Joe Cool, Game, Set, Match – Made by Frank Howard Allen Santa Rosa agent Jeanie Olson – and one of 94 statues created for a 2007 tribute to Peanuts creator Charles Schulz.

Many of us grew up reading the Peanuts comic-strip. As kids, we all identify with the characters…whether having a Charlie Brown moment when we try but fail again, or dreaming we are Snoopy and setting out on a fabulous adventure. As adults, we see the cast of characters from a larger perspective and understand how they can at once represent our inner child, teach us a life lesson, and make us smile. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz was a genius and brought those beloved characters to life for nearly 50 years. His body of work and the reach he had throughout this world is unparalleled (his Peanuts comic strip was read by 355 million people during its peak and he is the only American comic strip artist to be honored with a retrospective at the Louvre in France).

Which is why it’s no wonder that his influence is felt throughout Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, where Schulz lived and worked for most of his career. The Sonoma County airport is named for him, the library at Sonoma State University is named in honor of Schulz and his wife Jean, and one cannot miss the “people-size” statues of the various Peanuts characters sprinkled around Santa Rosa– but nowhere is his spirit more alive than Hardies Lane, located two blocks from his art studio and home to the Redwood Empire Ice Arena (also called Snoopy’s home ice, Schulz would walk from his studio to the rink for meals at the Warm Puppy Café) and the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, which opened in 2002.

We are fortunate to have this fabulous, dynamite and ever-evolving museum and research center in our community. The museum is small in scale but rich in content; you can walk through at a quick pace or stop to enjoy the nuances. One special treat is the two-story-high mural Charlie Brown, Lucy and the Football, which is a mosaic of a classic Charlie Brown scene made from over 3,000 Peanuts strips printed on ceramic tiles. Another unique item is a wall from Schulz’s Colorado Springs home on which he painted a mural for his daughter in 1951. The wall was later discovered by subsequent owners, resurrected and carefully relocated to the museum. In addition to permanent exhibits, there are opportunities to see other established and up-and-coming cartoonists on the second Saturday of every month. There are also Museum Mondays, which are special mornings for children aged 1-5 that take place the fourth Monday of each month from March through September and every Monday from October through February.

The Schulz family has been so very generous in their support of local efforts in education, the environment and social areas. The museum and Schulz’s legacy are a big point of pride for our area and add to the special quality of where we live.

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Posted by:  Frank Howard Allen Realtors