Sugar Glorious Sugar
Candy corn. Sweet tarts. Dum Dum suckers and that syrupy sweet flourescent pink Dubble Bubble gum. The sweetness didn’t last long but it was heaven while it lasted. Stale popcorn balls. These are my fond childhood Halloween memories. Trick or treating until you can hardly carry the bag (or pillow case depending on how fancy you were.) Going home and inspecting my sweet bounty. That’s what I will always hold dear. Good times high on sugar until Thanksgiving.
Another great tradition was watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!, which aired last night. It didn’t disappoint. It still cracked me up after all these years. What’s better is as an adult you see more in the text. Maybe it’s reading too much into it but sometimes that’s half the fun. It’s only when you grow up that you realize how many adult traits the Peanuts gang actually had.
With great affection, here’s What I Learned from the Peanuts Gang:
Embrace Alternative Lifestyles
Without knowing it, creator Charles M. Schulz introduced me to my first bisexual -Peppermint Patty. Beyond the butch exterior that seemed to delight in torturing Marcie, there was also the aggressive She-Devil that wanted Charlie Brown something awful. Marcie was also into the S&M lifestyle as she was happy to be submissive to PP.
Random Minority Characters Have Always Been Around
Little black Franklin served no real purpose except to co-sign for one of his bigger named friends. It was obvious he was well spoken and smart but that was the extent of his contributions. Pigpen (with his pitiful cloud of dirt) served a similar purpose. He proved that CB was down with everyone.
Everyone Loves the Underdog
No matter how you look at it, Charlie Brown was a loser. Sure he was kind but boy was he gullible. He fell for that football trick every time. EVERY TIME! He rarely got the girl and was constantly immasculated by the uber-bitch Lucy. Lucy obviously had a thing for CB but couldn’t admit her crush.
You’re Never Too Young to Be Henpecked
Poor Linus was a slave to the girlish charms of blonde beauty Sally. She would talk him up one moment and make him blush them crush him with her emotional rants. No wonder he clung to that security blanket. He never saw it coming. His devotion for S kept it going. He was obviously being groomed to be an obedient husband one day.
What have you learned from Peanuts?
Labels: candy, Halloween, Peanuts Gang, trick-or-treat
posted by Pop Culture Diva @ 10/31/2007
2 Comments:
I was so happy to see It's the Great Pumkin,Charlie Brown on TV on Halloween eve(in the past few years,alot of these holiday specials are shown way too early). We're big Peanuts fans in my house and if I had to list a couple of life lessons from those characters,here's what would be in the Top Five:
IT'S NOT THE FOOD,IT'S THE COMPANY THAT MAKES THE MEAL
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is one of my all time favorite Peanuts specials and for the life of me,I could never understand what Peppermint Patty's beef was about the menu-I certainly wouldn't turn down a plate of popcorn,buttered toast,pretzels and jelly beans! As Linus rightly points out(like he always does),Thanksgiving is more about the people around the table rather than what's on it.
DOGS ARE TRULY FREE SPIRITS
Snoopy was the happiest character in the whole series and he never let being a dog stop him from doing whatever he wanted to do or pursue his dreams of becoming a writer,ice skater,coach,WWI flying ace,etc. I'm more of a cat person but Snoopy was awesome.
Peanuts reminds us that children are people too. "Duh!" you say? Sometimes we forget that kids have their own, strong personalities and their own inherent dignity and they are entitled to the same respect we're often taught to reserve for adults.
Post a Comment
<< Home