On the sunny side of the street

I've been blogging with three fabulous women for a year and a half now and have been enjoying all the fun topics we come up with week after week. If you want to see what we've discussed in the past, check out our posts here.

This week, I picked the topic: Share your favorite memories of Sesame Street or talk about the role it has played in your life.

Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock

My kids don't believe me when I tell them there was life on Sesame Street before Elmo became the big star and Snuffleupagus used to be invisible to everyone except Big Bird. I remember bits and pieces of the show before I was old enough to outgrow it. After that, I would catch episodes when I babysat and then eventually when my kids were big enough to understand it (of course, it was all about Elmo by then, and they got caught up in the Elmo's World craze).

I remember coming home from preschool and hanging out with two friends at one of their houses to watch Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood after that. I can't really tell you much of what happened on the show back in the day, as a lot of it was a blur. I'll share what I do remember though:

*The Beetles singing "Letter B" as a parody of "Let it Be."

*The magician who said "A la peanut butter and jelly sandwich"

*Ernie playing this game with Burt where he'd start with "I ONE the sandbox" and they'd work their way up to EIGHT, which obviously sounds like ATE. Ernie would give Burt a hard time about it. I found it hilarious and have since taught it to my kids.

*The pinball machine that does a song about numbers.

*Always finding the Count to be scary because I had a fear of vampires as a kid. Sorry, Count!

*Not liking Maria much, as I thought she was condescending to Big Bird. I picked up on that as a kid, for some reason. I liked Susan and Gordon though.

*"Sing. Sing a song..."

*Learning that AGUA means water in Spanish, but I always thought they said AQUA.

*Super Grover!

*"C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me!"

*Kermit occasionally making an appearance.

*When the theme song/intro had kids playing in a park.

When I was in Sunday school, we did a unit on death and they let us watch the episode where Mr. Hooper dies. I had to go someplace with my family and thus left early, so I didn't see all that happened. Maybe I would have been better at dealing with some people's deaths in my teen years if I had. Sesame Street knows just the right way to explain these issues to kids and handle them sensitively. I still have trouble talking about death and tend to handle it the Claire Dunphy way (from Modern Family) sometimes.

As I became a teenager, one of my friends and I would have weird inside jokes about Sesame Street. Don't even ask. We'd access our memories to find all these things to laugh about.  During creative writing class my senior year of high school, some other friends and I wrote a parody and called it "Sesame's Bad Seeds." It really only made sense to us and we were laughing so hard while writing it. Mad TV had some great parodies, as well (the one about the Internet is hilarious), but don't show them to your kids!

When I was in college, Tickle Me Elmo first became a huge fad. I remember seeing it at the toy store and joking about buying it. I probably should have and then sold it because it was in such high demand. I could have covered a year's tuition! (Well, I don't think it would have sold for that much, but people were so obsessed with getting it for their kids. I'm sure most are buried in the backs of closets now or were donated to thrift stores a long time ago.)

Watching Sesame Street as an adult gives a whole new perspective. I have seen it evolve from the 1970's style to have a more modern feel. The monsters have cell phones and use the Internet. The coolest celebrities   hang out with them on the street. They do song parodies with some modern stuff. (I saw one with Elmo and Katy Perry singing about hot and cold in terms of weather, as a parody of her hit song.) There are new characters developed for a new audience of viewers.

A few years ago, I got an old school Sesame Street DVD at the library for my older son. (He was about two years old at the time.) It was weird to watch, as it was from even before my time. Big Bird didn't have feathers on the top of his head and looked freaky that way. Like his head had shrunk. Oscar was orange! It didn't really bring back memories for me anyway.

Aside from the sandbox joke, a long time ago, I heard a clever little Sesame Street joke. It goes:

"Want some ice cream, Ernie?"
"Sure, Bert!" 

Think about it.... :)
I told the joke to some little girls who are family friends with "Will." This was back when they were about my kids' age in the late 90s. They loved it and kept saying it all night long. Nowadays, my boys love this joke and tell it all the time, adding Ernie's laugh at the end for a special effect.

Last summer, we went to Sesame Place for the first time. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast. I loved how the carousel horses looked like characters from the show instead of regular horses. They also had a studio where you could watch Elmo's World live. The kids have been asking to go back there, so hopefully we will at some point.

Last fall, we went to a special program at the Maryland Science Center that was all about Shalom Sesame, the Israeli version of Sesame Street. Even that show has evolved a lot, with new actors and characters. They have some classics, but compared to the Shalom Sesame from my youth, it's definitely way more modern! It's still cute and the kids get a kick out of it. I like their version of Abby Cadaby, appropriately named Avigayil. She's the cutest little monster ever! (Sorry, Elmo!)

I have a feeling that Sesame Street will continue to evolve with our ever-changing times. I just hope they continue to maintain their innocence and also keep up with relevant issues. I don't watch it enough to know what goes on now, but it would be a good place to start addressing issues such as bullying, discrimination, etc. I'd even love for there to be a muppet with cochlear implants. Even though my older son is outgrowing the show, I'm sure my daughter would appreciate it! I just hope it will be around for when I someday have grandchildren. Then I can tell them what it was like back in my day.