There once was a comic strip that ran as a captioned panel cartoon during the week as a full blown strip that ran as the Sunday funnies called Big George. It was drawn by Virgil Partch who went under the name of “Vip” as his signature read. Big George was about the life of George Filstriup who was a family man living with his wife and son who went through various episodes that was based upon a “put down” mode where he was always some kind of victim of circumstance.
The strip ran for a little over thirty years from 1960 through 1991. Vip was one of the few cartoonists that drew his strips far beyond what the syndication company that distributed his strips to newspapers desired from him. He drew so many of these daily fixtures that they were backloged enough to run six additional years after he died in 1984.
One kind of panel cartoon from the Big George series that was a favorite of his readers was a cartoon that had the same caption where Big George was taking a fall of some kind to reply “I Hate Mondays!” (The panel would always run on that day of the week to keep things in focus!) Sometimes he would have a flower pot fall on his head from a high distance, or while bowling, he would drop the ball on his foot. One of this writer’s favorite I Hate Mondays gags was as an angry pastry chef, Big George wrote that line with an icing tube on top of a cake. I was so amused with this gag, I once baked a cake with that same message on top. My friend Rose Marie was having a birthday that year, and it was a coincidence that her birthday actually fell on a Monday. So I presented that cake to her. She got a big laugh from that cake, and so did I!
There was even a song recorded by the British band The Boomtown Rats entitled “I Hate Mondays” that was based upon the answer given on why a woman who took a few random shots with a shotgun at a school told police when she was caught for her deed. That answer she gave was enough for this band to record a tune that still receives occasional air play as well as being accessible through various online music streaming services.
But this article isn’t so much on long forgotten panel strips, classic rock songs, or wacky messages written on top of birthday cakes. This is about how many people don’t really care much for this day of the week. This was based upon the fact that this is normally the first day of the week where folks would be trotting off to their work, their school setting, or some other task or location that they would rather be doing something else, or would spend their day anywhere else except for the location that they were obligated (forced?) to be present at.
Spending a weekend loaded with fun activities has been around since the time that somebody was able to track down what days of the week fell and when, as well as to set up the work/school schedule using some kind of Monday through Friday-type schedule. Having a great Saturday and Sunday is always worth its moments. But sure enough, Monday would come around on schedule and a lot of people’s attitudes would change, not necessarly for the better. And because of that schedule keeping hold and solid, it wasn’t as if nobody was expecting Monday to come around! Monday would arrive as normal. It was because that days of the week weren’t always welcomed with high enthusiasm.
For pushing two years now, the normal and perhaps daily schedule to those domestic citizens have been seeing their ups and downs. Thanks to so-called modern technology, people working their jobs and/or those attending a class somewhere have been given the options of attending to their work and schooling through virtual means. Although traditional schooling is done as an event that is presented as a live occurrence, much of the classes taught are done through transcribed and recorded means. For those that did a job that would apply, working in an “office” setting can also be done at any place and any time while using an internet connection and an electronic device that can connect to the same ‘net! And those tasks can be execuited no matter what day of the week it could be, just as long as that same work is completed by a specific day and time of day. (Many times that day where the job duties are due falls on a Monday!!) Ditto for school work. If one is attending let’s say a college level online class and the instructor demands that a report of the theory of Vasco de Gamma is due on a certain day, you can bet that report should fall into the Professor’s email portal by Monday!
However, Mondays are not all seen as evil or despised. Monday is a time to get back to a rigid schedule as many people like to partake in. For those that are involved in a museum or perhaps a Broadway theater, Mondays are the “day off”. But Mondays always seem to have the best (or worst) of luck! Informing those that one hates Mondays seems to have a better ring to it. One can hate Wednesdays or Saturdays, but it’s not the same! Monday has to be labeled as the calendar’s “fall guy” and remain as the butt of a lot of jokes!
PS…I have a photo within my archives of Rose Marie posing while holding her “I Hate Mondays” birthday cake that I presented to her way back when. She was donning an approprate sute to celebrate her birthday that was admired by yours truly. That’s why the photos still exists in my collection if you get catch my drift!!!
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