Vintage Peanuts-- Football

Every Peanuts fan knows the recurring bit where Lucy holds a football and entices Charlie Brown to kick it only to pull it away at the last second causing him to land flat on his back.  But did you know that the football gag actually began this way with a less devious Violet  holding the ball on November 14, 1951?

Here's that conniving Lucy:

Peanuts Anniversary

On this date in 1950 the very first Peanuts strip appeared in eight newspapers, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Minneapolis Tribune, The Alllentown Call-Chronicle, The Bethlehem Globe-Times, The Denver Post, The Seattle Times, and The Boston Globe.

Happy Valentine's Day

Good Grief!

I've been a Peanuts fan for as long as I've been a Cubs fan. My introduction to Peanuts was in the form of the Fawcett Crest books issued in the 1960's.

On Saturday evenings I would go to Robands Drugstore on Pratt and California (now an eye clinic) with my Dad to pick up the Sunday papers. Along with the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times, if there was a new one, I'd get a Peanuts paperback. My grammar school was kitty corner from Robands and when I was old enough I used to buy baseball cards there as well.

As a "adult" I've continued my love affair with Peanuts by collecting all kinds of things in addition to the books I still have. One of them is a set of trading cards issued in 1993 by ProSport Specialties, Inc. The 200 card baseball themed set has one panel of a strip on the front with a gold or silver background. The complete strip is on the back.

Here's a sample. I've cropped the strip .