Gasoline Alley, December 18, 1938

Gasoline Alley, December 18, 1938

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Gasoline Alley is a continuity comic strip with a long and interesting history. The characters age in real time, and many of them have lived for far longer than you would expect (at time of writing the comic is still running, and the principal character, Walt Wallet, is 123 years old). There are many and varied family relationships, and a fair amount of adoptions. The first major event in the strip was Walt finding a baby on his doorstep, who he named Skeezix (a name the origin of which I still have not been able to surmise), and adopting him as his son. Years later, he would find another baby, Judy, on his car seat and would end up adopting her as well.

Here we see Skeezix as a young man taking Judy around to see the various Santa Clauses in town. I believe she's supposed to be around 3 or 4 here, so she clearly does not yet understand that these are all different people in costumes. I think that's a good thing, though. It makes the entire experience that much more magical. Besides, Santa has to be incredibly fast in order to deliver presents to everyone in the world in a single night, so it just makes sense.