where are all the grandparents?

I suppose the American extended family we know most intimately here in Saffron Walden is the Doonesburies. Talking with my daughter the other day, we suddenly realised that there is a strange shortage of granny interaction there. I mean, Joanie never seems to have anything to do with Alex. I do know that they live on opposite sides of the continent, and that Joanie ran out on her own child as a young woman. But I still think it odd. Maybe it just is the case that upper middle-class Americans don’t have grandparents any more than they have washing lines and that only poor people and country dwellers still maintain the tradition. It’s very sad, if it’s true. Of course, on the Well, it would be possible to discuss this at endless length in the comics conference, but I’m not there now.