04/09/2026
https://www.gocomics.com/frazz/2026/09/04
My dad was a public-schools teacher who worked his butt off during the summer (as a carpenter) to make ends meet and (as a guy who wouldn’t have been himself otherwise) putting on community choral and theater productions. But he always found two weeks to pack up the kids and the big canvas tent, cotton sleeping bags, cooler and Coleman stove and shove off to explore anywhere within driving range. We never stayed in a hotel, fancy or seedy, rarely ate in a restaurant, and we certainly never went to an amusement park or anything else too built around tourist dollars. It was almost entirely state and national parks. It was modest, but it was the opposite of humble, and while it’s the rare kid who fully appreciates it at the time, in retrospect it was one of the greatest gifts my parents ever gave me. The other was college. Even though I dropped out (foolishly) to pursue the career that brought me here (fortunate beyond the foolishness), college was another thing I didn’t fully appreciate at the time. When the wheels finally come off this career, I might go back to college and finish up. And I very much intend to go back to traveling to the kind of parks and places you sleep in a tent. Though I don’t think a canvas one is an option anymore. I sure hope the parks still are by then.
