Good Grief: A tribute to Charlie Brown

Good Grief:

This was an email I sent to friends on February 11, 2000 prior to the much publicized and anticipated last first run of the comic strip: PEANUTS, scheduled for Sunday, February 13, 2000. Seemed Charlie Brown had just always been a part of life. These thoughts were later published in the Elmira Star Gazette Letters to the Editor.

This Sunday morning, February 13, 2000 get up early and find an extra five minutes… and before you go find the Sunday newspaper… think about American icons…and the meaning they have in your life…and then find the Funny Pages and enjoy Charles Schulz’s last first run comic strip of Charlie Brown. 

I have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree ornament and a yellow Woodstock stuffed animal, Carol and I each got one the same year, I think Aunt Frances gave them to us. I remember when Mrs. Scott gave Mom "It’s a Charlie Brown Christmas" and how that book can still be found on the coffee table every Christmas. I had a Snoopy pajama bag that hung on my closet door for years. And long gone are the lunch boxes, gizmos and gadgets that cluttered our toy chests, retail stores, books, well the list can go on and on for all of us. Think about it… Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and Lucy, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty, Sally, Pigpen, the Little Red Haired Girl, Marcie, Sir, Woodstock, who have I forgotten? 

Over the years we learned new words, new personas and new images: crabby, blockhead, fussbudget, the Red Baron, Joe Cool, Lucy dispensing Psychiatric care for 5¢, Suppertime and a dancing dog, the great pumpkin, Linus and his security blankets, Schroeder playing Beethoven, Charlie Brown flying a kite, kicking a football or at least trying, I got a rock! Happiness is… 

I can remember getting ready for bed early, so that we could watch a new Charlie Brown special on TV in our pajamas and hearing the music of Vince Guaraldi. Linus had a big sister just like me… it comes back doesn’t it? 

I don’t really read the funny pages every week anymore, but I will this Sunday, I’ll take those extra five minutes and relish growing up in the last century and I’ll remember a bunch of other good memories. I will probably even swell with some emotions and that’s okay. You’re a good man Charlie Brown.

(Charles Schulz, the cartoonist and creator of PEANUTS, died of colon cancer the day, February 12, 2000, before this comic had been scheduled to go to press.)