In time, Schroeder and Lucy will catch up with Charlie Brown, while Linus will either catch up or be a year behind (they eat lunch together at school). Sally, who was born after the others settled in around the same age, will ultimately be just slightly younger than Linus. Snoopy, definitely a puppy in the early years, grows into an awkward sort-of adolescent and finally a compact, eccentric adult. Woodstock has his own nest so is presumably grown up, but gives the impression of being pushed into the world a bit early.
Mike started out as a laughable jerk, spending much of his time trying to pick up girls. For the strip to last he had to become reasonably sympathetic, and spent much of his time as ringmaster to more colorful characters. For a long time his story arc was frankly depressing: His wife left him and his advertising career dissolved, so he was a struggling single dad. Then Trudeau took pity and made him prosperous (in high tech, opening up that for satire). So for many years Michael Doonesbury has been happy, successful, and essentially a nice guy … forcing Trudeau to look elsewhere for the sharper laughs. Mike’s complaint is a meta one about his significance in the strip rather than a gripe about his circumstances. He joins Barney Google, Walt Wallet, Kerry Drake, Judge Parker, Steve Roper, and other titular stars gently edged into secondary roles.
Jeff isn’t factoring in his own costs. Ancient joke has a young man telling his girl, “I make $200 a month. Could you live on that?” She answers, “Sure, but what would you live on?”
Rita Rudner had a line to the effect that the old wisdom was that men mature later, so marry an older one. Her update was that men don’t mature, so go ahead and marry a younger one.
A bit of time warpage: Kim was introduced as a Vietnamese infant adopted by an American couple; her thing was free association of catchphrases and buzzwords from TV. She grew older, eventually having to deal with Asian overachiever stereotypes in high school. Michael and most of the core cast were frozen in college years until Trudeau took a sabbatical, during which time he wrote a Doonesbury stage musical in which they graduated and Michael married (to Joanie’s daughter JJ, who in the strip grew from child to adult while Michael was still an underclassman). When the strip resumed Michael & Co. began aging, but Kim’s head start made her an adult when she met Michael, both employees of Bernie.
This sort of thing happens elsewhere. In the supposedly naturally aging “Gasoline Alley” Rufus and Joel look no older than they did in the 60s. In “Peanuts” the kids were originally scattered from toddlers (Linus and Schroder) to grade schoolers; now most of them seem to be in the same class (Linus is at least a year younger than Lucy but is usually doing stuff with Charlie Brown and the gang; at the same time he’s been shown in the same class as Sally, originally several years younger). Prince Valiant and Aleta are looking impossibly good even as their children have become middle-aged. Unwrinkled Rip Haywire’s adopted son has grown from a small boy into a shaved-head bruiser (making it a little weird that he views the still-hot Cobra as a mother figure). And while the Phantom is supposedly a dynasty, the current Phantom and his bride (Kit Walker and Diana Palmer) have held their jobs since the 1930s. And don’t get me started on house pets.
Maybe I lived a privileged life, but I don’t remember kites lasting more than a year. They were cheap paper and came from Rexall Drugs, rolled up around the two sticks. Fancy ones, like the picture of Superman on a clear plastic backing, cost more and those we’d put away and maybe find again.
New fan theory: Marcie of Peanuts moved to China with her political dissident parents, and grew up to be an interpreter. She was drawn by Duke’s demanding and irrational behavior, which mirrored her relationship with Peppermint Patty …
Baseball is a thing in England, or was this altered for the American market?