[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter
This year is the 50th anniversary of “It’s A Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” While it’s hard to believe that this classic film has been around for half a century, its relevance today is demonstrated by the unfiltered joy and excitement of the children aged four through ten who turned out at the Medfield Parks and Recreation Center to not only watch the film, but be a part of the joy that it creates.
Led by instructor Ana Coneely, before the actual film was shown, the kids had the chance to make their own dinner and dessert. They began with jack-o-lantern grilled cheeses accompanied by Snoopy dancing juice and followed with furry bat cookies. “How many of you have seen ‘It’s A Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown?’” Ana asked of the fifteen or so kids there. More than half of then eagerly raised their hands. She then asked, “And what does Charlie get when he goes trick-or-treating?”
One younger boy yelled out, “Rocks!”
As a side to their grilled cheese-o-laterns, each child had a “bag of rocks” (or as they are more colloquially known, cheese balls).
The kids squirmed in their seats, eager to choose the face of their grilled cheese sandwich and to decorate their cookies with frosting and sprinkles. One little boy couldn’t wait and started to crumble his cookie to bits, eating them as he went. When everyone had finally eaten, the movie finally began. Each child was able to fill a Great Pumpkin bag with ghost lollipops, candy corn marshmallows, and Halloween gummies. They also each got a witch’s popcorn hand – the spookiest of movie watching treats.
Quietly, the children were bewitched by the screen - both those who were veteran Charlie Brown watchers and not. Offered a rare opportunity to be a part of the world of Charlie Brown, it was apparent that the magic that the gang of Linus, Snoopy, Charlie, and Peppermint Patty create hasn’t faded, but may have grown stronger, with each passing year.
