"The news had
come out in the First World War
The bloody Red Baron
was flying once more
The Allied command
ignored all of its men
And called on Snoopy
to do it again ...
The Baron had Snoopy
dead in his sights
He reached for the
trigger to pull it up tight
Why he didn't shoot,
well, we'll never know
Or was it the bells
from the village below?"
(Snoopy's Christmas, The Royal Guardsmen 1967)
When I was
a kid, I thought Charlie Brown was a huge loser. Not only did he suffer at his
own hands but he allowed other children to torment him. I didn't really get the
comic strip but I read it every weekend. I only indulged the animated
programming. I will admit that A Charlie
Brown Christmas still resonates with me, especially near the end when Linus
quotes the Bible (Luke 2: 8-14, KJV). I thought Lucy was
funny and that Pig Pen was cool but it was Snoopy who really caught my
attention. I paid attention to the things he did and the things he said
(actually, the things he thought). When Woodstock
came along, it cemented my approval. Most of my childhood was spent in a comic
book. I collected them. I coveted them. My mind and my time were valuable playing
tools and I gave little thought to things like Scooby Doo or The Flintstones.
In the early 1970s, shows like HR Pufnstuf distracted me from my true mission but
it was Snoopy who seems to have had a long-term effect on me. As an adult, I
can appreciate him from an entirely new perspective. I see myself in that silly
beagle.
One of the
things I like about Snoopy the best is his imagination, the fantasy world he
often escapes into. He spends an awful lot of time in his otherland. Whether
battling the Red Baron or attending college, Snoopy always managed to have the
most awesome adventures, even if they were all in his head. Snoopy first
appeared in the Peanuts comic strip on October 4th, 1950, only a few
days after the cartoon first debuted. He slowly grew in popularity and has
become "one of the most recognizable and iconic characters in the comic
strip." If you stop and take notice, Snoopy is everywhere. Mugs and
t-shirts, posters and stuffed animals abound. Just by googling him, you can access
the entire animated history of the character. Any dated strip, any television
special, any movie, is readily available for the viewing. Snoopy has become the
thing of legends. His fierce loyalty and protective nature contrast the
selfishness and laziness of his breed. He exemplifies what it is to be man’s
best friend and at the same time he stands in stark contrast by ridiculing his
owner. He can even be abusive to those he claims to love the most. He is
personification personified and very much almost human.
He is on
YouTube and Twitter and Instagram. I post a Peanuts
cartoon almost every day on my Facebook account. I often use Snoopy stickers to
highlight my reaction at the time. I have hundreds of Snoopy memes. Each
expression from the dog seems perfectly matched with my mood in general. We are
a lot alike, that furry beast and I. Most recently, I have come to greatly
appreciate the character and its development, not that I didn't in the past, at
least on some level. There is something I can relate to regarding that stupid
dog. He epitomizes the need to escape, to be free from the boring and mundane
life of a dog. Just like, it so happens, the life we all live to one degree or
another. He withdraws into his imaginary world and so too do we the viewer. His
escape becomes our escape, a much needed relief. The dull life of a dog
reflects the dull life of each person. Snoopy always manages to survive, to
bounce back and to laugh at himself. With his foil Woodstock at his side, his voyages speak to
our voyages and resonate many of the lessons that each of us should have
learned along our own path.
"Well you know
my name is Simon,
and the things I draw
come true,
Oh the pictures take
me, take me over,
Climb the ladder with
you."
(Theme to Simon and the Land of Chalk Drawings,
1976)
Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings is a
British animated children's program that "was produced in the mid 1970s by
FilmFair Productions in London
for Thames Television." With an often crude animation style, the 5 minute
episodes followed the adventures of Simon and his magic chalkboard. Anything he
can imagine comes to life when drawn on the enchanted slate canvas. Every instalment
found Simon climbing the fence located near his home, trusty ladder in hand. On
the other side appears a limitless land of grand imagination. Each story often
revolved "around the unintended effects that Simon's drawings have on the Land of Chalk Drawings Land of Chalk Drawings
There was
something so simple and charming about this cartoon. I was enchanted every time
it came on the television. The Canadian version was almost identical except it
was voiced over for a Canadian audience. The episodes remained intact but Ernie
Coombs (also known as Mr. Dressup)
narrated each cartoon. The series appeared on the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC) into the 1980s and was also a featured segment on Captain Kangaroo in the United States .
With each episode, I identified with Simon more and more. I wanted a wall to
climb over that would let me escape. I still wish I had such means at my
disposal. As a boy, I was inspired by Simon. He confirmed for me that it was
okay to visit my otherland. It was okay to keep dreaming, to keep imagining. It almost grounded the very
experience for me as a child. It was a black and white experience. On one side
reality and on the other, anything I wanted the world to be. In fact, outside of Snoopy, nothing was more pivotal than Simon and the Land of Chalk Drawings to
my ideas regarding an Otherland. I
suppose, at least in my child's mind, I was Simon and the Land of Chalk Drawings
"H.R. Pufnstuf,
Who's your friend
when things get rough?
H.R. Pufnstuf
Can't do a little
cause he can't do enough."
(Theme to HR Pufnstuf, 1969)
The summer
of 1970 holds little for me. I was only 5 years old and to be honest, I haven't
retained as much of my younger years as I would like. I can recall things but
mostly in flashes or little glimpses. In the spring of that year, my youngest
brother Christopher came home from the hospital. I can see him laid out on the
couch, his lower body encased in plaster from the surgeries to fix his crippled
legs. I remember my Dad giving me my first pet that June, a plain white mouse I
named Charlotte .
Sometimes I can almost feel her crawling up my arm. Again, these memories are
hard to maintain and seem to come and go
at random. If I focus, I can travel back but my view is far more limited than memories
from when I was 7 or 10 or 12. If there is one thing from that summer that I do
recall quite clearly, it was The HR Pufnstuf Movie. I had no idea the film
was based on the television series, which had already been broadcasting
throughout North America . My parents managed
to get all 5 kids into one car and took us all to see Pufnstuf at the drive-in theatre located just a few miles away. A second
film, Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks, made
the double feature a child's delight. I may have fallen asleep during the later
movie but I can remember every moment watching that featured film. I do not
remember the type of car that we went in. I do not recall the name of the
outdoor theatre either. I can, however, remember watching the opening credits
of Pufnstuf and watching the closing
credits. I can see myself engrossed, stuck in between siblings in the back seat
of the car. The experience is very clear.
At this point,
I was enchanted by anything that seemed an escape. Early on, my imagination was
perhaps my strongest tool for coping. Not that a 5 year old has much to cope
with but still, it was an impetus, the force that drove my innocent mind. Pufnstuf was your basic candy store for
a kid my age. The main character Jimmy (Jack Wild), an English lad, and his
magic flute Freddie are lured to Living
Island Living
Island
In the
early 1970s, my mother would play The Mamas
and the Papas Greatest Hits over
and over. The LP always sat at the front
of the stereo case. So when Cass Elliot
(Mama Cass), appeared in the Pufnstuf
film as Witch Hazel, I was completely delighted.
Reality stokes the imagination. The mix of live action and
costume and puppetry blended together and managed to inspire my already vivid
mind. Both the film and the television
program were produced by Sid and Marty Krofft, sibling co-producers of many children's
shows and variety programming like Donny
and Marie (1976). I loved the like-minded additions to the TV schedule throughout
the decade. Other Krofft Brother series like Sigmund and the Sea Monsters and especially Land of the Lost stole me away in the same manner as Pufnstuf. With
each journey into their imagination, I journeyed further into my very own. They
gave me permission to think in such esoteric terms. I did not know it at the
time but they helped train me to use my mind as a useful tool of survival. HR Pufnstuf has managed to find a position
on the list of my favourite childhood things. It is up there with my missing
Green Lantern ring or my G.I. Joe headquarters. Along with Snoopy and Simon, I
was not only entertained by each instalment of each series, but they managed to
teach a very curious boy some very important lessons about imagination and the
option to escape.
"Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it
is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of
the will, quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the
freshness of the deep springs of life."
(Samuel Ullman, American humanitarian)
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