Violet walked away, but not before quietly wishing Charlie Brown a Happy Father's Day. In another example, a character named "5" fired back at her with "My dad goes to PTA meetings!" Charlie Brown once deflated her with the comeback: "My dad has a son." In the early strips, Violet often acted like a preschool-age Suzy Homemaker: frequently making mud pies, playing "house," and being linked to romantic scenarios involving Shermy or Charlie Brown. In a strip from 1954, she is shown to collect stamps as a hobby. On some occasions, Violet was shown walking and keeping company with Lucy. Her surname (Gray) was mentioned only once, on April 4, 1953. Violet's personality was much more forceful and recognizable compared to the more generic early Peanuts characters like Patty and Shermy, which allowed her to survive slightly longer than those founding characters when a new wave of characters; Linus, Lucy, and Schroeder; were introduced (as an example, Violet has key roles in the TV specials A Charlie Brown Christmas and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown). By the 1960s, however, Violet, too, was largely phased out with the introduction of the next wave of characters (Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Franklin and such). Schulz admitted in a 1988 interview that Violet's pure vindictiveness had made it difficult to give her punch lines. Speaking of her, Patty and Shermy: "Some characters just don't seem to have enough personality to carry out ideas. They're just almost born straight men." Schulz also contrasted Violet to Lucy in that where Violet was purely mean, Lucy had redeeming characteristics of being bluntly honest and to-the-point, and thus Lucy "worked" as a more rounded character where Violet did not. Violet's use in the strip was eventually reduced to appearances in the background. Relationship with other Peanuts characters Interactions with Charlie Brown Violet often teased Charlie Brown (often adding a series of "Nyah!"s), who often makes comebacks. In an example of such, Violet once said to him, "It simply goes without saying that you are an inferior human being." His adroit reply to this was, "If it goes without saying, why did you have to say it?" She, along with Patty, do not invite him to their parties and enjoyed tormenting him with this. Charlie Brown is usually depressed by this, but sometimes he decides to turn the tables on the two girls. For example: November 23, 1951: When