My wonderful wife bought me the Blue Ray set of the Charlie Brown Holiday Specials. That being "It's the Great Pumpkin", "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" and as always, "A Charlie Brown Christmas". My wife thinks I'm silly to want to watch these kids shows, but I have my reasons.
My English teacher for my senior year loved to call all us students, "Product of the seventies". I never gave it much thought to the actual meaning to that short and profound statement. I am a product of the seventies. Born in seventy-one, I grew up with those plaid pants and patchwork clothing. The Monkees, Superfriends and the Legion of Doom, Bugs Bunny and much more. I remember 1976. I remember Halloween; tricks or treating from dusk till sometimes near midnight. I remember the legends of razor blades in the candy and having to pour mine out for adult inspection. Anyway, trying to get back on track of this blog post, I remember being a kid.
For years I watched the Great Pumpkin air on CBS usually the week before Halloween. This was significant for several reasons. First, well after all its an awesome cartoon, but secondly it ushered the "official" start for the holiday trinity (that being All Hallows eve, Thanksgiving and then Christmas [New Years signaled the end of the good times]). Every kid knew that for the next few months from the time Linus passed out in the pumpkin patch as Snoopy rose in the night taking substitute for the Great Pumpkin, holidays are coming.
As I watched the show on my DVD player, all I could do was transport myself back to many different times and different places in my own history and depict not only the when and where I was, but to also feel and see my memories from the point of my eyes view as that kid. Then it dawned on me. I have taken tally of everything that is me and I have come short in my inventory. Double check and ran the audit only to know there is something missing. My childish excitement.
Can you remember when you were excited as a child for events or thoughts? I like the Charlie Brown shows because they are seen from the standpoint of kids. The adults in the cartoons are merely muffled trumpet sounds of "Whaa, Whaa, wumm, Whaa". Meaning that kids hear the adults and can communicate, but really the interpretation of the adults voices are just meaningless to a child. To the child, their world is low to the ground and full of their friends and peers. Scenery is just empty spaces filled with bright colors. What is important is what is before them.
When the show was over, I looked over at my wife (a product of the late eighties) and expressed how much I loved watching the show. I also added that what I wanted for more than all the "behind the scenes" bonus features or any of the "making of" featurettes, was that I wished they'd had put the CBS "Special" announcement on the DVD as well. What got my heart pumping as a kid wasn't just the show, but that announcement just before, where the CBS words would spin around in a circle and change colors and the drums would pound and the trumpets would signal that in just a few seconds the station's regular airing would be suspended for a special program.... wow, that was great!
If I could ever have anything from my past, be it an old football or baseball card or the family vacation, Christmas's, friends, or whatever, it would be to have my childhood excitement. I guess that's explains why I love Peter Griffin so much. That moron has one thing I want; to be excited over small things. He takes an honest innocent enjoyment to small trivial things or with his imagination. Peter cracks me up with his little clapping of hands and the "YAAAAAYYY" he exclaims when he peers from those round spectacles at some stupid adventure he wants to do.
This Buds for you, Griffin:
A CBS Special PRESENTAION! (Yaaaaayyyy!)
