I wonder if “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” is on TV tonight? How perfect would that be? I think back so fondly on my childhood, watching Peanuts’ Specials on CBS, eating popcorn my Mom made, not in the microwave but with a hot air popcorn machine. When it was plugged in, the TV would get lines of snow across the screen because the popper sucked up too much electricity or at least that’s what my dad told me. I wasn’t allowed to reach in and get the popcorn until the machine stopped popping corn because my mom said I might get hit by a hot old maid. I thought she was crazy but sure enough, I once reached in to grab a beautiful, fluffy piece of popped corn and at that exact moment, a burning hot old maid shot out and hit me on my ring finger causing a little round blister to form. It also turned me into an old maid as well. Damn that cursed kernel! My mom always gave me my own little bowl of popcorn and I would flop in front of the TV, on my belly, my elbows dug deep into the shag brown carpeting, shoving the popcorn into my mouth and waiting for the spinning SPECIAL sign that would signal the start of the Holiday inspired cartoon:

More so than the cartoon, I remember the commercials. They were better than the special presentation! There was the commercial for Scotch Tape featuring the Invisible Man:

And York Peppermint Patties:

And Polaroid commericials featuring James Garner and Mariette Hartley:

I always thought they were married! But I also always mixed up Mariette Hartley with Sarah Purcell- I don’t know why. At any rate, I’m gonna do a lap around the channels and see what kind of Holiday programming might be on.