The Slice: A sweeter side of Halloween

I suppose many of us have been tempted at one time or another to give a trick-or-treater a rock.

You know, as your personal tribute to “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”

Of course, this isn’t 1966 (the year that second “Peanuts” special first aired). Give a kid a rock today and you are apt to have it hurled at one of your windows. Or your head.

So here’s a Plan B. Take The Slice’s Great Pumpkin Quiz.

As you will see, there are no right or wrong answers. We’ll be judging on sincerity.

Did that show forever change the way you view pumpkin patches?

Didn’t you love the idea of Lucy drawing up a list of who not to invite to the Halloween party?

What was the deal with Sally Brown saying “Tricks or treats”? Did anybody else actually say that?

Was Snoopy special or do all dogs know about World War I?

When they are using the back of Charlie Brown’s head to mock-up the jack-o’-lantern pattern, did you wonder if he was, in fact, hairless?

Did that show make you reflect on the whole concept of sincerity?

What is more apt to make you think “Boy, times have changed” – the kids getting homemade sweets while trick-or-treating or the notion of Linus staying outside all night with zero parental supervision?

Would a beagle’s head rising up out of the pumpkin patch really resemble a great pumpkin?

Couldn’t Sally have gone with the other kids for trick-or-treating (it looked like they started at about 3 in the afternoon) and still had time to join Linus for his vigil?

Does the setting remind you of any Inland Northwest neighborhood, past or present?

Would Charlie Brown have been better off trying to kick the football soccer-style?

Were Violet and Patty the original mean girls?

When you hear Schroeder play that medley of classic tunes on his toy piano are you aware that long-ago S-R writer Stoddard King was a co-author of the WWI favorite “There’s a Long, Long Trail A-Winding”?

Do you try to sound like the disconsolate Snoopy when a pumpkin gets “gutted” in your home?

Have you always viewed Linus’ belief in the Great Pumpkin as a commentary on comparative religions?

Today’s Slice question: Did you pass the road test portion of your driver’s exam the first time you took it?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. I have selected a yard to rake. Thanks to all the readers who nominated theirs.