IIRC, and I know I do RC :D, Woodstock was introduced when a pair of those robin-like birds built a nest on Snoopy’s bulgy little stomach as he was reposing on the roof of his doghouse. Snoopy tolerated this for a while, lying dutifully in place, and then had no choice when two tiny baby birds appeared – each having Woodstock’s familiar fuzzy head.
After a while, the chicks tried to learn how to fly but always returned to the nest. Snoopy got more and more annoyed and finally yanked the nest off his stomach. The two birdlets were forced to fly off, or so Snoopy thought. One returned, exhausted, to Snoopy’s stomach.
This bird kept trying and failing to fly off (I believe Snoopy realized he was afraid of heights). Finally there was a strip where Snoopy says, “I finally found out the name of that stupid little bird who hangs out here–” Cue droll look to the “audience” – “Woodstock.”
The bird was a little taller and didn’t develop Woodstock’s shorter, fuzzier appearance for a couple of years, but that was related to the developing artwork of the strip. He’s definitely the same dizzy little guy who tried and failed to leave the nest.
– choie, who’s been following Peanuts since her mom bought her the original Fawcett strip reprints in the late '60s/early '70s.
Perhaps a Western Goldfinch? The males are very yellow in the summer. They’re my state bird, but they do range down into California, including Sebastopol (the town Peanuts is set in). Schultz probably just didn’t bother to do the black feathers.
It wasn’t. For one thing, many Peanuts strips set during the winter feature snow–something you almost never see in Sebastopol, California. Actually, if you want to fix a specific location on where the strip is set, a more convincing argument can be made for Minnesota (which is where Schulz grew up).
Found my copies of the relevant strip reprints. Frankly I’m shocked at how easily I was able to find the strips from my dozens of books, but that just shows you how strong the memories were.
Not a complete chronicle of Woodstock’s intro, but the most significant strips are scanned below.
First, from either 1965 or '66, the origin (reprinted in 1972’s What Now, Charlie Brown?):
I don’t get the joke in the name “Woodstock” though. I mean, I’m familiar with the Woodstock festival, but the strip appears before the event and it doesn’t make sense as a reference to that, anyway.
Woodstock was actually named in 1970 - here’s the strip at comics.com, date and all. (If you zoom you can read the copyright date on the strip itself.)
Crapples I’m a nimrod – I knew it was June 22 '70! I even have that in the strip’s description on my album. I was distracted by looking at too many reprint books.
The gag with Woodstock was probably that a) it’s a weird name for a bird, and b) it was a seminal pop-culture event that had recently caused a stir. The Peanuts kids weren’t very trend-oriented and I think Snoopy considered it a bit eye-rolly that the bird named himself Woodstock.
Of course the nestlings were really born nearly four years prior to the festival, but since time stood relatively still in Peanutsland, I guess it was possible for Woodstock to have been named Woodstock by his mom. (Or perhaps he named himself. Or maybe Woodstock’s mom was originally from NY and the fact that it became famous later on was pure coincidence.)
And that’s really as much fan-wanking as I should be doing for Schulz’s winking reference.
Pretty sure the bird hippie appears when Linus drags Snoopy (and either Sally or Peppermint Patty) on his Great Pumpkin vigil. One strip ends when there’s an ominous rustle in the leaves and everyone’s certain it’s the Great Pumpkin; the next strip has Peppermint Patty (or Sally) pissed off with Linus for the false positive, and we only learn the truth when Snoopy comments that the commotion was just a bird hippie. The character might appear in one more follow-up but I don’t think it shows up again.
Re: the Beagle Scout discrepency – hey, it’s not like Eagle Scouts are populated by birds!
