What Pig-Pen from Peanuts Means to Me at Christmas

I wrote this in 2010 and I recycle it every year as this story means a lot to  me…

I can’t remember how old I was when I started watching Charlie Brown holiday programs. All I know is at age 65 I can still quote a lot of the text from the TV shows with tears in my eyes.

Charlie Brown reminds me of a lot of guys I walked through life with. They were not sure which road to take and then when they did; they still questioned it.

Some people have compared me to Lucy although I think I am more of a Sally.  They said I was a ringer for Lucy because I will always be that girl with the makeshift help counter and instead of the 5 cents shingle, mine would would read ‘free’ on it.

I never tire of listening to people. If you have a problem; come to me and let’s talk about it. This was one reason why I chose not to be a social worker as I would have literally brought my job home.

Maybe some days I was a Peppermint Patty and kind of pushy and ridiculous. My favourite of all the Peanuts characters though was my beloved Pig-Pen.

Pig-Pen did not care if anyone brought him down because of his dirt and smell. He walked fiercely through life trailing the dirt behind him like a cloud. Pig-Pen was always his own man and I have always been my own woman.

Pig-Pen taught me that:

 

It is okay if you just don’t smell right some days.

It is okay to sit around with dirty hair and pajamas too.

It is okay to be silent and okay to be not.

It is okay to not join a crowd.

It is okay to treat your home like a dust magnet sometimes.

It is okay to drag some of your perpetually messy past life around as long as it just becomes a pile of dust behind you.

 

He had a sense of pride and destiny which we should follow and was way smarter than Charlie Brown.

If you reach a point of no return like he did with his dirty hands; then just walk away and try something else. He didn’t stop trying to be clean even if it never really worked out.

Just like life.

Even if your life seems like a cartoon strip sometimes, never give up, as you just never know where that dust you are stepping in came from.

As Charlie Brown once said,

“Don’t think of it as dust. Just think of it as the dirt and dust of far-off lands blowing over here and settling on “Pig-Pen!” It staggers the imagination! He may be carrying the soil that was trod upon by Solomon or Genghis Khan!”

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown -Things You Never Knew!

Please Play While Reading

 

ALL Photos from Google Image/ ABC/Warner Home Video

Inspired and with notes by Danny Gallagher

It was a God thing!

‘Peanuts’ creator Charles Schulz’s faith and beliefs often served as a launching point for his comic strip story lines and specials. A Halloween special might not seem like the ideal place for a message about personal beliefs but even The Great Pumpkin had something to say about faith and religion.

CBS Wanted Another Hit on Their Hands

CBS network executives wanted another ‘Peanuts’ special, but they also wanted a surefire hit. If it wasn’t they were pulling the plug on anymore Peanuts specials.

Kids sent candy to Charlie Brown after it aired.

Some of the kids, like myself, who watched the TV special felt so bad for poor Charlie Brown that they actually mailed candy and other gifts to CBS addressed to Charlie Brown.

Sally’s lines were almost ruined because of a loose tooth.

 Kathy Steinberg, the young actress who voiced Sally, almost had to be replaced. Just as they were nearing the end of her recording sessions, her mother called Mendelson one night in a panic because Kathy had a loose tooth and the gap in her teeth could cause a lisp in her voice that would sound different from the dialogue they had already recorded.

The idea of “Snoopy the Flying Ace” came from Sparky’s son.

Monte was an avid model airplane builder and loved WWI aircraft. One day, he wandered into his father’s studio and suggested that he make Snoopy an imaginary fighter pilot. His father wasn’t crazy about the idea at first but it eventually snuck into some of his daily comic strips and was later used for the ‘Great Pumpkin’ special.

NASA loved Snoopy’s Flying Ace.

 He even became a good luck charm for the NASA astronauts during the Apollo space missions and as an icon for NASA safety. The crew of the Apollo 10 mission even brought a painting of the “Flying Ace” with them into space.

 

Lucy is reading a TV Guide featuring herself on the cover.

After Linus writes his letter to the Great Pumpkin, he walks past Lucy while she is sitting in front of the TV reading a TV Guide magazine. A split second shot of the magazine features Lucy on the cover of the magazine.

I was so influenced by the Schultz special I grew pumpkins every single year. I was also taught to go to the drugstore and buy needles to inject milk into the stems to make the pumpkins larger. Oh my things have changed! Could you tell that to a pharmacy technician now and get away with it?

It’s for my pumpkins sir!

 

It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown -Things You Never Knew! – Zoomer

 

It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown -Things You Never Knew! – Zoomer.

Charlie Brown and Pippi Longstocking’s Baddazz Weekend – Zoomers

 

Charlie Brown and Pippi Longstocking’s Baddazz Weekend – Zoomers.

 

 

“This week more beloved characters from my childhood innocence have gone horribly wrong. Good grief–where’s my blanky?

Lovely Tami Erin — who played the title role in the 1988 movie “The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking” is still beating up the boys the same way she did in the movie. Erin was arrested for assaulton Thursday for allegedly roughing up her roommate in northern California.”