Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Great Pumpkin

Apparently, MiniMe is not interested in re-living great moments of my childhood with me. I tried to get her to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" last night when it was broadcast. I really looked forward to watching this every year when I was growing up. So I was excited to find it on last night and even told MiniMe she could stay up a little late to watch it with me. I've been experiencing a lot of "mom guilt" lately for being so busy and not spending much time with her. And now here, finally, was a perfect opportunity for some meaningful mommy-daughter bonding.

NOT!!

MiniMe: "Why do I have to watch this? It's so boring."

Boring? It's not boring. It's a great classic halloween cartoon. I used to look forward to watching it every year when I was your age.

MiniMe: "But Mom, the characters don't even talk."

(Now, to be fair, quite a bit of this cartoon does have the characters roaming around while that silly Charlie Brown theme plays in the background, something I had never really noticed before.)

They talk. Just wait a minute and you'll see. You know, when I was growing up, the Charlie Brown specials were the only time you'd see cartoons on in the evening. Usually you only got to see cartoons on Saturday morning.

(Big eyeroll from MiniMe. Sigh!)

MiniMe: "I think I'm going to go to bed Mom."

But don't you want to see the end and find out if the Great Pumpkin shows up?

MiniMe: "No, you can tell me what happens in the morning."

So my only option is to share my love of all things "Great Pumpkin" with readers of NativeMom. Here goes . . .

"It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" was the third Peanuts animated special and the first halloween special to be produced. It originally aired Oct. 27, 1966, and has aired every year since. In the film, the Peanuts gang all wear costumes and go trick-or-treating except for Linus and Sally who decide to forgo trick-or-treating and stake out the pumpkin patch waiting for the arrival of the Great Pumpkin. An interesting note of trivia, when Charles Schulz drew the "Great Pumpkin" in the daily comic strip, Charlie Brown, not Sally, was with Linus when Snoopy appears as the "Great Pumpkin".

Can you remember what costume Charlie Brown wears? And what did he get in his bag at each house as the gang went trick-or-treating?

2 comments:

Lucy D. Jones said...

Wasn't it a potato? I think once this show and the Chistmas show and the Grinch became available on video and DVD, it took some of the specialness away. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is still scary, however.

Anonymous said...

The answer . .. Charlie Brown wore a sheet for a ghost costume, only he cut too many holes in it. He got a rock at every home they visited.

And by the way, Lucy, now that you mention it, Rudolph did scare me a little as a kid.