Frieda

Frieda is a name that has Scandinavian and Germanic roots.  It is also the name of a one of the Characters in the well known comic strip "Peanuts" by Charles Schultz.  The character Frieda was introduced to Charlie Brown by his friend Linus Van Pelt, and she was the eleventh character to appear in the comic strip.  Her role became less and less as time went on and new characters were introduced.  In the comic strip Frieda is best known for her naturally curly hair which she points out with regularity.  My wife has naturally curly hair and for a few months now, I had been trying to recall the girl in "Peanuts" that always commented on her "naturally curly hair."   On October 2 my wife somehow came up with her name.  My riddle was solved. 

Portion of  March 1961 Strip
in which Frieda First Appeared

Both Frieda and my wife are proud of their naturally curly hair, although my wife does not do that little hand thing at the back bob of the hair and go around commenting on her naturally curly hair.  Frieda came up again because on October 2 my wife got a haircut which brought out her curls even more. I still have a hard time wondering how her hair gets more curled when it is cut, but it may be due to the hairdresser wetting the hair.    In "Peanuts" Frieda's hair appears to be reddish in color, so my wife and her have that also in common.  Frieda should not, however, be confused with the Little Red Haired girl in the strip who is never seen, but on whom Charlie Brown has a crush.  I do not ever recall Frieda's hair color coming up, heck I did not even recall her name, but going with images I will go with red.

It is Always about the Curls

On the night that I found out the name of the girl with the naturally curly hair, I had my wife try to do the little hand bob movement up on the back corner of the head.  I think it took her about three times before she got it right.  She says she had it right from the beginning, but my angle of view was not correct.  I disagree, as she seemed to grab the hair slightly not just lift those natural curls up a little.  I suspect the reader is wondering how I got her to do such a thing, not once, or twice but three times?  I myself wonder how that happened to work.

Frieda "Bobbing" Her Hair, wich my Wife
has yet to Master

One time in her life my wife had long hair, starting, she thinks about age 13, when she entered high school.  With the long hair, however, she lost her natural curls, they were pulled down by the weight of the hair so during that phase she was a straight haired red head, and her naturally curly red hair was relegated to the past and the future.  I asked if she ever had long hair when she was young and she said, no, that she thought her mother liked her naturally curly hair.  I can see why her mother would like her curls.

I am glad that my farm girl is happy with her hair.  Unlike many men she has a full head at her age.  And unlike some women her age, her hair color is still natural.  I take a look at myself, and sticking with the Peanut theme, my head of hair reminds me of that of Linus: thinning out.  As much as I may now be Linus, I suspect I am on the way to the bald head of Charlie Brown.  Heck if Linus has such thin hair at whatever young age he is portrayed in the comic strip.   (In a 1950 strip Charlie Brown says he is four, and I see Linus' sister Lucy as about that age and Linus younger, so perhaps Linus is three.  None of them seemed to age.)  Poor Frieda does not even show in many of the images of the Charlie Brown gang.  Frieda is not considered a minor character, but a supporting character along with several others including Violet.  Yet, of the varied Peanut gang images googled, Frieda shows in only one, and Violet in a few.  I am not sure if Frieda would be happy about this, after all she certainly liked to flaunt her naturally curly hair.  In some regards, even though my wife is a type A personality, at times she likes to fly under the radar.

Merry Christmas Charlie Brown Special
Frieda in Center left of tree

Peanuts is obviously not as popular as it once was, although there still are some television shows, mainly at Christmas and Thanksgiving.  However, political correctness may take its toll on those shows as well.  In any event, the Frieda in my house has some really neat naturally curly hair, that is also cute. am not looking forward to having Charlie Brown hair.  And, while I may become Charlie Brown in lack of hair, I found something he did not find, a red-haired girl.

Images from Google