A night at the Schulz Museum
Rich was invited to perform Guaraldi tunes, and Wanda and I got to be there.
In my earlier post about how much our family loves Vince Guaraldi (of Peanuts soundtrack fame), I mentioned that Rich had been invited to perform Guaraldi tunes at the Charles M. Schulz Museum, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Peanuts special Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, and the first-ever release of its soundtrack. That event happened weekend before last, and we had a swell time.
Rich played piano along with Amy Friedrickson on upright bass, and Tom Williard on drums. The band was formed just for this performance, and they came up with the band name Playing for Peanuts. Rich greatly enjoyed their rehearsal sessions in the lead up to the performance. They seemed to be a big hit with the crowd.
The Valentines-themed party was an evening event only for members of the museum, but Wanda and I got to ride on Rich's coattails and come along anyway. It was fun to get all dolled up for the night, it had been a while. I wore a beautiful, red vintage 1950s dress I bought years ago from Relic Vintage in the Haight. I wore heels! I wore foundation! I wore a bra! (My boobs were mad at me for dayyyyys.)
Event celebrating the 50th Anniversary of "Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown" at the Charles Schulz Museum, video by Lee Mendelson Film Productions
The museum is in Santa Rosa, about an hour and a half north of where we live. It's where Charles Schulz lived and worked for many years, so there is a lot of hometown pride for Peanuts in Santa Rosa. If there's one thing I love, it's infectious enthusiasm. I spent a lot of the night chit-chatting with people who love Peanuts very much. One of the yellow-vested museum volunteers was a choir member on some of the earliest Guaraldi recordings, and shared his fond memories of getting to work with him. He was married to another museum volunteer, who had been one of Schulz's assistants!
I'm kicking myself for missing the presentation given by the sons of Lee Mendelson, the producer of all the old Peanuts specials; I bet I would have loved it. Wanda was her will-o'-the-wisp self; she found a herd of kids to play with, did some Valentines crafts, and ate a bunch of cookies and cupcakes.
I was pleased to see so many masks at the event! We wear masks when we're indoors anywhere, and let me tell you, they just plain work.
Rich Trott and the Playing for Peanuts trio performing "Linus & Lucy" at the Charles Schulz Museum, video by Humu Trott
While we were in Santa Rosa, we noticed they have multiple locations of Dutch Bros. coffee drive-thrus, a chain we're familiar with from visits to family in Oregon. Apparently their spores are spreading deep into Northern California now. If you're not familiar, they are famous for two things: hyper-sweet coffees loaded with flavored syrups (I get the B-52: coffee with Irish cream and orange), and hyper-sweet demeanors in aggressively friendly overdrive. This is enthusiasm that is not infectious. I am morbidly curious about their training. Are there mandatory videos? Coaching? Is there a Dutch Bros. boot camp?? A super fun thing you can do is answer their absurdly chipper "WHAT ARE YOU GALS UP TO TODAY?!" with something like, "I'm getting evicted," or "my cat died." We got coffee on the way out of town, but I was good this time.
This week, the latest issue of Wanda's The Week Junior magazine mentioned the new soundtrack! It's available on digital services, and on vinyl and CD.