Peanuts by Charles Schulz for May 28, 2021

there is also the earrings’ metal making your ears turn green

This kept reminding me of something, and I finally thought of it — Alan Harper getting HIS ear pierced:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XxZAZ5yoUk

Did little girls in the sixties and seventies use to have conversation like this?

I get miffed over babies getting their ears pierced. They should have to nag their mothers as much as I had to.

This strip is unusually detailed. Especially panel 3, with Lucy and Patty sitting at an angle, and also Marcie approaching at a 3/4 angle, and the pathway and two houses in the background. It’s rare for Peanuts to look that 3-dimensional.

As a small kid, most women we knew had clip-on earrings, which apparently pinched most painfully. Then in the 70s there was this huge upsurge in ear piercing, along with earrings. There were pop-up shops in malls that offered free piercing with the purchase of 2 or 3 pairs of earrings. My brother and his best mate decided to split the cost and pierce one ear each. His friend went first, and hopped off the stool saying, “No trouble, doesn’t even hurt.” Brother on the other hand nearly fainted. LOL

Regrettably, some of us did.

My sister pierced my mom’s ears when mom was in her 40’s.

One day while I was home visiting, my mom asked if I could put her earrings in for her. I did so within a matter of seconds. She remarked, “That’s it? They’re in? Your dad pokes around for hours.”

I watched my dad do it. First he had to search the house for his glasses. Then he’d put them on. Then he’d push them down his nose so he was looking OVER them and he stood back as far as his arms would allow him.

Typing the above just made me think that there are some things women can do that men can’t because of what women have to put on their bodies.

Top of the list is bras. I don’t think I could manage to clasp something that fastens in the middle of my back. I am absolutely certain I could not manage to get one off without taking off my blouse or hook one in the front and turn it around. I am convinced that it is topographically impossible.

Earrings fall into this category too. I need a mirror just to find my ears, much less a hole several millimeters in diameter.

Then there is makeup. How does a woman who needs glasses, apply eye makeup?

And then hair. It takes me three seconds to drag a comb across my head – done!

I’ve lived with women all my life: mom, sister and wife. I just accept it. I no longer question it. But I do understand why it takes them 45 minutes to get “the natural look.”

It’s funny. I had my first piercings when I was 14, done by my aunt at her kitchen table, with a hat pin & borrowed earrings. I never had problems with those. My second piercings were done when I was about 20, in a store with the “gun”…and THOSE got infected! (I still have both sets & wear earrings in them almost every day.)

My mom and sisters both lied to my dad to get their ears pierced; they did it without telling him and then when he raged, they said it was permanent. Of course if they had removed the earrings right away they would have healed shut, but then dad was never very bright.

Later in life, Marcie would be the one with multiple piercings…

I think PP was the only one to call her “Lucille”…

What is Hepatitis? This is long before AIDS and COVID.

Even though it’s 1974, did they ever hear that pirates wear earrings? What does that have to do with femininity?

Jewelry just ain’t for me.

Marcie, the ray of sunshine in Patty’s life.

I’ve never understood things like earrings and high heels. Why cause yourself and body pain and damage like that? I guess I don’t find that they add to the attractiveness of a woman.

Always look on the daarrk siide of life… Doesn’t have the same ring to it…

What’s strange to me is the bench across the walkway.

Notice how careful Lucy is not to hurt Peppermint Patty’s feelings in the second panel.

When my son wanted his ear pierced, I had mine pierced, too…

When my step-son wanted his ear pierced, his dad made fun of him, called him “girly”, etc. He didn’t get it done…

Lucy should definitely get her ears pierced, it will be the only way she will get a stud.

If this ends the way I remember it ending, Patty should probably just punch Lucy out right now. I could be wrong tho.

…and about that BB gun you want for Christmas, Sir….

Stop calling me “sir”!

Wow, this comic became pretty dark.

I have no problems with my piercings. But I know some people who have gotten really bad infections.

she is smart and knows the future

Marcie, the cloud behind Patty’s silver lining.

Marcie is half glass empty, alright.

stop calling me sir!