Poor Charlie Brown

One of my favorite things about this time of year....starting in October through December is watching the Charlie Brown specials. First, we have "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" for Halloween, then "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving," and "A Charlie Brown Christmas."
Did you know that the Christmas episode came out in 1965, the Halloween special in'66 and the Thanksgiving episode in '73?! I had no idea some of them were older than me!! =P
Of course, I remember watching them every year of my childhood, so that only makes sense!! Ha!
But there is an aspect of these shows that bother me. Why do they have to be so mean to Charlie Brown?? How could Lucy be so cruel as to pull the football away from Charlie EVERY single time?! Why do they have to call him a "block head" and WHY does Charles Shultz have to make it where Charlie Brown gets a rock in his trick or treat bag at every house?! Seriously, how much can a kid handle?! Poor guy!
What's funny is that as I was writing this I was looking through some write ups about these episodes and here is one I found on "It's the Great Pumpkin..."
This is from Wikipedia:

Charlie Brown's repeated line of "I got a rock" caused some stir among many viewers of the show, according to Charles Schulz. Schulz said that after the program first aired, bags and boxes of candy came in from all over the world "just for Charlie Brown."

I guess I'm not the only one that was bothered by the repeated rocks in Charlie's bag!!
You just can't beat the Christmas episode when Linus goes to center stage and quotes the second Chapter of Luke, verses 8-14! That is so awesome!

Even though I have my issues with how badly Charlie Brown's neighbors and so-called friends treat him, I will continue to watch these specials every year as it is a tradition that I have already began with my own kids!