By Shauntia Mettlin
Charlie Brown and his friends have always held a special place in my heart. Growing up, my dad and I would camp out in front of the TV every Halloween to watch “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”. Once Christmas came around, watching A Charlie Brown Christmas became a family tradition. As I grew up and went away to college, my dad would always call me to make sure I was watching Charlie Brown and his friends during their holiday adventures. Still to this day, my dad and I always call to make sure the other is watching Charlie Brown, even though we are a hundred miles away.
The adventures of The Peanuts Gang bring back many childhood memories. Memories of being playful, creative, imaginative, innocence. Lucy’s unrequited love for Schroeder, Charlie Brown attempting to fly a kite, Snoopy’s battle against the Red Baron, and playing baseball with your friends are the adventures and stories that make Charlie Brown’s childhood so relatable. As adults, we deal with many serious issues on a daily basis and we easily lose sight of those days of being a young child. Teenagers today are faced with the pressures of social media and many are forced to make mature decisions at such a young age. As I am beginning to explore and learn more about Charlie Brown and his gang, I have since been reminded of how important it is to have a childlike heart, regardless of age. How wonderful it is to see the world with a childlike determination just like Charlie Brown, as his multiple attempts to kick a football are pulled from under him (literally), losing every baseball game, getting a countless amount of rocks instead of candy for Halloween and watch Linus as he patiently waits for the Great Pumpkin to arrive year after year.
My hope is that our production of Charlie Brown will restore in you a childlike heart, remind you to be persistent in achieving your goals, embrace the power of your imagination, to find happiness in the small things in life (like finding a pencil or a warm puppy), and not to take the world too seriously.