“Sparky” was a klutz. Even he would admit that he was a klutz. In fact Sparky kind of owned the fact that he would forever be a klutz. However sparky was an eternal optimist, and believed things would work out in the end.
Sparky had been given his nickname, after a cartoon character, a horse named Sparkplug. He would own the nickname his entire life.
Sparky was terrible in school. He failed every subject in the eighth grade. In high school he got a 0 in Physics-the worst student in history. He flunked Latin, Algebra, and English. He was a failure in sports. He made the school’s golf team but lost every match. No one knows how he would have been at dating, because he never asked a girl out. He was too afraid of being turned down.
Sparky was a loser. He knew it, everyone knew it. But Sparky kept trying. When something bad happened he just dusted himself off and tried again. Somehow things would work out. He was content with his destiny. But there was one thing that Sparky enjoyed doing, he loved to draw pictures. Cartoons of his favorite characters, or anything he came across. But he was a failure at this.
Again no one else appreciated it. In his senior year he sent some cartoons to the editors of the yearbook and was rejected… they didn’t use it. This was just one more loss for Sparky to endure. But Sparky was undaunted, he enjoyed drawing so he would be an artist. After graduation he wrote a letter to Disney studios listing his qualifications-and again was rejected. He received a polite form letter, saying they hired only the best artists.
So he wrote his own cartoon strip. He wrote about himself. He made fun of himself. He wrote about a boy that had a difficult time in life. A boy that was a loser. He wrote his own autobiography in cartoons. He wrote about a boy that failed at everything he tried. He described himself in a cartoon which is now famous. The boy whose kite got caught in a tree, who missed the football every time he tried to kick it. The boy who loved the little red-headed girl, but she was always out of reach.
The Christmas program which you have watched every year since 1965. About a boy who picked out such a miserable Christmas tree, that it became a symbol of the simplicity of Christmas. The author of The beloved comic strip we call Peanuts. The character, Charlie Brown, written by Charles Monroe “Sparky” Schultz.
He was turned down by his only love interest, when she married another man. If you measure success by wealth, he made more money in a year then Judge Judy, or Oprah, with comic strips in 2,500 papers, and that was back when a dollar was real money. He won numerous awards, and was probably the most recognized cartoonist ever.
If you’ll allow me one last Christmas story:
“The bloody red Baron had Snoopy in his sights,
“But he simply hollered out,
“’Merry Christmas my friend.’ ”
Merry Christmas!
— James Neuhouser
