Charlie Brown & The Gang: Winter Wonderland & The X-mas Tree Lot Movie!

The Christmas Tree Lot!

Peanuts and the Gang: Winter Wonderland…

A Charlie Brown Re-Union!

In Memory of Charles Schulz!!!! :-)

and his wonderful world of Charlie Brown Aka Peanuts and the Gang!

Writing by,

Jennifer Cooley!

List of cast as follows: More names soon to come!

The Little Red haired Girl: Heather Wold : Starring Jennifer Norfolk!

Charlie Brown: Starring?

Fine jazz music with a strong hint of flute music is playing in the background; when the phone rings and Charlie Brown stops what he`s doing in the kitchen (preparing himself a nice dinner) and walks over and answers it, (giving away his age as he is one of the people left in the world today who still has an old fashioned land line telephone in his house, no possibility of walking around with it like you do with today`s cell phones) which he reluctantly does own, as it is necessary to be functional in today`s fast paced ever adapting technological world of advancements from the day`s of his youth! Once he reaches the phone he does a last wipe of his hands on the apron he`s wearing and picks up the handle and begins to speak…

Charlie Brown

“Hello?”

Linus

“Hello Charlie? Are you sitting down or standing up right now?”

Charlie

“Linus is that you? Why on earth does it matter if I`m sitting or standing while talking to you? Oh and by the way it`s nice to hear from you it`s been awhile, maybe a bit too long of awhile perhaps?” While he was speaking he did take a seat, most curious to know what`s got Linus all excited to ask such a thing?

Linus

“Yes Charlie it is me Linus, I suppose you`re right it`s been too many months since we`ve last spoken, but I`m a married man with a wife and children and have a busy working life also, in order to support and take care of my wonderful family and have the wonderful life I'm so fortunate to have. So I guess even though were friends from childhood the sacrifice of time must come in a form of neglect from somewhere, and I guess that it`s our friendship that suffers the loss, since one`s family becomes priority as adults unlike our day`s of old, unlike our days of youth! Anyway I`m sorry if you felt ignored or neglected, heaven know`s I certainly wouldn`t mean for you to feel such a way! What I`m calling to tell you right now should make up for it, hopefully! So you`d better be sitting!”

Charlie Brown

“YES Linus I`m sitting down now, been sitting for the entire time you`ve been rambling on about family life as the reason for neglected contact between us… NOW WHAT IS IT, WHAT IS THIS GREAT EXCITEMENT or NEWS you wish to tell me that requires me to be sitting?

Linus

“It`s Schroeder!”

Charlie

“What about Schroeder, he isn`t seriously injured or sick or something? Does he have the COVID... does he?”

Linus

“Noooo Charlie, you`re too funny, that`s not why I`m calling!” Schroeder got ACCEPTED TO GO ON A WORLD TOUR with the Orchestra he moved to Canada to become a part of as the fine Pianist he certainly now is, from those toy piano day`s! And he wants the WHOLE GANG to come together for him to come watch him perform in Canada, he specifically gave me the instructions on the best places to visit and have a blast doing around attending his Orchestra`s show there.

He wants everyone to come to Ottawa when they are there to perform, he wants us all to see him play live before they leave North America and head off to Europe for a time; he has no idea how long that tour will be? It's almost NEVER the same as what they write for you in all the paperwork that goes into organizing such things.

He went on complaining about how long it`s been since we`ve all been together as a group and that this is his one wish before the world tour takes him away from home and all of us for an indefinite amount of time! He`s become quite an expert on the places to go and the things to see and do in Canada! And he recommends Ottawa & Montreal because both places have unique attributes worth visiting!”

Charlie Brown

“Well I don`t know much about Canada`s arts & entertainment industry so you`re going to have to fill me in. Or rather fill me in on what Schroeder knows as you`ve said is the expert in this matter now? But why on earth I`m curious, didn`t he call me for himself, did he call anyone else?”

Linus

“He didn`t have time to contact all of us, he had to finish getting ready to go from the hotel he was leaving to catch his plane on to the next place as the world tour wasted no time in getting a move on things after he was told he was being approved to join it, so he chose 1 of us to call and that happened to turn out to be me!”

Charlie Brown

“That`s a reasonable and fair answer, definitely good enough for me. But now what are these instructions and plans he gave you?”

Linus

“That`s what I`ve been trying to get too Charlie! Schroeder said that Ottawa has a place called the Rideau Canal, which was man made, and there are boat rides and other things that people do their, it`s very beautiful and relaxing and fun! But in the winter time when the water freezes over the city takes extra care to make it a sustainable outdoor ice rink! Ottawa boast`s to have the WORLD`S LARGEST OUTDOOR ICE RINK, it is over 9 miles long, and he thinks everyone at our ages now, and not being used to Canadian winters would have a doozie of a good time trying to challenge ourselves to skate the entire 9 mile ice rink!

They have all kinds of fun bonus additives to make the skating challenge more fun and an easier possibility but I`m not going to spoil that part of the surprise, we all just have to find out more about it together when we get there! Schroeder thinks this Xmas Holiday couldn`t be better spent in a better way for all of us since we`ve all got the time off from work and whatever else are usual selves are up too. The World celebrates Christmas and it`s not a holiday that`s going to go away any time soon, so why not take advantage of it, and enjoy that time in the best way possible that we can together for the first time in a great many years? You remember the X-mas play we did when we were children, that tree we used in the play?”

Charlie

“Yes of course I remember the tree Linus, I never could figure out where the tree went after the play was over, I looked high and low, through closets, and on shelves and even in the garbage cans, but it seemed to have just disappeared into mid air?”

Linus

“No Charlie, it didn`t! Schroeder took it when nobody was looking, he decided that tree meant something more to all of us that we may not understand then but would later, and he had an idea to have the tree immortalized, via metallics or bronzing abilities, so he vanished out of the building as quickly as he could with it once he got his hands on it for fear the school might think it as their property or something that was nothing but rubbish to be thrown in the garbage!”

Charlie

“Well that would explain why I didn`t see him or couldn`t find the tree almost immediately after the show, just his piano was there!”

Linus

“He say`s he takes that tree with him everywhere and puts it on every desk he sit`s and writes and composes at and even at times he has it sitting a top his piano! You see Charlie he`s had the tree turned into a lamp, so it always shines a wonderful bright light from it, to hold on to the memory and time of when it was the perfect x-mas tree for all of us in the schools x-mas play all those years ago, so for him and the tree it`s like….

Charlie (cutting Linus off) say`s….

“Xmas Every day! OH I LOVE THAT! Now I`m all excited and curious to see what that Xmas tree looks like as a lamp today? So well you`ve told me enough Linus, I`m game, I`m all in on taking this trip. I definitely have wanted to go visit Montreal since I was a child, it`s much closer than Paris and a whole lot cheaper and now add to it the outdoor ice skating challenge of our lifetimes, that makes it even more interesting and worth the trip there, to witness this wonderful cold out door marvel for ourselves with our own eyes!!”

Linus

“Alright Charlie that`s great to hear, I wasn`t to worried about whether or not you`d be convince-able to be in on such an adventure, you`ve always been a pretty cool easy going guy so I kind of guessed as much, that you`d be all in! I will email Schroeder and let him know, anyway there are still other`s I need to call so we`d better end this call, since I`m not sure what our window of time is to get us all organized and ready to get out of here in time for this booked performance of Schroeder`s Orchestra, as I am still waiting for that updated information from him in email. But I don`t think we have to large of a window so I need to keep moving quickly ahead. Anyway it was nice chatting and I look forward to meeting up with the whole gang real soon!”

Charlie

“I`m going to go online and research the Rideau Canal and the Ice Rink as well as coinciding fun and adventurous things to do in Montreal too! If you want me to help and call anyone just let me know I am more then glad to help you get the calls done!”

Linus

“Well O.K. Charlie why don`t you call Franklin and explain it all to him and see what he say`s, as for the rest I think I can reach them all by email, or skype or whatsapp or messenger or texting lol… I can send out a group thing to them all. You and Franklin aren`t on that, but maybe this call will convince the 2 of you to finally join the rest of us in the more technologically sound and advanced, convenient modern age of times in the world to which we live in today?”

Charlie Brown (sigh`s reluctantly) and say`s

“Yes O.K. maybe you`re right about some of these things, and so I WILL THINK ABOUT IT, and pass that idea on to Franklin too, when we speak! O.k. let`s touch base again when all of this first step of information and organization is done!”

Linus

“Sounds good Charlie, talk to you again soon!”

The phone call ended and Charlie hung up the phone and got up from the chair he was sitting in realizing that was big news and Linus was right and he was glad he was sitting down for it. Anyway on his way back to the kitchen island where he was working on his dinner and while walking on his way, he made these like ice skating foot motions… chuckling to himself wondering if he could still even skate today or would he fall flat on his butt, it`s been so long since he`s put on a pair of skates?

Do you lose that kind of great childhood skill, or is it like riding a bicycle, that once you learn how you never forget? Oh well looks like if all goes right he and everyone else from the Peanuts Gang would be finding out the answer to that soon enough together on the Ottawa Rideau Canal ‘home of the largest outdoor Ice Rink'!

To be continued....