Emblazoned on lunch pails, school notebooks, and T-shirts, the Peanuts gang of comic characters was my favorite as a child! Even today the sight of a Snoopy or Woodstock emblem makes me nostalgic for days gone bye when life was simpler and the biggest crises one faced was which home room teacher you were assigned for the year, the nice one or the old wicked witch one. It was a welcomed Sunday tradition to be the first among my family to read the funny paper comics with the Peanuts strip being at the top of the newspaper header in full color! Charlie Brown always had a way of being the ragged underdog, while Lucy became the know-it-all group psychiatrist, Schroeder a talented piano protégé and Snoopy the coolest dog, made for light hearted reading with a deep moral lesson. A recent trip to the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, CA reminded me what a great talent he was drawing and writing my generations collective world view in a profound yet childlike way. You can do it!..... Never give up....! Became familiar advise the characters gave to their imaginary life problems. Over Peanuts fifty-year history, some 65 characters later, the creative genius of Schulz tackled many childhood issues with amazing insight: school bulling, summer camp, loneliness, sibling rivalry, faith, hope, heartbreak, and love.
