Peanuts Begins by Charles Schulz for July 02, 2022

do you know your father’s age, Charlie Brown?

The problem is, Schroeder’s dad’s age keeps changing. Beethoven isn’t getting any older.

Wow. That evil little smile on Charlie Brown’s face in the third panel just before he springs the “GOTCHA!” on Schroeder!

I often have to first remember when they were born then do the math. Takes a few.

I forget how old I am!

I remember in about 2nd grade when doing a “report” (ie copying stuff out of an encyclopaedia, which was what we did then) on Daniel Boone, how excited I got when I realised you could just subtract the person’s DOB from their death date and know how old they were.

This is one of those few times that I agree with Charlie Brown.

Hum … I understand that a person can love his idol so much. It’s like a form of worship.

Cool it, CB. Shroeder hasn’t read his Dad’s biography…yet.

I never knew my parent’s age until later in my life!

This reminds me of my older daughter. She can state the statistics on a large number of motor sports drivers (ALL classes). Thankfully, she does remember our birthdays.

Gotcha!!!

To be fair, Beethoven’s age isn’t changing. Dad’s is. Sometimes I have to do the subtraction trick to figure out how old I am.

There were times I’d be with Dad and the question of his age would come up. He had to think about it to get the answer. I was amazed he didn’t know immediately.

My dad would have been 90 in about 2 weeks. I miss him.

It’s all where our priorities are. A few years back, a stand up comic (can’t remember which one) asked his audience how many people knew the words to the Star Spangled Banner (I’m just talking about the first verse here). About a third of the people in the room raised their hands. Then he started to sing, “Here’s the story of man named Brady…”

Everybody in the room joined in.

And how old is YOUR dad Charlie Brown?

It’s interesting that Schroeder understood what Charlie Brown meant by his question. Schroeder might have answered “when?” or “do you mean how old did Beethoven live to be?”

My dad outlived Mozart, but did not outlive Beethoven. I’ve outlived Beethoven; I haven’t yet outlived Brahms, but I expect to. I don’t, however, expect to outlive J.S. Bach.

(For the record Mozart outlived Schubert, but Schubert outlived Sid Vicious.)