The Funny Papers

My parents had a newspaper delivered to the door of our family home, almost every day of my life. (Or at least for as long as I can remember anyways!) When we were children, we were not all that interested in the newspaper itself, but we did take an active interest in the comics section, which, on a weekday, consisted of about two pages. On the weekends though, there was a whole comics insert that could be removed like your own little magazine. The three of us loved those pages, my brother, sister and I, and we've been known to silently argue over them. (Silent only because if we had actually argued out loud we'd have been denied the priviledge of reading them by our parents!) On Saturdays we didn’t have to wait for my dad to finish reading the paper before we could look like we usually had to during the week. We took turns on who would be first as well. Each week it would be another one of our turns and we all looked forward to it being our very own turn first! Sometimes there would be a bit of a debate on whose turn it actually was, which is where the arguing would come in. We used to get a weekly magazine as well called “The Star Weekly,” which not only had interesting stories and a cookery section in it, but also a pull out comics section as well.

Back then, it seemed like the funny pages were . . . well . . . funnier! There was Blondie and Dagwood, The Born Loser, Lil Abner, Peanuts, Garfield (you just have to love Garfield), Life With Father, Andy Capp, Family Circus, Prince Valiant . . . just to name a few. Last summer when I was home I read the newspaper with my mother every morning. (Old habits die hard and it’s amazing that when we find ourselves in certain situations we always revert to type) It seemed to me that the funnies just weren’t funny anymore, well, all except for some of the old favourites that they still print, but which are few and far between. Or maybe it’s just me, maybe I have not got a sense of humour like I used to??? I don’t think it’s that . . . though . . . as I still laugh at jokes and such, and quite heartily at times . . . I just think the funny papers aren’t all that funny anymore.

During the week, all the funnies were in black and white, but on weekends we got glorious colour pages, which only added to our enjoyment of reading them. Little Orphan Annie always wore her trademark red dress and her vacant eyes. Daisy Mae her tight black shorts and colourful man’s shirt, tied up at mid-drift and busting out at the seams, and Mammy Yokum always had her corncob pipe tightly held between her lips, and all in glorious colour. What joy we got out of those half a dozen pages or so and oh how we revelled in taking the longest time to read them when we knew a brother or a sister might be waiting for their turn, relishing every word and nuance just that tiny bit longer.

I didn’t quite get the political satire cartoons that would be printed in the Editorial section every day. But then most children didn’t. I have, however, come to appreciate them now as an adult and I still enjoy the Family Circus. To this day, back home, you can fine The Family Circus cartoon printed on it’s own near the beginning of the Classified Section on week days. It never seemed to matter to me whether it was in colour or in black and white, it was always enjoyed and read with relish! As a child I could always relate to the things the children got up to. As an adult I could always relate to the way the parents were feeling. And . . . It never seemed to matter that the parent’s never got old, and the children never grew up. I suppose that was all a part of the charm and it spoke to the child in all of us. I guess you could say that The Family Circus is my all time favourite funny paper cartoon, which leads me to ask a question.

Here’s a totally delicious salad dressing. It’s got a delicious sweet and sour tang and goes very well on most salads, even, amazingly enough, Fruit Salads. If you are looking to really cut the fat down you can substitute about half of the vegetable oil with water.

*Tangy Tomato Salad Dressing*

Makes 2 cups Printable Recipe

Is it Toe Mae Toe or Toe Mah Toe? I love this salad dressing. Very similar to one that you can buy in the shops back home called Catalina dressing it has a lovely and tangy sweet and sour tomato flavour with just a hint of spice. It keeps very well in the refrigerator for weeks and weeks. This is my absolute favourite. A little goes a long way!

1 cup caster sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 dash sweet paprika

1/2 teaspoon mild chili powder

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder

grated onion, to taste

1/2 cup white vinegar

2/3 cup tomato ketchup

1 cup vegetable oil

Measure all ingredients into a blender, or into the measuring cup that came with your hand held stick blender. Blend well until completely amalgamated. Store in a jar in the refrigerator. Give it a good shake before using.

*Note - I usually have this on the table when I have people over for dinner as I like to offer them a choice of salad dressings to put on their salads and this is, hands down, the one they usually pick. You can also marinate chicken breasts in it before grilling and it gives them a lovely flavour!