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“It all started when my oldest son, Monte, was in high school and was involved with an art class where the project was a coat-hanger sculpture. He was telling me about it one day while we were riding home in the car from school, and he said that he was going to transform a coat hanger into the figure of a baseball pitcher. It sounded like a good idea to me, and I was anxious to hear about the final results.
“Several weeks went by before he mentioned it again, and this time he told me that the teacher had handed back the projects and he had received a C on his coat-hanger sculpture. I remember being quite disturbed by this, because I could not understand how a teacher was able to grade this kind of project. I thought about it as the months went by, and finally translated it into the Sunday page where Sally expresses her indignation over receiving the same grade for her piece of coat-hanger sculpture.”
– Charles M. Schulz
Andy,
I’ve sent your e-mail address to Monte, to be sure you guys can connect.
Monte,
It’s been years, mate. I’ve been meaning to write — happy birthday — and send a copy of my recent novel — we share all with the world today, I’ve read the controversy re the bio. I met your dad only a couple of times and when I recall the joys of reading Peanuts and also know only too well the pain from a bad review, I can only wonder how an unfair, commercially slanted text might settle. Lets catch up. Andy Mac
Happy Birthday, Monte! We are all looking forward to the essays, especially yours!
Isn’t Art a ridiculous subject to grade in school? My daughter, 12, has some inherent talent, but only got at B this term! It’s so subjective. I always got A’s, as did Doug, I imagine. [In Art? Almost always. – DogRat] Wish I had kept it up. The wire hanger incident with your dad is really great, sort of the opposite of the infamous Joan Crawford and “NO WIRE HANGERS!” 😉
Thanks for the birthday greeting! I appreciate it. I’m going to celebrate tomorrow by sending off my essay to Gary Groth for distribution to the other four essayists. I guess mine’s the longest, but it’s not perfect by any means. I’m going over it tonight, fixing things here and there. It’s one of those “it is what it is” kind of pieces. Like that hanger art sculpture I did in high school Dad wrote about. I still think his take on it was funny because, really, I deserved the “C” I got, no question at all. How can you judge art? How about by effort? And on that, I deserved my low grade. You gotta give a fair attempt, don’t you? I never did make Dad see that, but I appreciated his support! That’s what made him a great father.