Happy 60th Birthday

How did you become a reader?  I was a comic book reader.  Comics featuring Peanuts were my favorites.  Each week my mom and I would trek to the local drug store and purchase the newest collections... Dennis the Menace or Charlie Brown and the gang!
     Tomorrow, October 2nd, is the 60th anniversary of the syndication of the Peanuts cartoon strip.  I couldn't let it slip by without a recognition.  Charles M. Schultz was a master.  It was reading Peanuts each day in the newspaper (my collection of comics also) that turned me into a reader.  I read each comic carefully, drew my own inferences, and had wonderful conversations with my mom about the intricacies of each frame.  I learned about the beauty of language play from reading comics.  I learned to write a complete sentence by creating comics of my own.  I learned about humor.  Each drawing gave me a nudge to think deeper... the subtle twist of a smile, the "movement" marks in the background, the complexity of each character's personality revealed in such creative ways.
     Happy Birthday, Peanuts.  We miss your creator, but cherish his memory!