(Strip Number 307, Original Publication Date, 21 August 1982)
Panel 1: We find ourselves at what I presume to be Philpotts as Elly takes Mike back to school shopping; as expected, he's asking "Boy, how come (spelled as one word in the original) we have to go back to school so soon?"
Panel 2: He then asks why they cannot have 2 months of school and 6 months of holidays.
Panel 3: Instead of pointing out that there are more than eight months in a year, she tells him that he'd be a very old man before he graduated.
Panel 4: His response is to simper that he would have had a good life.
Summary: The baffled look on Elly's face comes from her wondering where she could have heard something like this before and explains why she really moved so very far away from home: to avoid having Marian tell her that she used to spout the same nonsense when you were eight so she should therefore not come down on Mike for saying the same damned thing. Good thing for Mike's need to be a dick to his kids that his memory is as fluid as his mother's; I'm sure that the douche writing movies for Lifetime remembers being enthused by the prospect of going back to class.