Aging in the Alley

Yes, as several people have pointed out to me, there's an older man who lost his wife in the comic strip, For Better or For Worse. Forgot about him…but it's still an interesting "character situation" for Walt Wallet of Gasoline Alley. Uncle Walt was getting somewhat disoriented in the strip and seemed to be having trouble taking care of himself. It could make for a very nice continuity if he learns how to cope with the loss of his mate.

Someone wrote me that he's 105 years old and ought to be shuffling off this mortal coil. Yeah, but 105 isn't 105 in a comic strip unless the cartoonist says so. It's just something we accept and the fact that the characters in Gasoline Alley once aged doesn't mean they have to age, or have to age at any pace other than that dictated by the guy doing the strip. You see that at work in the new Peanuts collection, displaying that strip's early years. Lucy started out as a baby compared to Charlie Brown, then grew up to approximately the same age. Linus was then introduced as a tot and grew up to almost the same age, and Snoopy was originally a pup. Everyone's ages "froze" when Schulz got them where he felt comfortable with them. Would that we could all make the same decision about ourselves and everyone around us.