My sister gave me (and my other sister) the gift of a day at the Minnesota History Center to see the Charles M. Schultz exhibit. As it turned out, our schedules finally meshed on the last day of the event. We met up at her house and she drove to the history center in St. Paul. When the history center first opened there was a good cafe that I went to several times with friends from work. Now it simply sells premade deli stuff. Not bad, but sort of a lost opportunity, in my mind. Anyway, staff problems, as everywhere, I suppose.
Charles Schultz is older than any of the three of us, but played a prominent role during our childhood formative years. His Charlie Brown cartoons were available to us via the Sunday comics page, TV show specials (especially for all the holidays), and later on, printed paperbacks and books. Since we grew up in a small, rural town in northern Minnesota I don’t remember any Charlie Brown / Snoopy merchandise being available. But apparently it was out there, and available in multiple locations and languages.
I enjoyed seeing the progression of Charles Schultz’s drawings and characters from his early work as Li’l Folks to the “modern day” Peanuts strips that I enjoyed from childhood onward. Even today, I still follow “Peanuts Begins” and “Peanuts” in my GoComics subscription. I like to laugh and have an easy-going and forgiving attitude toward life in general, and it feels like the Peanuts characters have that.
I retired less than a month ago and am still working on my life going forward (not to mention trying to move into our new house) and visiting the Minnesota History Center made me consider adding it to my memberships. While international people, places, history, and events occupies much of my mind and interests, I have spent (basically) my entire life in Minnesota and am also interested in its history. It’s amazing what you don’t know about a place, even if you are there for many years.
I would tell you I recommend seeing the exhibit, but that would mean you would have to find out where it will be shown next because we went on the last day. I do recommend visiting the history center, though. There’s so much information packed into one place, I’m glad for the people that made it possible and continue to make it thrive today.
It’s always a good time with these two.
