to cry about!”
7. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
8. “Your face is going to freeze that way.”
9. “Hold your horses.”
10. “I’ll wash your mouth out with soap.”
11. “When I was your age – I had to walk (10+++) miles to school…..”
12. “You’re not made of sugar, you won’t melt.”
13. “You’ll live.”
14. “You brought this on yourself.”
15. “This hurts me more than it hurts you.”
16. “Can’t never did.”
17. “If you do it and get caught and go to jail, you WILL spend the night.”
18. “ELBOWS OFF THE TABLE!”
19. “I brought you into this world and I’ll just as soon take you out!”
20. “Just WAIT till your father gets home!”
21. “You’ll understand when you are a parent.”
22. “One day, God willing, you’ll have one JUST like you.”
23. “And who do you think you are? The Queen of Sheeba?”
24. “Come home when the street lights come on.”
25. “I was not born yesterday, Mister.”
26. “There are starving people in Africa who would gladly eat your dinner!”
27. “Don’t burn the candle at both ends.”
28. “You kids will be the death of me yet.”
29. “I suppose you think you are special, Lady Jane.”
30. “Don’t stir up the mud.”
31. “Hay is for horses.”
32. “Put a sock in it.”
33. “Knock it off.”
34. “You kids go out and play in the yard.”
35. “You can, but you may not.”
36. “A roast is done, YOU are finished.”
37. “We’re not laughing AT you, we are laughing WITH you.”
38. They used the “F” word…. “I FORBID it.”
39. “Wipe that smile off your face or I’m gonna wipe it off for you.”
40. “Don’t you make me pull this car over….”

I’m sure many of these are ones mothers remember their mothers saying and thought they would never say.  All mothers have sayings they fall back on in moments of stress with children.  They also end up sounding like their own mothers.

Next week we will continue our Timeline series with another classic Sunday page from 2002, so stay tooned.

– Brian Walker