CAMP CLASSIC

Used book nook find: It Was A Short Summer, Charlie Brown, by Charles M. Schultz; Scholastic Book Services, 1970:

Although I saw the Peanuts special from 1969 that this tie-in was based on when I was a kid, I hadn't thought about in decades. It's about the gang going to summer camp. Lucy, Peppermint Patty and the girls are enthusiastic at the prospect; the boys are less so, particularly Linus:

"They always have those camps out in the woods someplace and those woods are full of  queen snakes. Have you ever been chomped by a queen snake, Charlie Brown? Boy, you get chomped by a queen snake and you've had it."

No such casualties occur in the story which ensues, which mostly focuses on the competition between the boys and the girls at swimming, canoe racing and, ultimately, arm wrestling. The girls are dominant.

There is, by the way, a species of North American snake, Regina septemvittata, a relative of the water snake, that is commonly called a queen snake, among other names.

But it's non-venomous. I suspect the queen snakes to which Linus is referring are examples of apocryphal Peanuts fauna like "gully cats" and "hedge toads."

Anyway, it was lovely to see this little book, especially at this time of year. In most of the country, after all, the title is wistful; here in this part of Arizona, it's cheerful.