Tonight, for the first time since high school, I managed to catch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on television. I’ve always preferred this one to A Charlie Brown Christmas, mainly because of Linus’s unwavering belief that true sincerity will be rewarded (for those of you who don’t know/remember, the Great Pumpkin visits children who wait patiently in the most “sincere” pumpkin patches and rewards them with toys). The taunting of his peers, the temptation of Halloween candy and parties, and the pumpkin’s failure to appear do not shake his resolve. Comfortable in his status as an outsider, Linus has been holding his vigil for 40 years now. I’m glad I happened to be around this evening for a nostalgic dose of Charles Schultz’s wry yet sweet storytelling.
October 31, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Haven’t ever caught the ‘great pumpkin’ but then again I’ve never been a huge fan of Halloween. This has nothing to do with any kind of religious beliefs, I always just had lame costumes while my friends had great spiffy homemade ones. Once my mom made me a “homemade” costume which consisted of a big box wrapped up in wrapping paper, there was only one arm hole for me to stick my hand out to hold my basket, and I wore a bow on my head. Not my mom’s best work. Oh well. Have fun tonight. What are you and Will dressing up as?
October 31, 2007 at 4:45 pm
We’re not dressing up as anything because SOMEONE got the party dates mixed up, and the one we thought was tonight was actually on Saturday. So we’re going to a (non-costume) reception at MoMA instead.
November 5, 2007 at 10:02 pm
“Comfortable in his status as an outsider, Linus has been holding his vigil for 40 years now.” Beautifully put.
November 6, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Hhh, I wonder who that SOMEONE was