For Easter I checked out It’s The Easter Beagle from the local library and was pleasantly surprised to see that it also included the 1976 television special “It’s Arbor Day Charlie Brown.” I actually enjoyed the Arbor Day special more then the Easter special. The Arbor Day Special was timely viewing for me. This is partially due to my recent attempts to adopt a more “green” lifestyle for the Gartner clan. It seems lately I have been acutely aware of how much waste my family of seven puts out and I have been trying to reduce our consumption of products with excessive, wasteful packaging.
Not only have I been trying to reduce our output of weekly waste we put out on the curb, but we have been working on making our house more energy efficient. We are currently in the process of getting some work done to make our 1920’s built, incredibly drafty home energy efficient- which isn’t easy if you can imagine. Not only are we working on updating various parts of our home inside and out, but I am learning news ways to clean my home without relying on an arsenal of expensive chemicals that are polluting the inside air.
This spring I plan on planting more flowers and a larger vegetable garden. I also might put in a few trees and shrubs. Sometime soon if times permits, I am going to put in a nature friendly, backyard pond.
Besides adopting a greener lifestyle, I have been trying to simplify my life with less clutter. I have been getting rid of material goods I don’t need and time wasters online and offline. Lately I feel like a breath of fresh air has come back into my life by making these changes. Adopting these changes hasn’t been easy, old habits die hard. Too there have been some humorous mishaps along the way and it all sort of reminds me of the Peanuts gang celebrating their first Arbor Day.
Without entirely giving it all away- I’ll give you the run down in case you have never seen it.
Charlie Brown’s little sister is humiliated in class when she wrongly answers the question “What is Arbor Day.” With the help of Linus, she discovers the history of Arbor Day. Soon Sally and Lucy who takes over, hatch a plan to create a beautiful Arbor Day project.
Lucy tells Charlie Brown, that she plans on doing the preseason upkeep on Charlie Brown’s ball field. Charlie Brown’s whole baseball team shows up to contribute some muscle. Here Snoopy and Woodstock are prepping the dirt by raking.
The finished Arbor Day project is beautiful… there’s only one problem. They planted the project in Charlie Brown’s baseball feild!
A shocked Charlie Brown faints when he sees his beloved ball feild for the first time. The most shocking feature however is the large tree growing in the middle of his pitcher’s mound.
Charlie Brown makes a go of playing Peppermint Patty’s team in his new field/Victory Garden. They outfit a scarecrow with a glove and make other adjustments that give them an advantage. For the first time ever, it looks like Charlie Brown may win a ball game.
Does Charlie Brown’s team win, will Lucy get kissed by Schroeder? I have posted the last ten minutes of It’s Arbor Day Charlie Brown below courtesy of YouTube.
Enjoy and Happy Arbor Day. (Arbor Day 2009 is Friday, April 24th.)
I love Snoopy’s double takes!
It’s funny… I always used to wonder why people traditionally do ’spring cleaning’, but the more I think about it, the more I see that it just seems to come naturally. A lot of people seem to take this time to clean out their clutter – be it household, garden, mental or cyberspace – including myself. It must be the longer days I suppose and the good weather. It makes us want to shake off the shroud of winter. It feels good though – I love the fresh, lighter feeling that comes with spring cleaning.
There is actually an Arbor Lodge State Park in Nebraska City, Nebraska. The park is the former estate and home of J. Sterling Morton, founder of Arbor Day. There is a very nice lodge, where I stayed several years ago when I was on a business trip to Cooper Station Nuclear Plant.
Having grown up in western Nebraska, I’ve known about Arbor Day for as long as I can remember.
So, they didn’t end up cutting down the tree on the pitcher’s mound to make some baseball bats?
Hi Jenny- I never really cared for Snoopy when I was a kid. I liked Charlie Brown and Lucy a lot. I liked Charlie Brown because I felt deeply sorry for him, and I liked Lucy because she was such an insane dictator.
I agree with you about “spring cleaning” coming naturally to people. It does feel good- I feel energized lately. Today it was 60 degrees, I had a very productive day, managed to even exercise. It’s nice to get out of the long winter months.
Mike- I am not sure if my children learn about Arbor Day. I was raised in Colorado and it is a very naturalist state so it was a part of the curriculum. We even planted a tree every year in the school yard. That was in the 70’s and the 80’s. Prior to that the hippies planted dope, but then Nancy Regan came along and said just Say NO to drugs. Ah the good old days.
Seriously- Nebraska is a pretty state and Iowa too. People don’t realize it only driving down the main highway. Now Kansas- that states a dog.
Dan- they cut down the tree on the pictures mound to make wooden handle rubber stamps. The End.
How did you like that ending…
If they had planted rubber trees, well, you know, one stone…
So what your saying is – it’s all about you and of course your rubber stamps. the world does not revolve around rubber stamps.
It revolves around Oprah and Ashton Kutcher. This is their world and we just live in it.
If I had a million followers I would try to take over the world. NARF!
Oh, I know the world doesn’t revolve around rubber stamps. I think the last order I had was an order for someone in Wisconsin.
Maybe Oprah will hire me to tweet for her. LOL!
Now that’s job security!
That was a cute post!
I *heart* Charlie Brown
Thanks for the movie … and the shutters are now purple.
I always had the hots for that Peppermint Patty too. (end quote)
Hi Speedcat- you did good, purple it must be a Minnesota thing…
This blog almost looks like the Vikings Site.
(he heeee)
Vikings eh? You look like a an old viking and smell like a bezerker!
I think Speedy’s right. This is a Vintage Vikings site. Purple, yellow. Definitely Vikings.
Yep, this is your place for Vintage Vikings on the net!
And, why is there an ad for Hooters Magazine 1992 on this site? The ads are for a vintage depression era glass, Hooters magazine and a vintage star handmade quilt. One of these things is not like the others. I’m picking the quilt, because the glass is depression era and the Hooters cover girl looks depressed, so those two obviously go together.
I’ll have to watch the ads for some vintage Vikings though.
All I see is ads on here for rubber stamps.
Then you’re in for a bad month of ad earnings because no one is buying rubber stamps these days!
Actually my other two sites are finally making money – thought we were in a recession and I have two sites that I don’t do much to and they are pulling in a $100 a month and steadily growing each month. This site makes about $100 every 3 months from Adsense… :0(