Cartoonist's wife not surprised by impact of 'Pumpkin'

Tradition was important to Charles Schulz, according to his widow Jeanne Schulz. And tradition — the long-standing art of cartooning — is a big part of what they are doing now at the museum that bears his name, The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, Calif.

The Schulzes began talking about the museum in 1996, but "Sparky," as the cartoonist was known to friends and family, was busy with other things. "We actually didn't break ground until three months after he died," Jeanne said by phone from the facility. "The museum opened in 2002. We get about 50,000 visitors a year."

Among the displays are some of Charles Schulz's original strips. People are surprised to see the size, she says. They are about 7 inches high and 21 to 17 inches long, "but that's the size he drew. And the beauty of it is that you can see the emotion in every line."

From time to time, visiting cartoonists come to give talks and demonstrations, but people can also come and take classes and lessons.

And there's a gallery of magazine covers, newspaper articles, awards and other honors, including the Congressional Gold Medal Sparky received posthumously in 2001.

Jeanne says she's not surprised that "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" has had such an impact, "although it is amazing to think that 2 1/2 generations have now grown up with it."

The characters "are wonderful. The Flying Ace was so unusual. Lucy pulling the football. Poor Charlie Brown. But all of Sparky's characters had such an authenticity. He drew the strip for 50 years, and he was able to do it without repeating himself. Life is repetition, but he kept finding something different."

Jeanne was not married to Sparky at the time "The Great Pumpkin" came along. "We weren't married until 1973." But she remembers him being proud of it. "The thing about Halloween is that almost everyone has memories of it.

"Almost every child has about 10 years of wearing costumes and trick-or-treating. It's an American tradition."

In honor of the show's 40th anniversary, the museum helped sponsor an essay contest looking for the worst Halloween experiences. "Sparky's daughter read them all, and picked out the best," says Jeanne. "There was a lot of evidence that people can relate to Charlie Brown's kind of Halloween, and to the disappointment Linus endured."

But Jeanne says that one of the things she likes most about the Great Pumpkin story is that underlying message of hope. "That's what we humans are made of."

The cartoon's producer, Lee Mendelson, agrees. If there is any lasting legacy from "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," he hopes it is a legacy of hope. "Things change. People change. But we need to keep hope alive."