Oblivious Dad, Engaged Granddad....

One of the things you can't help but notice for the early years of the strip is that John not only didn't spend too much time with the kids, he thought that was a good thing, that it was expected of him. His traditional way of thinking mandated that Father, having worked hard to provide for his children, had done enough. It wasn't his responsibility to worry about what his presence or lack thereof did to his children or any other squishy emotion like that or to interact with them much or to be curious about their day-to-day lives. That, he thought, was Elly's look-out. Trying to get him to see things from a more modern perspective was the main cause of dramatic tension in the Early Years. He didn't really give up thinking he was in the right but realized that he'd be better off doing what his wife said, thereby turning himself into the father people think of when they talk about the glory years of the strip. His 'virtue', as I've said, is born of a necessity: his job took too much of a toll on him to expend effort on things domestic. That no longer holds true. Now that he has the spare time, he'll soon find that he can't spend all of it laying down model railroad track. He'll start to develop a curiosity about his children's lives with an emphasis on how they're raising his grandchildren. He'll fufill another proud tradition, then. He'll be the man who makes of for not spending time with his kids when they were young by being the Bestest Grampa EVAH!!