End Of An Era  by Lain Chroust Ehmann  It's the end of an era.
With the recent passing of Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts, a
piece of my childhood died. I don't want to sound too dramatic
or maudlin, but I can't help it - the world will never be the
same. I feel like I've lost some of my oldest friends.  I
remember learning to read by sounding out the exploits of the
Peanuts gang. I'd pore over the brightly colored Sunday comics
pages, getting newsprint on my knees and palms, as I matched
words to pictures to try to figure out what kind of
embarrassment Charlie Brown would face next, or what pearls of
wisdom Snoopy would bestow upon his loyal readers.  Before I
could even fathom what days, weeks and months meant, I knew that
a special day was all the nearer when the appropriate Peanuts
special appeared on television. As I grew older, these shows
became an inextricable part of how our family celebrated
holidays. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was Christmas. "It's the
Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," was as much