Kid Stuff: Peanuts

Charles Schulz created a group of characters that America has taken to heart. They're our kids now. Uploaded by lcjapan.com.

Charlie Brown will never get to kick that football. Lucy will always give out psychiatric help for five cents. Marcie will always call Peppermint Patty, “Sir.”

Charles Schulz has gone to his eternal reward, but his legacy is seen by millions of people each day. Peanuts never gets old, never goes out of date. Look at all the forgettable comic strips in your local paper, think of all that have come and gone, and Peanuts goes on.

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Peanuts doesn’t have the feeling of anarchy that infused Calvin and Hobbes, nor the daily dose of reality found in Dilbert. What it has is a sense of humanity, and a spirituality that resonates with its audience and which was intrinsic to Schulz’s own life.

Peanuts was created within a month of my own birthday. I won’t say how long ago that was, but Gutenberg had just invented the printing press. Now they say newspapers are a vanishing enterprise. Maybe so. But Peanuts will always be with us — as long as there’s a Great Pumpkin, or a pathetically bare Christmas tree .

(Originally posted April 12, 2009)