A Charlie Brown Potential Abduction

Hi Readers — A note from a friend, Mark Clark:

“Lenore, is it too late to report a crime that first occurred in 1965 and is repeated every year?  Charlie Brown’s parents allowed Charlie, and his buddy Linus, to go to the tree lot in their town UNACCOMPANIED BY ANY ADULT and purchase a tree for the school pageant.  Where’s the vigilance?  My God, won’t someone think of the  children?”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPG3zSgm_Qo]

Not quite the right clip, but you get the idea.

35 Responses to A Charlie Brown Potential Abduction

  1. Juliet Robertson December 8, 2010 at 8:59 pm #

    Sometimes one has to look through a magnifying glass to find something positive in a situation.

    Thank goodness they didn’t decide just to walk into their nearby forest and …CUT THE TREE DOWN THEMSELVES

    Imagine the outcry then!

    Now think of all those risky things Calvin got up to with his tiger Hobbes….I must go and lay down on my bulk supply of cotton wool that I bought for wrapping up my own son and recover.

  2. Anne December 8, 2010 at 9:09 pm #

    Geez, this is too much.
    In cartoons kids sometimes do things we wouldn’t let them do in real life.

    Dora does all sorts of things I wouldn’t let a child do with just a backpack and a monkey for company. Heck, I’m not about to let my child wander about unsupervised with a MONKEY.

    In children’s entertainment the focus is on CHILDREN. So often parents and guardians are edited out because they are uninteresting.

    How about we focus on real issues?

  3. Bonnie December 8, 2010 at 9:28 pm #

    Lol! Besides being in a potential abduction situation, they could’ve cut themselves on one of those shiny aluminum trees! Hazards abound!! 😉

  4. maggie walkup December 8, 2010 at 9:29 pm #

    I was actually thinking this same thing about Frosty the Snowman…except in that story the kids actually were “abducted” by frosty himself! The little girl ran through town (they DID stop at the stoplight but what if they HADN’T?), got on a train, wandered into frozen woods, played with wild animals, built a fire, was being chased by an evil magician and THEN she got in a stranger’s vehicle (Santa’s sleigh). Lucky for her he took her right home. I’m amazed she made it out in one piece!

  5. Heidi December 8, 2010 at 9:44 pm #

    @Anne

    We’re all adults, I think we know cartoons aren’t supposed to be real! It’s all in good jest at the worries parents subject themselves and their children to in real life!

    Besides, real or not, parents have been complaining that children might imitate cartoons and their “dangerous” antics since the dawn of time (or at least since the first incarnation of cartoons were printed on a medium children could see, I guess).

  6. Nanci December 8, 2010 at 9:50 pm #

    Should I even mention the movie Home Alone 🙂

  7. Heather December 8, 2010 at 9:54 pm #

    How ridiculous. I just went to http://www.macysinc.com/contact/general.aspx and sent them a comment about how stupid I think this is. I live in Chicago, where Macy’s isn’t very popular anyway, having bought and killed Marshall Fields. I told them I don’t intend to shop at their store any time soon. I encourage everyone to take a moment to send them a note. Maybe they’ll get the hint.

  8. Heather December 8, 2010 at 9:55 pm #

    Woops, wrong thread!! LOL!

  9. Robin December 8, 2010 at 10:02 pm #

    But even worse is the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Not only does Linus spend the whole night alone in a pumpkin patch, the kids are allowed to trick or treat without an adult! And Charlie Brown could have tripped on his ghost costume.

    Juliet – I LOVE Calvin and Hobbes, I’m 47 and I still read the books (yes, I own all of them!).

  10. gpo December 8, 2010 at 10:08 pm #

    I have been trying to call the police on those parents from Dragon Tales. I mean really they let their children go off for hours without a supervisor. That or those kids are doing some serious drugs to make those dragons appear.

  11. Tara December 8, 2010 at 10:32 pm #

    And the Gang was ice skating! Outside in the snow! Without a helmet or knee pads! And nary a parent in sight!

  12. coffeegod December 8, 2010 at 10:41 pm #

    ROFL! Not to mention, there are a ton of adultless kid homes on many tv programs. Max and Ruby immediately springs to mind and what about those Little Einsteins? They’re all over the galaxy all by themselves!

  13. alan December 8, 2010 at 10:53 pm #

    I was thinking about the “terrible song” from Santa Clause is Coming to Town (the cartoon). one line goes something like “if you sit on my lap to day a kiss a toy is the price you pay”. Strange men selling kisses to children??? Shocking!

  14. Uly December 8, 2010 at 10:56 pm #

    Anne clearly doesn’t understand sarcasm. The point is that Charlie Brown’s parents were NOT wrong to send their kids to fetch this tree, and that people SHOULD be willing to send their similarly-aged children on similar expeditions.

  15. LM December 8, 2010 at 11:00 pm #

    I just showed my 6 year old the video who guessed “Snoopy” from across the room in 2 notes. Name that Tune anyone! I said they’re not wearing helmets and he said, “Mom, they’re cartoons. They don’t need helmets.” Hehehe.

  16. paul December 8, 2010 at 11:07 pm #

    Well of COURSE Charlie had to get his own tree. They couldn’t understand a word any adult ever says. All they do is mumble.

  17. Mike December 8, 2010 at 11:22 pm #

    Not to threadjack, but there was a real life cartoon fiasco recently. And it involved everyone’s moral panic of the moment: facebook. A few weeks ago, someone got the idea that people would change their facebook pictures to look like cartoons from their childhood. It was kind of cool when everyone did it. Lots of happy memories and gleeful comments. Then yesterday, all of the pictures disappeared.

    I found out later why they disappeared. Someone started a rumor that the cartoon profile picture idea was started by pedophiles who wanted to use their pics to meet children. Really. Somehow millions of decent people posting cartoon pictures would enable pedophiles by … well, I’m not really sure how. But pedophiles!

    So all the pictures vanished instantly, not just from people who took the BS seriously but who didn’t want to be seen as supporting potential criminal activity.

    Pathetic.

  18. maggie walkup December 8, 2010 at 11:29 pm #

    I still don’t understand how adults changing their profile picture to a cartoon would have anything to do with pedophiles. I mean, there’s no logic. Really I think the opposite might be true…we all change our profile pictures to cartoons and then would-be facebook stalkers would have to dig through thousands and thousands of cartoon profiles to find a child. It would be such a fruitless task they’d give up! Also, doesn’t facebook have an age limit?

  19. BMS December 8, 2010 at 11:40 pm #

    Don’t you know? If you put up pictures of cartoon children someone could paste them onto naked cartoon bodies and generate cartoon child pornography. Please, think of the cartoon children.

  20. Heidi December 8, 2010 at 11:48 pm #

    Mike – I took mine down not because of the pedophiles but because I thought the thing was only suppose to go until the 6th.
    But I agree, the pedophiles tings was utter rubbish.

  21. pentamom December 9, 2010 at 12:27 am #

    Ditto what Heidi said. A lot of people did it just for the weekend, self included. But I did hear about that ridiculous pedophile scare connected with it. Snopes has something on it.

  22. pentamom December 9, 2010 at 12:29 am #

    maggie — the insanity went something like this: if people change their profile pictures to cartoons in order to speak out against child violence, kids will think they’re good, safe people, and friend them. But the pedophiles needed the cover of lots of people doing it, so everyone wouldn’t wonder why some adults had cartoons for pictures. Now all the hapless little children will friend the pedophiles, and presumably go on to meet them in dark alleys as well.

    People who think like that shouldn’t be allowed to vote or sign contracts.

  23. Stephanie - Home with the Kids December 9, 2010 at 12:40 am #

    Robin, it got me thinking about the Great Pumpkin too. How could they make a show with innocent children taking such horrible risks? /sarcasm

  24. pentamom December 9, 2010 at 12:53 am #

    How about Cindy Lou Who, getting out of bed at night to talk to a complete stranger (a rather sketchy-looking one, in fact) who came into her house? And ACCEPTING A DRINK FROM HIM???????

  25. KarenW December 9, 2010 at 12:54 am #

    I know this post is just supposed to be for fun, but seriously, I’ve known people who wouldn’t let their kids watch certain cartoons because of the “bad example.” I knew a lady who wouldn’t let her preschool kids watch Dragontails because it encouraged kids to (GASP!) keep secrets from their parents!

  26. Mike B December 9, 2010 at 12:55 am #

    If we really want to protect a child in danger, we’d have Social Services do something about Artemis Fowl. Geez…the kid lives on his own with only a butler (who is male, omg!), has a vast store of weapons, uses a computer without parental controls, initiates contact with shady strangers…clearly he would do better in a foster home.

    Re. Facebook, I too thought the connection between cartoon profile pictures and decreasing child abuse was pretty thin, but then again, I tend to be a curmudgeon on all those “million likes” and “change your status to save ___” ideas. However, I did play along because it was fun to think about my favorite cartoons from the 60’s and 70’s and to Google for pictures! 🙂

  27. oncefallendotcom December 9, 2010 at 1:05 am #

    This kind of reminded me vaguely of that time Tigger was accused of fondling a girl at Disneyland a few years ago…

    http://www.clickorlando.com/news/3616080/detail.html

  28. Rob O. December 9, 2010 at 1:34 am #

    Well, Linus -did- have his security blanket with him the whole time!

    But hey, at least we can’t accuse the Peanuts gang’s folks of being helicopter parents, eh?

  29. Lou Doench December 9, 2010 at 1:36 am #

    I often leave my facebook image untouched for months… mine will stay daffy duck for awhile

  30. EricS December 9, 2010 at 3:11 am #

    I haven’t watched Saturday morning cartoons in such a long time. But I remember when I was growing up, that there weren’t very many cartoon shows (starring children characters), with the cartoon parents looming over their kids activities. Even the my old favorite “The Little Rascals”, many of the episodes had the children running all overt town by themselves and getting into mischief. Except maybe for the After School Special, there wasn’t any shows indicating “stranger danger”, or “don’t go on the swing, you’ll hurt yourself”, and sharing food, drinks and toys was quite normal AND part of the moral of the story. What went wrong.

  31. Salguod December 9, 2010 at 6:31 am #

    If the Charlie Brown special is a potential abduction, you have to wonder what the response should be to the Cat in the Hat? Children left at home all day without a parent! Home invasion by a dubious character! Ambiguous message about reporting this to the parent! And what’s up with Thing One and Thing Two, anyway?

    And don’t even get me started on “Are You My Mother?”

  32. Larry Harrison December 9, 2010 at 8:54 am #

    Speaking of the Facebook profile thing–well I’m a practical guy & since Facebook is about who I am and making it to where people who knew me years ago can find me, I want the photo to be of me.

    So I don’t have my children in place of me either, like a lot of people do. I usually have a photo of me alone or me & my wife–but I do NOT have my kids alone there with me nowhere to be found. Since my page says “Larry Harrison” how much sense does it make to have my kids there instead of me–or to have Daffy Duck or Elmer Fudd there?

    LRH

  33. Nerida December 9, 2010 at 11:00 am #

    My facebook profile pic has been Calvin & Hobbes for a while now, because my scout leader name is Hobbes, and Hobbes is a cool tiger. I want to encourage that kind of attitude to life in the teens that I mentor. Unfortunately most of them have never heard of Calvin & Hobbes so I have to introduce this vital part of life to them all.

  34. Otto Henderson December 12, 2010 at 8:45 pm #

    @ Anne:
    This is a real issue. Too many times in my over half century of life have I heard that the media (in some form) is responsible for all, I say all, folks, of the problems in “Our. Great. Nation.”
    From the disgustingly unprofessional and sickly despicable Dr. Wertham’s crusade against comic books (comic books!) to the jaw-droppingly pathetic blaming of an androgynous singer (Marilyn Manson) for the Columbine shootings, it never seems to end and it has never, I repeat, ladies and gentlemen, has never been proven.
    So, Anne, if, in any form, any media is responsible for the problems facing Our. Great. Nation., then, by all means, we must stop this annual crime of:
    children being shown skating, at night, alone, with no mothers in sight (because the media has conclusively demonstrated that all males – fathers or not – are child molesters)
    children actually walking in areas of commerce with no mothers in sight
    children traveling from building to building, during the winter, with no mothers in sight, in daylight as well as darkness.
    You see, Anne, idiocy knows no limit and you can be quite sure that if the present trends of adult and parental idiocy do not end, this wonderful little show will become an issue for the very reasons cited above.
    (As an aside to the fantastic resiliency of the human spirit in the face of such idiocy, we do owe Dr. Wertham a debt for the cancellation of one comic line and the creation of the greatest, most subversive, most educational children’s magazine ever printed. Come on now, a Mighty Marvel No Prize to the first person to sing out the name of that great magazine!)

  35. Christy Ford December 19, 2010 at 1:02 pm #

    What I love the most is the idea of them putting the Christmas play together by themselves. Scripts, costumes, music, casting, all done by a group of kids. Brilliant.