It violated canon in this way: Charlie Brown misspells “beagle” as “beagel” rather than “maze” as “mays”.
Which is not, IMO, an innocent change as there was a clear explanation in the latter (textual) case, but not in the former, except perhaps that Charlie Brown is just stupid.
Good point! But a jaw harp is hard to see while it’s being played. Still, what I was trying to say was not that Snoopy was never drawn playing a jaw harp, but rather that it would most likely capture people’s imaginations more when it could be heard.
I think that was always the appeal of Peanuts - the universality of its observations and lessons.
On a related note, does anyone but me remember “The Gospel According to Peanuts”? My Sunday school teacher had a copy! And apparently Charles Schultz was a big fan.
Nasty little heathen that I was, discovering that the strip had become entangled in Christian theology contributed to me liking Peanuts less, not more.
I bet that they didn’t use this strip.
Probably not, since the book is from 1965 while that strip was published in 1976. But other than that, I don’t see why it wouldn’t have been used. Apparently that strip was mentioned in a later book by the same author.
I am several decades older. Tops were a toy, but the “war” game played with them apparently went out after Jean Shepherd was a child- he writes about it. Kids did have marbles, I had some, but I do not remember anyone playing the classic game, however some kids talked about it, so I guess it was still around but going out of fashion. Some little girls played jacks and hopscotch, and when taking a walk in the neighborhood, I saw some kids had drown one on the sidewalk, so it must be still around.
Ball games, toy guns, toy soldiers, and dinosaurs were what I remember, along with Lincoln Logs, etc.
That’s a good point that I forgot about. I also see hopscotch drawn onto sidewalks when I’m walking around in Austin. The elementary school where I take my nephew usually has a few drawn around the playground. My elementary school had a few permanent ones painted around the grounds but I don’t remember anyone playing on them.
It would not surprise me to find out that games cycle in and out of style, e.g. maybe marbles and warring tops are currently out, but hopscotch and “wall ball” are in, mutandis mutatis.
In the early 70s, us boys got into jacks. We’d all play them, even on the school bus. And that wasn’t easy. No stigma about playing a “girl’s game”.
We were just little trendoids back then. No different than modern kids, I suppose.
In the mid-1970’s I remember me and my step-brothers sort of experimenting with marbles, jacks and tiddlywinks which we had all seen on TV (old reruns like Leave it to Beaver) or in comics strips (like Peanuts). Even then they seemed old fashioned and really paled against the technological marvel that was Pong or the sheer destructive joy of pulling a Stretch Armstrong until he started “bleeding” (I mean they literally filled the thing with bright red goop - what were they thinking?).
“It Runs in the Family,” aka “My Summer Story,” is kindasorta the sequel to “A Christmas Story.” It still has the same characters but the casting is completely different. E.g. the old man is Charles Grodin, not Darren McGavin. That film shows the war with the tops.
And watching that clip explains why My Summer Story isn’t as beloved by all. That’s painful to watch.
Jean Shepard was a genius. But due to Darren McGavin and the inspired cast, I will venture to say the film was better than the source. But in the “sequel”, it wasn’t half as good, although still entertaining it is by no means a classic…
A Christmas Story= A+++
My Summer Story= C-
Okay, so I was at the flea market, and had this exchange with a seller:
Her: What’cha looking for?
Me: Peanuts stuff.
Her: There’s a guy in the next aisle with a popcorn machine; maybe he has peanuts too…
Me: No – Charlie Brown and Snoopy Peanuts.
Her: Oh! Yeah, I have some Snoopy stuff.
IOW, what FrostedGlass and MrDibble said.
Isn’t the tops game kind of the ancestor of Beyblades?
The main source is the dailies, specifically 2/4 through 2/19/66. In the movie, CB gets words which are relevant to his personality or that of his human associates and nails 'em. Then they get to a word relevant to his canine associate…
Well, if I knew what Beyblades were… 
Yep, that is a sort of top.
The sort of tournaments played with them are similar to the top wars that existed in the thirties and forties that Jean Shepherd wrote about. 