“AAUGH!”
Over and over again, Lucy perpetually fooled Charlie Brown while pulling away the football. Every. Single. Time.
But Dr. Bill Mercer? Well, the Wheeling Hall of Famer sure has booted the ball right down the middle of the uprights with his soon-to-be-unveiled 5,000-piece exhibit at the Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum.
“Theoretically, yes, I guess I have kicked the ball,” he admitted this week while putting the finishing touches on his display, “but I don’t think (creator) Charles Schulz ever wanted Charlie Brown to kick the football during his 50 years, but, yes, this is special. In this case, it does appear that Charlie Brown finally does get to kick the football.”
The semi-retired physician, a recent inductee into the Wheeling Hall of Fame for his contributions in public service, is scheduled to unveil his permanent “Joe Too Cool” Peanuts exhibit in the basement of the Toy & Train Museum this Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Admission to the Peanuts display is free to the public, and a special $5 entrance fee will be offered for the entire museum tour.
“It certainly is a dream come true that I have been working on for more than two years,” Mercer said. “Once I retired, I realized that I had collected so much Peanuts memorabilia, I had to wonder what to do with it all, and then this idea was presented and it was a no-brainer. This is the perfect venue, and I have donated everything to these displays.
“We have an arrangement, though,” the retired physician revealed with a broad smile. “If I start to have withdrawal, I can come here anytime I want. And if I want to borrow a tie from the display, I can come to borrow one.”
Mercer’s fandom for the Peanuts began as a child because, as a youngster, he discovered Snoopy and his ability to draw nearly simultaneously.
“I loved to draw when I was a kid, and I first started with Snoopy. And then Peanuts characters seemed to be easy to draw for me. They had a lot of paperback books when I was young, and those allowed me to perfect the drawings,” Mercer said. “Then, I began collecting Peanuts things when I was a kid, but I stopped for a long while until I established a new office for my medical practice in 1987.
“In that office, I had one room dedicated to pediatrics, so I put up the appropriate Peanuts wallpaper in there,” he recalled. “I also put some of my collectibles in there, too, and from there, wow, did patients just start bringing me things that were Peanuts related. That’s why this display has more Peanuts collectibles than anyone ever thought existed.”
The Pup’s Live-Saving Message
Over decades as a general practitioner, Dr. Mercer saw the health effects of smoking cigarettes.
Heart disease. Diabetes. Emphysema. Chronic bronchitis. Cancer.
Death.
That is why he and the Ohio County Health Board at the time (in 2004-05) embraced the impossible task of implementing a clean indoor air regulation in an area where smoking was a prevalent and an accepted habit. The proposal, as expected, was labeled a “smoking ban,” bar, and restaurant owners rebelled, and lawsuits and injunctions were filed.
Still, on June 19, 2005, the regulation was officially implemented.
Mercer, who at the time was the health officer for the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department, then joined sanitarian with patrolling smoking venues to issue citations and fines to owners of establishments where smoking continued.
“That was a tough time for everyone involved,” he said. “But look at our county now. For so many, smoking cigarettes is a part of the past.”
Mercer’s inner strength, perseverance, and his persistence are reasons why the indoor regulation is a way of life now, but another is the Schulz family.
“I had just finished with the implementation of the clean indoor air regulation here in the Ohio County, and I saw on the news that Charles Schulz was being honored with a statue of the ‘Joe Cool’ character, and that’s when the slogan came to me,” Mercer explained. “’Joe Too Cool to Smoke.’ That was it, and I immediately wondered if I was permitted to use the character for the campaign. That’s when I called California.
“A staff member immediately told me that it wasn’t something the family usually did, but he did suggest that I speak with Craig Schulz, the son,” He continued. “I got to talk with him and initially he said no, but then he came back and said he liked the idea and they let me do it. That’s when I went to California to meet everyone, and we started the ‘Joe Too Cool to Smoke’ campaign.”
Ever since, campaign literature, T-shirts, and other promotional items have been produced featuring the anti-smoking Snoopy persona, and in 2018, a larger-than-life “Joe Nailer Too Cool to Smoke” figurine was rehabilitated and placed in the lobby of Wesbanco Arena to further promote healthy lifestyles.
The statue, now donning a Nailers jersey and resting in the atrium’s northwest corner, is one of two five-foot sculptures in Wheeling. The other, of course, is the centerpiece of Mercer’s new exhibit at the Toy & Train Museum.
“I do know the Schulz family very well, and I know they are very glad that this display will open this Saturday. They can’t officially sponsor it for various reasons, but I am hopeful members of the family will be able to visit this exhibit someday,” Mercer said. “Jeanie Schulz now is 82 so we’ll see, but maybe the son will be able to one day.
“The Schulz family has been very supportive of my efforts concerning the ‘Joe Too Cool to Smoke’ campaign,” he said. “Without their support, I’m not sure we reach even close to the number of young people we have since it started back in 2007.”
