Woodstock Comes Home to Roost

That time Peanuts cartoonist and fellow Californian Charles M. Schulz helped me decorate my bedroom.

I came across this vintage Snoopy and Woodstock poster online a few years ago. Seeing it again brought back a childhood memory.

Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz moved his family from Minnesota to Sonoma County, California, when he was 36 years old. He lived there for the rest of his life, first in Sebastopol, then in Santa Rosa. A little known fact: Schulz enjoyed ice sports and owned the Redwood Empire Ice Arena in Santa Rosa. The arena opened in 1969 and is more commonly known as Snoopy’s Home Ice.

You are probably too young to remember, but until the late ’60s, Snoopy was a solo act. He hung out at his dog house, working on his latest novel and playing the cynical straight man in Charlie Brown’s sadly comical life. Snoopy didn’t venture very far, except in his mind, where he valiantly fought the Red Baron, or when he walked his empty food dish up to Charlie Brown’s front door demanding a refill. Occasionally, migrating birds would stop by on their way north or south for a game of cards. But overall, Snoopy was a loner.

In March of 1966, that all changed when a single bird flew into Snoopy’s life and stayed, becoming the World War I Flying Ace’s mechanic and Snoopy’s best friend and sidekick. On June 22, 1970, Schulz gave the bird a name—Woodstock.

Around the same time Schulz was opening an ice rink 500 miles north of me and giving this little yellow bird a name, I asked my mom for a Woodstock poster to hang in my bedroom in Coronado, California. I was taken aback when my mom not only refused, but was appalled I’d asked. It took a few weeks for us to clear the matter up—my mom thought her innocent 10-year-old daughter was asking for a poster depicting the hedonistic, drug-fueled, free-love hippie-fest that had taken place the summer before near Woodstock, New York. I had no idea what she was talking about. I only knew Woodstock as Snoopy’s bird friend. My mom breathed a sigh of relief, and Santa surprised me with this poster for Christmas.

Today, a framed 4” by 6” print of the same poster sits on my desk. I’ve always thought it was funny my mom chose this particular poster—it’s quite cynical for a 10-year-old. But it always makes me laugh when I think of her picking it out. It’s one of the ways I keep my mom with me, and looking at it puts a smile on my face when the workday gets rough.