Peanuts by Charles Schulz for January 02, 2019

Which planet, Peppermint Patty, Venus?

My high school put in a dress code in my senior year during the fourth quarter. Or was it the third? Didn’t matter, never had to worry about it because it was supposed to go into effect the following year. But they wanted all of us seniors to know about the dress code and other changes that the new principal passed that year. I mean the announcement was made sometime between January and May with them (it wasn’t the new principal, can’t remember who exactly it was though) finishing the announcement by saying “You senior’s don’t have to worry about this because you’ll have graduated by the time all of these changes go into affect”.

Our dress code included not being able to wear our school colors.

1974 was when our district changed the dress code to allow girls (and women teachers) to wear pants to school. Women were wearing pantsuits everywhere else, and with the energy crisis it was the teachers demanding the ability to wear pants at work. The janitor had always worn long underwear under his uniform anyway, and set the thermostats so he was comfortable. Little girls in dresses and kneesocks and lady teachers in pantyhose could freeze all day for all he cared.

Poor Patty always gets the shorts end of the stick!

My cousin once sent me a true story about a schoolboy who refused to adhere to his school’s dress code. His mom punished him by taking away his videogame and Internet privileges. He apologized, intending to get her to unpunish him, and when she didn’t, he threw a fit.

“Piggy?” I guess this strip was close enough to the 60’s when the term “pig” was an derogatory term for a policeman.

I remember this, cue “the world famous lawyer”

Try wading through waist-deep snow in a dress, that was the mid-50s. Wore snow pants underneath and then reported first thing to the furnace room where we would hang them up to dry and retrieve them before we went home. Not great in a place where the real them can get 30 to 40 F below. Twenty years later, I’m stationed in Iceland and the same thing, still wading through snow, just warmer, have to wear a skirt to work only this time not allowed to wear pants underneath.

I was half expecting Peppermint Patty to say “to a new comic strip” in the last panel. But that wasn’t really Schulz’ style for the most part.

So boys will have to wear dresses?

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Call Elon Musk. He has the passenger list.

Same in most restaurants: the thermostat is set for the servers who are running back and forth. Diners shiver or leave their coats on!

Why does Peppermint Party have to insult poor Pig-Pen?

Fight it, Patty. Give it one for all of us who don’t want to wear a school uniform.

If I remember correctly, this is the strip series where we find out Peppermint Patty’s real full name.

Take me with you please.

Actually, I had an old classmate from elementary who got away with wearing sandals to school.