Halloweens Past

Well, it’s about time for the “Great Pumpkin” to return to our television screens.  “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”, first came to me in 1966 and has stayed around for forty seven years.  As most of us know, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” is an animated television special, based on the comic strip, Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.

I love Halloween, and I love Charlie Brown, so this is great for me. Thankfully, it is now a Halloween annual treat.  My first child was born in 1966 and was just about a month old when Charlie and the “Great Pumpkin” arrived on the scene.  Certainly, she was much too young to enjoy the Peanuts gang as they prepared for Halloween. But, her mother was not going to miss the fun. I watched as Linus wrote his annual letter to “The Great Pumpkin”, despite Charlie Brown’s disbelief, Snoopy’s laughter, and Patty’s insistence that “The Great Pumpkin” was a fake. Even Lucy refused to help him. I reveled in Linus’ refusal to let anything stop him.

On Halloween night, trick-or-treating with the gang and sister Sally, Linus stopped at the pumpkin patch to wait for “The Great Pumpkin”, even as the gang ridiculed him for missing the trick-or-treating, just like the year before.  But, Linus is sure of the arrival of “The Great Pumpkin”, so Sally remains with him.

Meanwhile, Charlie Brown is given a rock from every house they visit, while the others get great treats.  After trick-or-treating, it is party time.  And, who could forget Snoopy in his World War I flying ace costume, on top of his doghouse, pretending to fight the Red Baron. After losing the battle, Snoopy went to the pumpkin patch. I love the part where Linus sees the shadowy figure of Snoopy rising in the moonlit.  Excitement and fear causes him to faint, and Sally to drop out of the adventure. Linus does not give up and spends most of the night waiting for “The Great Pumpkin” to appear. The next day, Charlie Brown tries to console Linus by saying that he has also done crazy things, but Linus retaliates that next year will be the year “The Great Pumpkin” comes.

I don’t know about you, but I love the memory so much, I revisit it each year.