Peanuts Begins by Charles Schulz for July 25, 2015

Dick Cheney, age 4.

Every time I see “Peanuts Begins” I visualize a dark, gritty reboot where Charlie Brown has a voice that sounds like he’s been gargling with rocks.

And I guess we’re back to Snoopy being the neighborhood dog rather than clearly Charlie Brown’s.

“Be vewy, vewy quiet! We’re hunting wabbits! Heheheheheh!”

I had one of those cork-on-a-string popguns when I was a kid. Of course, we got rid of the string as soon as we got out of our parents’ eyesight. Then we saw what else we could find to shoot from the popgun, like gravel and pebbles. Good times.

I’d forgotten all about pop guns. I remember having one when I was little.

Pop guns, hobby horses, Lincoln Logs, toy blocks…back when the child’s imagination was the limit, not the memory card.

How those pop guns worked?

Interesting: Snoopy is demonstrating a very un-beagle-like trait in this strip.

I had a pop gun that shot ping pong balls…

This might be the only Shermy and Snoopy strip.

Some of those pop guns actually ran a metal plunger up the barrel to push the air that popped the cork. The plunger came up far enough to get your finger if you stuck it down the barrel and pulled the trigger. Then you would cry and cry. This I remember well from when I was about 3. And that’s been 50 years.