Snoopy & Pétanque
Of the nearly 18,000 Peanuts comic strips published world-wide over 50 years by Sonoma County’s Charles M. Schulz, only one featured Pétanque. On January 16, 1994, Snoopy, as the World War I Flying Ace, learns to play pétanque. Five months earlier, at an August picnic at Chateau St. Jean winery in Kenwood, five members of Sonoma’s Valley of the Moon Pétanque Club, taught Schulz himself to play pétanque. Afterward, Schulz wrote to VOMPC expressing his “thanks for teaching Snoopy to play Pétanque.” The VOMPC Board then voted to make Snoopy an Honorary Member, presenting Schulz with an international pétanque license from the Federation of Pétanque USA showing Snoopy, depicted as the Flying Ace, as cardholder.