I think it is interesting how, when “something” is actively in my mind, then suddenly a long-forgotten other “something” will pop in, and the two things are related.

 

I saw this Car Talk column in the Press Democrat, Santa Rosa’s local newspaper, and it brought back memories of laughing with Sparky all the way through this radio program for twenty-five years.

Does anyone reading this blog remember listening to Tom and Ray Magliozzi on the Car Talk Program out of Boston on NPR? I don’t know when we discovered the program, but once we did, I swear we listened to it every Saturday. And if we weren’t together to hear it, we’d check in later with, “Did you listen to ‘Car Talk’ today?”

This is the sort of humor Sparky loved and responded to. Our current Museum exhibition, HA! HA! HA! HA! 75 Years of Humor in Peanuts, on view through March 18, is a discussion of humor in Peanuts and why/how it works. This made me want to go back and listen to past Car Talk shows. I found them here: https://www.cartalk.com/radio/our-show

Tom and Ray were giving practical, knowledgeable advice (remember the 1960s and 70s when every red-blooded American learned to change the oil in the car and a flat tire?) wrapped in stories of past clients’ similar issues. They would poke fun at each other and their listeners. Some advice worked, but when their advice was a flop, they laughed over that, too.

Everyone was fair game, but the teasing was always friendly, never cruel. Like the Smothers Brothers of the 1970s, one was always the stand-up, and the other was the jokester. They would laugh and laugh, and Sparky would laugh with them.

Tom and Ray Maliozzi had a car repair shop in Boston, which I aimed to drive by once when visiting there, but cellphones weren’t in our hands then, and I didn’t take a camera out to snap a picture (or a “selfie”) in front of the shop.

One year, KQED, our local NPR station, sent donors a photo of the brothers, which still hangs in Sparky’s office today.

Tom passed away in November 2014, and I only recently realized that Ray has a weekly column in the Press Democrat. So, I am now dedicated to learning a little bit about (mostly) new cars and remembering the brother’s raucous laughter from the old days.

I leave you with one of our favorite stories, which they repeated on the radio several times: the one about the goats: https://www.cartalk.com/radio/show/1435-richard-his-goats-and-doris

If you are curious about what we have learned about Sparky’s humor and want to hear more, visit the Charles M. Schulz Museum’s current exhibition, HA! HA! HA! HA! 75 Years of Humor in Peanuts, on view through March 18.

 

—Jean Schulz